rink politics

[climbsk8]

I just read the "testing dilemma" thread and I thought it would be a great opportunity to ask for advice about rinks/clubs/skating directors/parents and the ensuing party politics.

I skate at four different rinks, each of which has a completely different vibe. One is utopian, two are OK, and one is dismal.

I know that one of the crucial aspects to a successful skating program is keeping it democratic (i.e., not letting any one person or group of people gain too much control.)

But what else works? Does anybody have any ideas for how to get past cliques and politics? Build bridges instead of burn them?

In one case, I know the situation could affect the profitability of the rink.

[AshBugg44]

At the rink in Vancouver, WA, the coaches have all the control in the world. The management honestly has no control over them. My best friend's coach was coaching both at my rink and over there, and many of their coaches hated her because they were threatened since she is such a good and new coach. One coach accused her of stealing a student(it didn't happen) and so that rink suspended her for one month. Needless to say, she's not going back even though the month is over. The coaches over there are so mean to her that when they had a USFSA comp last month, her husband stayed by her side at all times. :(

[roogu]

Most politics in rinks usually lies within the coaching structures and also the executive board of members. The rink staff rarely has anything to do with it since all they really do is flood the ice and then they get the heck outta there, and who can blame them? hehehe.

[MissIndigo]

Originally posted by roogu
The rink staff rarely has anything to do with it since all they really do is flood the ice and then they get the heck outta there, and who can blame them? hehehe.

Very true, but you also must consider the stability of the rink management and how well (or not) informed they are about the needs of the skaters. Our management is clueless about the time we need and does not seem to realize that general public sessions won't do for sufficient practice. (The adult publics can be pretty good though as far as behavior. But nevermind the ice is starting to suck again in the same place where we had all the uneven spots last year.) My club has had to fight for the little freestyle time we do get. A lack of freestyle time has been only one of many issues we've had contributing to bad feelings. I hope it gets better in the near future, as we are electing a new board to the club. Our USFSA club is sort of in a rebuilding process if I dare say so; I mean, we have maintained an active and I suppose "good" standing with the organization, but an ISI club was formed at our rink too in light of some of the problems that were seen from within the USFSA club. We do have a board that is trying to work with them, and they are trying to work with us on shows, skate swaps, etc. I hope the goodwill continues and the dark cloud that's been over the rink lifts some.

I've never let myself get caught up in rink politics, even though I've been attending more regular club meetings lately as they have been open to general members (a step in a good direction I feel). I take the gossip with a grain of salt and go about my business.

[Schmeck]

roogu, I have to disagree with your statemnet that rink management has rarely anything to do woth it - at our local rink, the rink management has made it very difficult for our club (or now, our former club, since rink management killed us) - that's where all our political upheaval has been centered. They made it difficult for us to get ice time, they spread rumors about one of our coaches, they tried to stare down our skaters when they were having lessons, they did a horrible job grooming the ice, and they refused to even let us use the rink VCR to showcase our silver-medalist youth synchro team during our ice time.

They threatened to 'do us in' and they did - we folded, and now the manager's daughter is going to run the programs at the rink. If I have any problems with this arrangement, I'm going straight to USFSA with my complaints, especially since the new club will be on probation for the first few months. I'm even considering traveling an extra 20/30 minutes to another rink, just to get away from the nasty people that manage our local rink.

[Black Sheep]

It seems to me that a lot of rinks in general are monopolized by hockey. I mean, I've been surfing the Websites of my local rinks to try finding decent FS times, but about all I get are hockey times, house leagues, Stick & Shoot, and the Public/Open skate times. Whoopee, big help. This seems to cut down on our ice time a lot further, don't you think?

[Black Sheep]

Crossed wire--never mind....

[sk8er1964]

Originally posted by Black Sheep
It seems to me that a lot of rinks in general are monopolized by hockey. I mean, I've been surfing the Websites of my local rinks to try finding decent FS times, but about all I get are hockey times, house leagues, Stick & Shoot, and the Public/Open skate times. Whoopee, big help. This seems to cut down on our ice time a lot further, don't you think?

Unfortunately for us, that's where the $$$ is for the rinks.

I think that our club has a good relationship with the rink, at least from what I can see. The rink is heavy into hockey, being the home of a minor league hockey team, but with 2 sheets of ice we get plenty of time. (My son plays hockey in the house league there, so it seems that I am there a lot!) My winter day-time rink is city-run, and they are reliable. The problem comes with rinks who don't have a firm agreement or good relationship with the FSC - then, in that case, money usually talks and hockey wins.

In the case of one rink that I skate with sometimes during the day, they don't seem to really care about their core bunch of lunch-time adult skaters. They are only interested in the $. I wouldn't mind having lunch skate overrun with a elementary school field trip if they posted it the day before so that I could make other plans -- but they don't so several times I have had a wasted trip. Oh, and the lunch-time drop in hockey is NEVER cancelled. (This rink is trying to start a FSC - I doubt it will work if they don't realize the importance of both types of skating).

[dbny]

My club was killed by mishandling of rink politics. The owner of the rink hired a new manager who didn't understand our needs at all. At the same time, our club's president became very busy with other things and lost her interest in the club's wellfare because her daughter didn't want to skate anymore. Nevertheless, she held her position and proceded to behave like a bull in a china shop (something I've been known to do, so it was easy for me to spot). She is a fairly pushy, abrasive woman, and did not put the time or finesse into securing club ice for us. The rink's owner is not known for his finesse either, the upshot being that our club cancelled all ice time, giving the rink virtually no notice. Talk about burning your bridges. There was no other rink that offered year round ice. We lost membership rapidly and were not able to continue the club. The rink that was home base for us still does not have a club, but has a growing school whose director is active in a different club, which I would not be surprised to see moving in someday. Meanwhile, with memberships up at the end of June, and a move planned over the summer to a new area, I still haven't decided how to best continue my USFSA membership. The thing that bothers me the most about it is that I believe if the club were still going strong, my daughter would still be skating.

