Question for clubs with Club ice time

[LWalsh]

Hi Everyone,

I am president of our skating club and 2 years ago we were approached by rink management who told us they would no longer be offering figure skating hours. If we (the club) wanted to, we could rent the ice and charge our members. So basically we had no choice. We are no up to contracting with the rink for 12 hours of freestyle a week. This has become a nightmare to keep track of though. We currently charge a contract rate with fixed hours or we sell passes (10 minimum) that can be used on any session for a higher fee, then there's walk on fees. The nightmare has been getting parents to act as ice monitors to keep track of who's on the ice on each session, collect the money and write down which coaches coached (we bill them for their commision).

So my question is....if your club has ice time, what is your system? Do you have a skating director in charge of this sort of thing? do you sell contract ice? I need help here.:frus: Any comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Lara

[Lsk8]

We sell punch cards for members to use for club skate. We used to sell by the hour, but now sell by the half hour--it encourages beginners to come for just a half hour and lots of people do an hour and a half.

We used to have someone checking skaters in for each session, but just like you we couldn't get anyone to volunteer. We keep a sign in list at the entrance to the ice. It is basically honor system with one of the officers or parents looking things over for relative accuracy. Over the years there have of course been abuses of the honor policy, but I think most of our members sign in appropriately.

We also allow people to pay cash, at a slightly higher rate.

By the way, we almost never have enough skaters to actually pay the ice cost. Also we wish we could get 12 hours a week (we get 5 1/2)

good luck.

[jskater49]

Our club buys so much ice time and then member contract for the fall or spring term, so I have contracted for 1 1/2 hour Monday and 1 hour on Fridays. I pay for that monthly. I pay whether I skate my whole time on Monday or sleep in and dont' skate at all on Friday. There is a walk on fee of the regular rate plus $5, and the ice monitor does collect that. The ice monitor also has a list of who has contracted, but we are a small club and people know who belongs and who doesn't.

You really have to have people committ to an entire session, you can't depend on walk ons.

Some sessions we have enough skaters to cover the cost, some we don't. It's a an issue, but there isn't much other free style time availalbe and you can only use the harness on club ice...since we own the harness and it's a libablility issue.

j

[jskater49]

about getting people to be ice monitors....if you want your kid to skate on club ice your are assigned a time to monitor. Adult skaters are kind of given a pass. on that..but we have a figure free (cheaper than club) session from 5:45 -6:45 am on Wed and then I stay and do monitor duties (which includes playing music) for the club session that follows.

j

[Pgh.Coach]

Club members' ice time is included in their club membership, and the club president takes care contracting the ice time. For instance, those wishing to skate regularly on club pay something like $225/year membership as opposed to those who do not wish to skate on club ice who pay $175/year membership.

Club skaters are permitted to bring a guest one time at no charge to that guest. After that, any non-club member wishing to skate on club ice pays $20/hour. Guests can only be a guest one time, so they could not come with one skater one week and another the next.

Club ice is first-come, first serve meaning that when the ice reaches its maximum skating capacity (I think ours is 25 skaters, which we almost always have), non-club members are wait-listed. Our club ice is monitored by an ice monitor; she's one of the parents of a skater.

[AgnesNitt]

Our rink has commited to the confusing system of you have to buy your ice time in advance, for a certain number of sessions, and you can't transfer unused sessions month to month. Walk ons pay a 50% premium. We don't even have cards anymore--it's this handwritten calendar. I'm an adult, I have a job, I can't commit to a session unless I have a lesson ("Boss I have to leave, I have an appointment." gets me a pass, "Boss I have to leave to work on my 3 turns." does not) So until hockey stops in the spring I'm limited to public--which is getting more crowded due to better management .... AAAARGH!!!! I want them to make a profit, I just want my empty public sessions back too!:frus:

[Debbie S]

My club buys 4 hours of ice time from the home rink from Oct (when the rink re-opens, it's now seasonal, at least for the next 2 years) through March - rink closes end of April. It's evening ice - 2 hours Mon, 2 hours Thurs. The rink offers FS ice on Mon and Thurs aftns, but the club buys the evening ice to ensure that evening FS ice is available. People buy sessions in advance at the beginning of each "season", meaning Fall (I think 11 weeks, or 10?) and Spring (about the same # of weeks). Each session cost $9 last year (haven't seen this year's info yet) for members and $10 for non-members. If you're a non-member, and you buy club ice, you essentially become a (non-home club) member and can test at the club w/o paying a guest fee. Walk-on (for guests and members who want to skate an extra session one time, etc) is $15 per session. The club also sells punch cards that give people more flexibility - 10 sessions that they can use whenever during that season - I think it's $10/session, so there is a bit of a premium to encourage people to buy dedicated sessions.

As for ice monitors, last year the same 2 club officers (who have kids who skate both nights) did the monitoring. I know they would have liked to have help, but at the same time, no 'call' went out for volunteers. I hope the club makes a bigger push for that this year, since there are plenty of parents there each night, and the work should be spread around.


