WAG Regarding Coaches Traveling to Meets

[my4buffaloes]

Well you said you were thinking of getting your own room so to me that implies you are paying for it.

 

[OzZee]

Thanks for all the feedback. I really enjoyed reading all of them and hearing how other gyms work. Yesterday at our coaches meeting HC said how he already booked 2 rooms about 20 miles away from the meet venue because it's a large city and it's cheaper that way. I said "Oh, you already booked it?" and then proceeded to explain my idea of going up solo and getting my own room. He thought about it for a minute and then said "That's fine, (other female coach) needs the room anyway so it won't change anything". I thought about it later and now I'm thinking he means I have to pay out of pocket for my hotel room? I don't know how to bring it up without it being awkward, but I was more thinking that whatever the rate was that they spent on their rooms (let's say $105), that I would just get that and then have to pay the difference for whatever extra it costs. Now I'm not so sure, but I don't know how to bring it up again...(HC is still new and not so sociable).

As for the carpool situation, yes it has been quite annoying. HC has stated before that he would like all of us to be at every session regardless of getting paid as he is going to be doing that. Of course when we do bring 2 cars it is "our own choice" whether we stay or leave, but it's almost implied that we SHOULD stay. So now I feel as if it looks bad if I say I want to leave after my compulsory sessions are over since he stayed through all of them. However, sometimes to closer meets (45-50 minutes) we just take 1 car and we all have to stay all.day.long.

It really hasn't been an enjoyable meet experience so far because of this. But because he's new, I don't know how to bring it up without looking like the bad guy.

Yes he is expecting you to pay for a different room you want. He has provided suitable accommodation for the two coaches. You are choosing to stay elsewhere.
It seems single accommodation is not usual over there so they wouldn't have been paying any extra to pay part of another room.

 

[Natasha]

This sounds like an episode of The Office! I am flabbergasted to hear that there are employers out there that would ask employees to share hotel rooms. I have spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector and have never once been asked to share a room, not even when working on government grants or contracts. The only time I ever hear of people sharing hotel rooms is when grad students share rooms at conferences, which is different because their travel is not funded the same way.

In my profession it is common practice to share rooms when going to a conference- teachers do it all the time as well as almost all social service and mental health agencies. (Unless of course you are a high level administrator.) The only time I have had my own room was when I was the only person going to the conference.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Exactly. I still question why 3 coaches wtih 13 girls? But not my circus, not my monkeys....just my money

For us its 1 coach per squad/flight per session. So if we only have one squad/flight per session we only have one coach.

Regarding early report times. Rule of thumb for any travel I did is if it is considered commutable (and that would be 1.5-2hours from home) no hotel. I am not a morning person and sometimes I need to be up a 3:30-4am to report for my shift. Oh well.

So as a parent footing the bill. That a coach doesn't like getting up early is not a reason for me to foot the bill for a hotel. All jobs have their down sides. That meets start early is should not be a surprise when you decided to take the job.

 

[NH~GymMom]

I have had times when I shared hotel rooms and times where I didn't. In both cases it was up to the company, not me. If I wanted to do something different I would have to cover the cost. If you are saying they need two rooms then the 2nd room would be on your own cost, because they wouldn't need it if you hadn't required it.

Paying you for attending sessions is different and they should absolutely be paying you if they expect you to remain there. Same with the logistics of carpooling. Absolutely you should do it when it makes sense but if it means you have to stay more than an hour past when you're done with your sessions/awards then it shouldn't be required.

As for passing the costs onto parents directly, this is something I have always had issue with (even though it's the same in our gym). I realize that a lot of gyms may not be huge money-making corporations but they are businesses and they should be charging for their services what will cover the costs of them doing business. Coaching at meets (as well as getting to them) is the cost of doing business if they choose to field a competitive team, and should be covered by the gym through the profits they make from monthly tuitions (both team and rec). Yes, ultimately that cost is passed down through the amount of tuition, but honestly you could cover a whole lot by raising all of your classes by $1 an hour (team and rec).

