Parents We dont have a parents organization

[imagymparent]

hey everyone, just taking a poll, any gyms out there that DONT have a parents organization? If you dont, how does your fundraising go?

 

[bookworm]

hey everyone, just taking a poll, any gyms out there that DONT have a parents organization? If you dont, how does your fundraising go?

If you DON'T have a parents' association, then thank your lucky stars!! Ours is a nightmare. Fundraising by the association is ridiculous so we just write checks for the amounts requested.

 

[Pickle's Mom]

We have no parent organization, no booster club, and no fundraising. Heck, we don't even do a raffle before meets.

As a result, the costs at our gym may be a little higher than some other gyms. I'm not sure. It's so hard to do an apples to apples comparison since some gyms itemize certain costs (meet fees, coach travel costs, etc.), while our gym just includes everything in the monthly tuition.

I believe that there have sometimes been scholarship funds in the past, but I haven't seen that since I've been there.

 

[bogwoppit]

We never had one either. The HC owned the club and she did everything including fundraising, any money she raised went directly into equipment. All bills were paid by the parents yearly.

I think this makes it more expensive than other gyms, but we do not have to run meets, work at bingos or sell anything.

 

[Megley]

Just chiming in to say that not all parent associations are bad. We've worked hard at our gym to make ours helpful and provide avenues for our parents to raise money to offset gymnastics expenses.

As far as fundraising goes, I suppose you could do it but you'd have to pay taxes on the money you raise.

 

[Ingwe]

Our gym doesn't have a parents association, booster club etc. We don't do any fundraising. We have monthly tuition and then pay meet fees separately. This year we did 7 meets at $160 per meet.

That being said, we (the optional parents) did do some fundraising in order to off set some of the Regional costs. We had bake sales, Leo sale, and a huge yard sale. We had 11 girls make regionals this year from L7-L10. We are going to split the money evenly between us to cover at least some of the fees.

 

[AGM78910]

We have a great booster club/parents association. We also have 25 optional gymnasts. Half of our meets are out of town and regionals and westerns are out of state. The coaches have to be paid for their time and transportation to accompany the gymnasts to those meets. If we did not fundraise by holding meets, cookie dough sales, and garage sales, the parents of those gymnasts would have to pay for this. It gets very expensive at the higher levels. I have seen gymnasts drop out because the parents could not afford it.

 

[Optionals United]

Flippers Mom- you should be lucky. we only did 4 not including states and we payed more than that. Plus all of them were within 2 hours.

 

[Granny Smith]

My dd's gym does not have a booster club/parents' organization. We do absolutely no fundraising. We also have a large optional team, about 25+ (levels 8-10) closer to 30-35 if you factor in the level 7s, we also have 18 girls going to Regionals for those levels. We pay for our meets as they come up. As for coaches and travel, our team has event coaching, so we have 4 coaches that go to meets. How we pay for this is we have our monthly tuition and a monthly coaches fee. You do not make additional payments if your child makes it to Regionals or Nationals, that price is included in the monthly coaches fee.

 

[Alyssamom48]

We do have a parent run booster club.......although it seems to be a mess this year (we lost our president when her daughter out grew our gym) it is still a good system for us.

We pay a monthly fee which is depended on level and gym time and includes use of the facility and coaches cost. This payment is made to the gym.

We also pay a "booster club" fee which is spread out from September-March which includes Leo's or Warm Up (alternate each year), competition/meet fee's, coaching cost during meets, coaches expensive for travel/lodging if certain distance from gym, team banquet and other random things.

We have 3-4 mandatory fundraisers a year, usually a "sponsorship" program and 2 Texas Hold Em fundraisers. We then have several fundraisers for individual accounts throughout the year.

 

[lhmom]

Our gym has discussed having a parents' organization but at this point, we do not have one. We pay a set fee a month for the meets (July to March or you can pay the whole thing upfront) and pay a separate fee for the lessons (as well as leo and warmups, bag, etc).

 

[Muddlethru]

If you DON'T have a parents' association, then thank your lucky stars!! Ours is a nightmare. Fundraising by the association is ridiculous so we just write checks for the amounts requested.

Unfortunately, our parents association is similar to bookworm's. Only a handful is very supportive, some do the minimum and the rest could care less. Hence, our parents association is more trouble than it is worth. We end up putting in more money than we get out. Our parents association is completely separate from our gym. If you can find a group of parents with similar goals and commitment, then you may have a successful one. We just joined for the sake of being a team player.

 

[ProudMomofGymnast]

We don't have a parent's organization. We do have some fundraising through out the year, we have one Mom that seems to handle this stuff.
handle a lot o

 

[imagymparent]

Thanks, that was helpful, Since we do not have a booster/parents organization, and we are not a non profit, its a little difficult to fundraise. At the beginning of the season, we are offered a "buyout of the fundraising", however, this year, since the coaches have decided to get some new equipment we have had to do "additional fundraising" this includes hosting meets, and 2 other fundraisers. If you did not participate, there was a definate back lash of uncomfortable tension in the air. A lot of parents are getting to feel like a milking cow, whenever the gym decides that they need money, they go out to the parents to get some cashola! I understand that its my gymnasts safety and all that, but the gym is a "for profit business" and yes they are busy in that aspect. I just feel like we, the parents are being "used" we are not told where the money that we fundraise for is going, we are rarely told what we even made for the fundraising that we have done. Any feedback? And of course there are the same ole same ole parents who dont do anything, dont contribute at all, and those of us who do go to everything they ask, only get ridiculed at the first instance when we dont show up for something. I am trying to keep this bland on purpose, but does that make sense??
signed feeling frustrated, and used

 

[sportzmomov3]

I respect that a gym needs to make money and as such charges tuition, meet fees, etc. However, I think it is out of line for a gym to mandate (directly or indirectly) that parents must "fundraise" for new equipment. Equipment is part of running the business. Tuition should cover the costs of running business. Most gyms we've seen in our area make their money off the high volume of class kids and fees associated with training (i.e. privates and such) and do not expect additional fundraising in order to operate their business.

Personally, if the "fundraising" costs are starting to become prohibitive, or the environment is becoming uncomfortable because there is a jr. high attitude towards who does what in fundraising (and in the scenario above it isn't fundraising, it's basically giving time or cash without knowing what you're "buying"), I'd be looking for another gym. This gym can't be the type of gym that cares about its gymnasts if it's that focused on getting money out of the parents. I'd rather be in a run-down gym with old equipment (that's safe of course) and know that the owner cared about making gymnasts, not making money.

 

[imagymparent]

Thank you for your support! There are times where you feel like, is it me?? Or is this the norm out there? Unfortunatly, some of the parents, who are newer, want to jump in and help all they can, and thats commendable. So.....That makes it harder for those of us who "balk" at all this fundraising

 

[sportzmomov3]

It's like I said - jr. high drama happens with adults too. Don't be bullied. Do what's right for you, your gymmie and your family. Who cares what others think?