Coaches Team Coaches: Salaried or Hourly?

[Art]

Well I'm at a fairly good up and coming club here in New Zealand. Things differ from club to club but yes....

At our club we our coaches are still struggling to get the committee convinced to pay us for competitions.
We get paid hourly for normal sessions and nothing at competitions. If the competition is out of town then then our gymnasts we have who are competing are responsible for our food, travel, and accommodation. Generally this means traveling with a parent, though there are times where they just cover our fuel costs.

I'm very frustrated that we aren't being paid for competitions yet seeing how the gymnasts pay for a 10 week term which covers those weekends anyway! I'm on the club's committee which makes it even worse that I haven't managed to help change things yet. Judges are however not normally paid either. Competitions at our club, our club donates $5 per session for the judges. of course this is about $5 for an hour and a half. Some clubs pay their own coaches and judges.
I told the committee if they pay their coaches they can't leave out the judges, as some judges may be there longer than the coach then and be payed less which is also wrong. I think this is what is taking so long for things to be sorted.

If there is a competition on the Saturday I loose about 5 1/2 hours of pay.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

At our club we our coaches are still struggling to get the committee convinced to pay us for competitions.

I think you will have to compromise in some way given the culture of gymnastics where you live. Most clubs I know will add an extra $5-10 to every gymnasts entry fee to provide payment to coaches and or judges.
A good system for paying coaches is to have a scheduled 'off' day for gymnasts in lieu of the coaching they receive at comps. The coach is still paid for that time but gymnasts/coach do not attend. This works well for some clubs as they do not have the spare staff to provide cover when a coach is at a comp with another group. If a group trains in the afternoon, and have their comp on Saturday morning their Saturday class is 'off' or they might have the Monday off following their championship competition. Or any other random time that does not interfere with competition preparation.

 

[iluvgym]

At my club we are on salary. Meets are paid at $80 per session plus travel expenses (mileage, tolls, or airfare/rental car/hotel etc). If we are away at a meet, we do not lose salary if we miss a day in the gym, as the time has already been covered by tuition and the pay from the meet comes from the booster club.

After listening to some of you I feel very lucky! I know that especially in other countries payment for gymnastics training is different and less expensive than in the US, but I still feel that just because you love your job doesn't mean you should be doing it for free, no matter your age or experience!