Some would argue that it's unfair to increase rec tuition to cover team fees, but you can't really correlate it that way. It's charging all customers the proper fees that allow you to do business in the way you want to do business. $1 across hundreds of clients gives you a lot more money to work with and gives relief to some of your best and most valuable customers.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

$1 across hundreds of clients gives you a lot more money to work with and gives relief to some of your best and most valuable customers.

Who has hundreds of clients????????????????

Our gym doesn't.

And no the cost of the actual meets shouldn't be passed on to families not doing meets.

Again, I love our gym as in we are not required to do or pay for every meet scheduled. Those who go pay, those who don't, don't pay. If there are not a reasonable amount of kids going (which will increase costs to the family) we are warned and may just elect not to go as a gym.

Really I don't want to pay for a meet we don't attend, and I don't expect someone else to pay for a meet we choose to attend and they don't.

We all as a team attend most meets. And we all have times where we choose not attend a meet. So coaching fees work out reasonable. And you know more meets equal more fees. I love that our gym allows this flexibility because it keeps kids in the sport that otherwise couldn't participate if they didn't have the occasional opt out option. It keeps kids in the sport because as a family folks feel they can occasionally say no not that weekend, be it for a wedding, communion, other family obligation or finances.

We just got our coaching fees for the fall meets. They ranged from 25-50 per gymnast depending on the meet. There was varied attendance. There were some who did all meets, some who missed 1 or 2. And the highest meet fee was not the lowest gymmie attendance and the lowest meet fee was not the highest gymmie attendance.

Usually our only overnights are for States so when there is an overnight it comes out closer to 75-100 per gymnast.

 

[NH~GymMom]

I don't object to paying the entrance fee for my gymnast to enter a meet. That is her/our choice that she is competing. And to be clear I don't actually object to paying coaches fees either - I pay them without complaint. BUT I do think the economics of it are messed up and don't fall in line with how most other businesses operate (even service oriented businesses).

 

[skschlag]

I know my friend had to pay for coaches' fees like this when her son went to Pop Warner superbowl. And they had 8 coaches...

 

[pt coach]

This has been really interesting to read. We are invited to stay and cheer/help for sessions we are not coaching, but it is not required. We have 3 separate groups of coaches: xcel, compulsory and optional. There is some overlap between the xcel and compulsory coaches but otherwise we operate within our own group. Sometimes all coaches attend each session, and sometimes not. But with all of the groups combined we can have up to 10 coaches at a meet. (we have some pretty large groups that require 2-3 coaches). So, those attending the same sessions will try to carpool. If my personal schedule doesn't allow for carpooling I just drive separate and do not charge mileage.

We share hotel rooms. I have no problem with this as my co-workers are close friends. However, I draw the line at sharing a bed. I do not think it is okay to put 3-4 adult women in a room with 2 beds...I cannot sleep and then will be an ineffective coach. In the past this would happen to the women coaches but men were not expected to share a bed. So, we discussed how this was not equitable and worked it out.

My spouse has no interest in going unless it is to some warm weather destination. I have brought my family to a couple of those and paid for my own room. Generally I will have too many sessions to coach (6 thru 10) to really spend any time with him.

 

[eucoach]

I think it's totally reasonable for coaches to share a room. When I was younger, I did not care about sharing but the older I get (and I'm not old), the more I prefer to have a room to myself. However - parents are already paying a lot of money for gymnastics and I would not want to put the cost for a single room on them. It's only one night usually and the coaches are not strangers. I even shared a room with a male coach once last year because we were the only coaches going and we were both comfortable with the idea and our spouses were too.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

It seems like this might be a cultural thing, because I've traveled a lot as a coach but I have never had an own room. We are expected to share rooms to make the cost minimal for the families. We also carpool or we travel with a family that has room in their car. If a car is not an option we can go by train or bus but that's more expencive.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I forgot to add that I've spent many nights sleeping on an air mattresses in school halls or classrooms with hundreds of kids, parents and coaches too in big annual competitions. Its not fun always but it is what it is.