("Boss I have to leave, I have an appointment." gets me a pass, "Boss I have to leave to work on my 3 turns." does not) Hey, you could just give the appt excuse when you have skating - it's not like your boss will follow you out the door, or will he/she? :halo: :lol:

[vesperholly]

My club runs its own club ice. We are fortunate in a few ways: our ice is somewhat discounted because the rink is a town facility and we're a (mostly) resident-only club. The club runs and profits from the LTS program. The club ice always operates at a loss and LTS at a profit, so they tend to balance out. And since we're a decent-sized club at a four-sheet facility, we have hosted Regional competitions which also make some money.

Hey, you could just give the appt excuse when you have skating - it's not like your boss will follow you out the door, or will he/she? :halo: :lol:
Seriously - booking ice IS an appointment. :)

[patatty]

My club makes you book your ice time for the entire year in advance, and it's really expensive. I think you get one or two makeups, but that's it. Guesting is available but even more expensive. I never skate on my club's ice during the school year. They used to have a good summer schedule, which was also insanely expensive (somewhere around $32 a session), but it was so nice that I booked some hours there. This summer, they only held two sessions a week, and one was on Sundays, so I didn't book anything (especially since I can skate morning freestyles at my local rink for $9). I feel bad that I only use my club for test sessions, but they make the ice so expensive and inconvenient that it doesn't make sense for me. Regarding the logistics, the club seems to have plenty of ice monitors and music people, because they discount the ice prices for the parents who volunteer. Since they have to be there anyway to bring their kids for their lessons, it probably makes a lot of sense to just stay and volunteer, and then get a price break. With my club, you have to pay for the entire session, so if the price is $16 per hour and it's a two hour session, you are stuck paying $32, whether you skate for 30 minutes or the entire 2 hours.

[Skate@Delaware]

Well, for my club you have to decide how many times per week you want to skate, then you contract for that rate. You can move up to more times per week but not down (unless you have extenuating circumstances like an injury).

We have a sign-in sheet; we use mostly the honor system and a mom monitors. Everyone knows everone else so there is no sneaking on....8O or cheating! So far it works.

You can also pay for an extra "drop-in" session if you need to but I've found that the extra drop-in freestyle session is a better deal (shhh! don't tell my club I said that!) at $15/45 minutes for club time and fighting ice dancers and little kids playing on club ice vs. $10/90 minutes and so far it's been only 1-3 people and serious skating only.....what can I say?

[Black Sheep]

Two hours a week every Sunday night, and only for ice dancers, and I don't dance. Oh, well.

[techskater]

You have Sunday night ice? Nice! Our club ice is Thursday night from 5-6 (WTF? What adult can make that, especially in the *far* suburb out in the collar county), Saturday morning when I am contracted for cheaper than our club ice, and Sunday 10-12 (where I skate at my home rink at 6A).

[LWalsh]

First let me thank all of you for your input. I am thinking that Delaware is probably the closest to our situation. We charge $20 per session for contract ice and $23 if you want passes to be used for any session. Do your sessions run at a loss? If so do you have a learn to skate program that offsets this cost? We are thinking of starting our own LTS for this reason. I am afriad with the economy troubles this year we're going to have a hard time.

Well, for my club you have to decide how many times per week you want to skate, then you contract for that rate. You can move up to more times per week but not down (unless you have extenuating circumstances like an injury).

We have a sign-in sheet; we use mostly the honor system and a mom monitors. Everyone knows everone else so there is no sneaking on....8O or cheating! So far it works.

[Mainemom]

Our freestyle sessions always run at a loss - it costs us $220/hr for the ice and we rarely have more than 12 or so skaters out there. We charge $10/session if you buy a group of 12 or $12/6. Drop-in is $15 but we don't get many of those - just not a lot of figure skaters in Maine! Many of our girls help out with the Basic Skills lessons and don't get paid for it - I figure with DD it's the least she can do since they subsidize her FS ice! Without LTS we wouldn't be able to have ice as we would have to charge so much no one could afford to use it. But without freestyle skaters, we wouldn't have the coaches to coach our LTS skaters - it's a symbiotic relationship!

[jskater49]

First let me thank all of you for your input. I am thinking that Delaware is probably the closest to our situation. We charge $20 per session for contract ice and $23 if you want passes to be used for any session. Do your sessions run at a loss? If so do you have a learn to skate program that offsets this cost? We are thinking of starting our own LTS for this reason. I am afriad with the economy troubles this year we're going to have a hard time.

We do run at a loss and we do use profit from LTS to make up for it.

j

[Isk8NYC]

Two hours a week every Sunday night, and only for ice dancers, and I don't dance. Oh, well.
Union County FSC (Union, NJ) used to have a wonderful Sunday night session back in the 1980's. Mostly adults on the ice, you were limited to three guest sessions. We paid in installments through the year, but it was a "use it or lose it" situation with sessions. (They did prorate if you joined late.)

