Question About Starting a Class at the YMCA

@Dirty Dog teaches at a YMCA I believe...he might have some ideas

 

I wasn't around when the program began. But the way it works for us is pretty straight forward.
The instructors are YMCA staff, officially. We don't go to staff meetings or do anything else staff related, but for the books we're staff. Our Dan holders are all listed as Y volunteers, so they don't have to pay for the program.
The YMCA charges $40/month for the program, and collecting it is their business. We keep sign-in sheets and the Y uses them to confirm that the people coming to class are actually paying their fees. I don't know how often or how closely they check, honestly, because I don't really care.

This allows us to function as a completely non-commercial school, and means we don't have to worry about keeping insurance or anything like that. If we were renting space or doing this in a non-staff manner, we'd have to (at the very least...) get our own liability insurance.

 

It sounds like they have a similar arrangement to my own. At the athletic center (owned by the county) I'm in, I pay 25% of all fees to the county. That's all the "rent" there is. But I do not act as an employee - I am not paid by the county.

 

The downside to the "staff" route is that they can cancel the classes at any time. They don't want to lose money on it, either. Of course, if they are on the hook for your hourly fee, they have some incentive to get some students into that room.

 

While circumstances no doubt vary widely, in our case it would be virtually impossible for them to lose money. We use a couple of community rooms that anybody can rent out. In the past, if they've had a renter during our class period, they just move us somewhere else - including out onto the front lawn a couple times. But that's fairly rare. For the most part those rooms (during the hours we use them) are just sitting there empty. And since we provide our own equipment, the program fees are 100% profit for the Y; they have zero expenses.

 

They don't pay the "staff" instructors?

 

In the context of that song, "staff instructor" has a different meaning, I think.

 

They're willing to, but Master Valdez and I have both declined. We want the program as inexpensive and as non-commercial as possible.

 

Gotcha. You're listed as "staff", and are volunteers (volunteer staff - probably not a designation the YMCA uses). So they really don't have anything to lose. That was how I started my program, but the YMCA wasn't able to handle mid-month joins (literally, their system had no way to do that), and weren't living up to their agreement to put the fees into mats. So they let me start collecting the fees so I could buy equipment.

 

I don't think the Y here can handle mid-month joins either, in that they charge for an entire month even if you're only there for the last week. I doubt the Y would agree with this approach, but I've told people not to bother signing in until the first of the month when they pay their fees.

You don't knock people down? Your system doesn't include any locks/throws/sweeps? TKD certainly isn't what most people would consider a grappling art, but we do include all those things. So we need mats. And we would even if the floor wasn't tile over concrete.
We have 1.5" thick mats, a couple heavy bags, some heavy kicking shields, striking targets, focus mitts, a bunch of re-breakable boards and a few hogu (that are rarely used). Students are expected to buy their own sparring gear (which can be very inexpensive; Century has cloth covered pads for something like $15.). We require hand and foot pads, and strongly encourage a cup, mouth guard and headgear. Students who leave or outgrow their gear (including uniforms) often bring them in and donate them to the program. We then give them to someone.

 

If you get a wholesale account with AWMA or one of the others, you can save your students a bit of money. It’s not a big deal, but it helps. I sell all of the gear at near-cost (to cover shipping and such), which is a fair bit lower than retail in most cases. But it does create a bit more work, including filing quarterly sales and use tax reports.

 

But then it'd be a business...123