 

[z2akids]

As for passing the costs onto parents directly, this is something I have always had issue with (even though it's the same in our gym). I realize that a lot of gyms may not be huge money-making corporations but they are businesses and they should be charging for their services what will cover the costs of them doing business. Coaching at meets (as well as getting to them) is the cost of doing business if they choose to field a competitive team, and should be covered by the gym through the profits they make from monthly tuitions (both team and rec). Yes, ultimately that cost is passed down through the amount of tuition, but honestly you could cover a whole lot by raising all of your classes by $1 an hour (team and rec).

Some would argue that it's unfair to increase rec tuition to cover team fees, but you can't really correlate it that way. It's charging all customers the proper fees that allow you to do business in the way you want to do business. $1 across hundreds of clients gives you a lot more money to work with and gives relief to some of your best and most valuable customers.

I tend to agree with this. At DD's gym, we never see a separate bill for the cost of having coaching at meets. It is incorporated into DD's tuition, and I would assume into the cost to everyone who attends her gym. It is part of the overhead for the gym. I would never expect to get a separate bill for electricity or for the coaches' salary. It is just part of the cost of doing business as a competitive gym.

DD'e gym's optionals program is really building. This year we have several girls who could qualify for regionals, but it the past it was only 1 or 2 girls. I cannot imagine how cost prohibitive it would be to have to pay for a coach's travel, pay, hotel, etc. For regionals if only one family had to front thst cost. The gym gains from being able to say they sent girls to regionals. The gymnasts attending is a benefit to both the gymnast and thengym. Therefore, the gym had a stake in making it affordable. The same goes for all levels - gyms like to have those big trophies and banners showing their placements.

 

[Gymmommy71]

I really hope our gym doesn't make our coaches share rooms, and I hope they would never do anything that would restrict the number of coaches that go to meets as well. We have a head optionals coach and then each level has a coach, and usually, but not always, both coaches are there at our away meets. I assume the times that they both aren't there are by the choice of the coach or some other work-related conflict - like someone needing to be back at the gym to coach practice for other levels that aren't competing.

My feeling is that so much expense and hard work is put into preparing for the few routines that the kids will perform for judges at these meets - don't nickle and dime the most important thing of all - make sure the gymnasts have the coaches that they need there to support and help them do their best, and make sure the coaches are well-rested and aren't miserable - they are spending their weekend away from home working.

Like someone caculated above, the cost of not requiring coaches to share hotels, etc. won't add that much to a parents yearly bill. I'd perosnally rather cut back on travel meets to cut costs before I'd want them to start making coaches have to share rooms or not be allowed to go to meets at all when we do travel.

 

[bookworm]

As for passing the costs onto parents directly, this is something I have always had issue with (even though it's the same in our gym). I realize that a lot of gyms may not be huge money-making corporations but they are businesses and they should be charging for their services what will cover the costs of them doing business. Coaching at meets (as well as getting to them) is the cost of doing business if they choose to field a competitive team, and should be covered by the gym through the profits they make from monthly tuitions (both team and rec). Yes, ultimately that cost is passed down through the amount of tuition, but honestly you could cover a whole lot by raising all of your classes by $1 an hour (team and rec).

Some would argue that it's unfair to increase rec tuition to cover team fees, but you can't really correlate it that way. It's charging all customers the proper fees that allow you to do business in the way you want to do business. $1 across hundreds of clients gives you a lot more money to work with and gives relief to some of your best and most valuable customers.

Love this! I have said this all along...charge what you need to do business for the whole year and don't nickel and dime me come regionals and Nationals season.