UC's session was also two hours long, but they alternated 30m free, 30m dance, 30m free, 30m dance. It was fair and I even learned to do a little ice dancing! Today, I think I would use the dance time for MITF practice - music would be nice. As long as you pick a MITF pattern that "fits" the dance pattern, it'd be fine. (Confusing to the person behind you on a pattern, though, lol. You'd have to go last.)

Our Club had 1.5 hours of ice on Sat mornings last year. You paid by the session. That was good for us because it turned out that my kids were really frightened at being on the ice with some of the older, stronger skaters. We switched to early AM freestyles mid-season, which worked out better.

This year, they have no ice time.

Our Club has one program that's really good, IMO. (I didn't benefit from it, though.) You pay a membership fee up front, then you do volunteer work during the year (help at test sessions, be an ice monitor, etc.) and get "reimbursed" on the following year's membership fee.

There was one volunteer job that is still needed, but I haven't seen anyone ask for: music monitor on freestyle sessions. At one of the rinks I coached at last year, I would have to leave the ice and the lesson to put my student's music on or they'd get cheated out of their turn during the lesson. What a waste of time - having an adult volunteer for that role would be great at making sure we don't hear the pushy 9-year old's "Little Mermaid" program six times while kids on lesson miss out unless we waste lesson time waiting.

As for LTS during the Club time: it is a money-maker as well as being a "feeder program" for the club sessions. Try to bundle it with practice ice or have it right before a public session. You have to work with the rink management if they have their own LTS classes. The Club's sessions would be seen as a threat to their business. If you do run back-to-back with non-club ice, you should make sure the parents and skaters KNOW that they have to buy an admission ticket for the non-club public session.

[jazzpants]

My skating club have two rinks they considered as Club Ice. At the rink in San Francisco, Saturday mornings from 7-8am for the High FS and 8:15-9:15am for the Low FS. At the rink further down the peninsula, it's Sunday late mornings and Monday from 6-7:30pm.

We also have high and low level power class. NOW, the interesting part... even though the club says that you are high level if you pass the Bronze FS test, you really need to be more like Gold level before you take the High level power class. The low one has all these little ones in it and is often crowded. (I of course, don't go to those, since I like sleeping in on weekends!!!! :twisted: )

[jskater49]

We also have high and low level power class. NOW, the interesting part... even though the club says that you are high level if you pass the Bronze FS test, you really need to be more like Gold level before you take the High level power class. The low one has all these little ones in it and is often crowded. (I of course, don't go to those, since I like sleeping in on weekends!!!! :twisted: )

We have a really good power coach and she adjusts it for everyone -she says if you can't do something flag her and she'll give you an alternative excersize, just as long has you keep moving.

She also has strict rules about faster skaters passing on the outside, slower skaters on the inside...we've had 18 skaters of all different levels on a power session with no accidents.

That was in the summer...now we have only 4 people in power...

j

[vesperholly]

There was one volunteer job that is still needed, but I haven't seen anyone ask for: music monitor on freestyle sessions. At one of the rinks I coached at last year, I would have to leave the ice and the lesson to put my student's music on or they'd get cheated out of their turn during the lesson. What a waste of time - having an adult volunteer for that role would be great at making sure we don't hear the pushy 9-year old's "Little Mermaid" program six times while kids on lesson miss out unless we waste lesson time waiting.
My club has ice monitors, though apparently it's been like pulling teeth to get people to do it. And our monitors are paid $5/hour in ice credit! It got so bad that they even instituted a volunteer fee. I was always frustrated by the policy, because as a working adult skater, when I'm available for a session, I'm usually ON IT, not monitoring. :P

[Isk8NYC]

Oh, I didn't mean an adult skater, I meant an adult who was waiting for a skater. Sorry for the confusion.

At one NJ club, there was a skater's grandmother who used to do the music monitor gig all the time. (They only had an hour of ice/week) I asked her about why she did - she must be cold, bla bla bla. She said that she felt that was a better use of her time than chatting in the stands and freezing.

Then she went on:
. she liked being able to know who the skaters were by name (esp. the granddaughter's friends) and who skated to what music.
. she got to know the coaches a bit better, and even get tips/feedback for her granddaughter.
. she liked announcing each skater, even volunteered for that job at competitions and exhibitions.

Her punchline was that being "in the box" kept her away from the snack bar. (She was a bit heavy) I cracked up when she told me that bit of information. She was a pip, god rest her soul. (She passed away about 10 years ago.) lol

[vesperholly]

Oh, I didn't mean an adult skater, I meant an adult who was waiting for a skater. Sorry for the confusion.
I know what you meant, I was just venting my situation. :) The problem we have is parents who sit in the stands and watch, yet don't monitor. WTF?