[Schmeck]

dbny, we're getting individual memberships from USFSA this year (oldest daughter and myself) because our old club is done (see above post) and we're waiting to see what happens at our rink as well. It's cheap ($40 or so) and it will let us walk-on most freestyle ice times in our area. Hopefully, we'll be able to join another club in a year's time, but I don't want to right now. It's kind of a free feeling not to be tied to a club and its politics for the moment... ;)

Schmeck

[dbny]

Originally posted by Schmeck
dbny, we're getting individual memberships from USFSA this year (oldest daughter and myself) because our old club is done (see above post) and we're waiting to see what happens at our rink as well. It's cheap ($40 or so) and it will let us walk-on most freestyle ice times in our area.

I was considering that too, but thought it cost $60/skater. I took a look at USFSA membership form, and it is $60, but only for the first skater in family. Then it's only $30 for each additional skater, so I think that's the way we will go also.

[garyc254]

Originally posted by MissIndigo
Our management is clueless about the time we need and does not seem to realize that general public sessions won't do for sufficient practice.

One of our local rink managers offered club ice at 2:30 pm on Wednesdays and gave the synchro teams practice ice at 11:30 pm Friday night and 6:00 am Saturday morning. Definitely clueless!!

One manager of a part-year indoor rink said that the local wintertime outdoor public rink would be a viable alternative for practice. He was sure that the club members and synchro team could get get by using public sessions for practice.

[Candleonwater]

Fortunately we don't have much of a problem with our club as they don't do a heck of alot anyway!

I am getting tired of hearing about how our skaters are getting beat in competition because they're slow... but the rink doesn't make any ice available for working on that! The one exception being the power stroking club session. The rink has a pretty strong program, however, for the younger skaters, there is VERY limited FS time they can sign up for - 2 sessions on Friday evenings. There are other "Mixed" sessions that are available for skaters who have passed FS 3, however it's kind of dangerous to send them out there with the Junior/senior level skaters!

[Schmeck]

dbny, is it up to $60 now? Our (ex)club president mentioned at our last (literally!) meeting that it was only $40, but I remember that price ($40) from many years ago. I'm not surprised that it would be $60 now. I haven't even looked into it, since I'm in the middle of trying to find employment, and finishing up the school year as a sub, and closing up the club, and getting caught up in my youngest daughter's end-of-the-year-let's-pile-on-the school-projects stuff... :roll: Is it summer vacation yet???

Schmeck, off to make potato salad for a pot-luck class dinner based on Little House in the Big Woods, then I have to make two aprons, luckliy I finished the bonnets this afternoon! 8O

[Michigansk8er]

Wow, and I thought the rinks around here were the only ones that were nightmares. The rink where I used to skate is so mismanaged it's pathetic. They just threw the club out. No warning, just a letter and the banner disappeared. The skating director has "other plans". The club was accused of costing the rink too much money. How, I'd like to know, since they buy ice and are customers (but certainly not treated like valued customers). They plan to go ISI with the idea that it's a better program than USFSA. Get this bit of nuttiness. They decided there weren't enough morning skaters to make a profit so the manager decided to put the speedskaters on the same surface with the figure skaters. Why........because figure skaters skate in the middle and speed skaters go around the outside. Can you imagine anything so ridiculous?

My current club just brushes adult skaters under the carpet. I medaled at AN last year, and another adult medaled this year. No one even noticed. The kids go to regionals and you would not believe the big deal they make of it with exhibitions, parties and gifts.

I'm thinking individual membership is sounding good too. I thought it went up to $75 though. You do get a rulebook tossed in, however...........and don't have to worry about getting anyone to sign competition forms, test forms, etc. No fundraisers, no volunteer hours. Gee, it's sounding better by the minute.

[Candleonwater]

I know individual memberships are an option, but for those who test, where do they test? What I wouldn't give not to have to deal with our club!

[dbny]

Originally posted by Michigansk8er
I'm thinking individual membership is sounding good too. I thought it went up to $75 though. You do get a rulebook tossed in, however...........and don't have to worry about getting anyone to sign competition forms, test forms, etc. No fundraisers, no volunteer hours. Gee, it's sounding better by the minute.

My current club was supposed to send us a rulebook - never got it, and with 4 members of my family in the club!

I know individual memberships are an option, but for those who test, where do they test?

Testing as a member of my current club is no piece of cake. Last year my daughter was closed out of a test session two months in advance. She was put on the list for the next one and did get in. Their test sessions are so crowded that they do crazy things like have 6 skaters warming up at once, skaters waiting 45 minutes after warm-up to skate, and (worst of all, IMO) not allowing re-skates when the judges call for them because of lack of time!

I think one just has to shop around for a good test situation and go for it when it shows up. As many of you know, who gave me such good guidance with my own testing situation, sometimes we just have to focus on our own needs and let the other BS go.

[Michigansk8er]

It's easy here to test out of club. Actually, my club's test dates/times have never worked out for me, so I've always tested out of club anyhow. Most clubs will charge an out of club test fee, which is higher than for club members, but you shouldn't have any problems if there are other clubs within a reasonble driving distance.