When we first started in gymnastics, we were at a gym that rolled all its costs , from level 4 to 10, including TOPS and JOs, into one big pot and it was divided amongst all the team members...and it worked quite well....people weren't gouged or hit with huge fees in the spring because their child was successful and made Regionals or Nationals...it was all included in your monthly assessments. When we started we didn't originally include the TOPS travel for coaches but a meeting of the minds of parents of kids from all levels came to the agreement that TOPS national testing was similar , to a younger gymnast, to the JO travel we were including for the older girls , so we added it ....and it really only added about 10 bucks per kid annually. The premise on this type of approach was this was part of being a team, whether your kid made it or not, this was part of the team deal. I have to say that this approach was the best I've ever had in any gym...we all paid the same ( upper level assessments were a little more than compulsory but not too much) , we all knew what we paid, our coaches travelled without any worry of "how much more would it cost us", it was very transparent.

On the other hand, when we were in a gym that billed it separately , it was a nightmare...if your kid did well and made Nationals , you were presented with an "estimated bill, payable before departure to JOs" ...and depending on how many qualified, I paid a low of $368 to a high to $788, on 5 days notice. I found when we were at the gym that billed it separately after to the parents , that there was less incentive by the coaching staff to be "thrifty" because they knew they were just going to bill it out so we were billed for things like an extra vehicle or premier seating on an airplane ( to me , the gym should cover beyond what is customary) ....I personally thought being at JOs was a good advertisement for the gym and certain things should be covered by them but we were even billed $5 per gymnast for our coaches meal at the JO banquet!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

I disagree, I don't expect those who do not go to Regionals or Nationals to pay for the kids that do. And if it is my kid going I expect to pay more and not have it passed on to the kids not going.

 

[skschlag]

I disagree, I don't expect those who do not go to Regionals or Nationals to pay for the kids that do. And if it is my kid going I expect to pay more and not have it passed on to the kids not going.

The bill for one kid to go to Nationals for the boys one year was over 1000 for the family, and that was just the cost for kid and coach, not for any parents that wanted to go. You have about a week to get that together. The kid didn't get to go because the parents couldn't do it. That's not great either. It is tough either way. our booster club, if you are a member, will cover the cost, but this family was not in booster club. It was really sad.

 

[bookworm]

I disagree, I don't expect those who do not go to Regionals or Nationals to pay for the kids that do. And if it is my kid going I expect to pay more and not have it passed on to the kids not going.

It's called paying your dues or putting in your time or even, being part of a team...

You would have fit in nicely at the second gym I mentioned in my above post , where everything was billed separately and nothing was ever done on a team basis...there was a very big ME atmosphere in that gym ( "will this benefit me"..." how does this benefit me"..." this doesn't benefit me so I shouldn't have to" etc) versus the gym where it was all rolled in together where there was a definite team atmosphere , and everyone pulled for everyone because we were all in it as a team. Our assessments at the gym where it was rolled in together were actually lower than the gym that billed it separately, for every level.

 

[bookworm]

The bill for one kid to go to Nationals for the boys one year was over 1000 for the family, and that was just the cost for kid and coach, not for any parents that wanted to go.You have about a week to get that together. The kid didn't get to go because the parents couldn't do it. That's not great either. It is tough either way. our booster club, if you are a member, will cover the cost, but this family was not in booster club. It was really sad.

This is what we avoided by having the Nationals fund ready to go if anyone made it...it's bad enough making last minute flight arrangements if they make it without a huge coach fee on top of it...

We were a team of about 100 ( levels 4-10) and each gymnast's "contribution to the nationals fund for being part of the team was about $25...I don't think that's an outrageous amount even if you never make it. And our team had options to use that fund coming in (TOPS) and going out (JOs)...and our gym also contributed to the fund as well.

 

[ZJsMom]

This sounds like an episode of The Office! I am flabbergasted to hear that there are employers out there that would ask employees to share hotel rooms. I have spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector and have never once been asked to share a room, not even when working on government grants or contracts. The only time I ever hear of people sharing hotel rooms is when grad students share rooms at conferences, which is different because their travel is not funded the same way.

Gosh. The last non-profit I worked for always expected people to share rooms and do other things to reduce costs.