Parents Team Communication

[scanlri]

Maybe....is it freezing cold where you are??

Well, kids are out of school today (12th day this school year) due to snow and ice. This is not the NORM for us though

 

[Seeker]

Okay, then....not the same gym...we live in the arctic circle.

 

[Gymdaddio]

Man Seeker, do we go to the same gym? JK That is very much like ours

Cat's out of the bag. We now know what Seeker has been seeking.

 

[Seeker]

Hahaha! Touché!

 

[Uglybetty]

when i first started i gave nothing except xerox copies and put them in the lobby. the parents would complain...why don't i mail them to make sure they get it. and when i did they didn't read it cause they would show up to the meet 2 hours late. and all those zerox copies COST ME MONEY I DIDN'T HAVE CAUSE I NEEDED TO EAT!

now we do everything. xerox copies in the gym, email, website links, texts, etc; NOW THEY SAY IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THEM IF IT CAME TO THEIR "i" THIS or "i" THAT OR TWEET THIS OR TWAT THAT...THE TECHNOLOGICAL LIST GOES ON AND ON.

and they STILL can't understand the difference between "check-in" and "warm up" and "competition time start".and this is AFTER several team meetings and phone calls and texts and tweets and twats....

and then there is always a parent who says after showing up late or early or whatever..."oh, i didn't know there was a time zone change".

dunno is now screaming and pulling his hair (what's left of it) out once again.

Funniest thing I've read on CB since I joined 6 months ago!

Seriously though....gyms need to communicate more effectively and consistently....we are customers after all. You wouldn't accept lack of communication from any other business whose services you were paying so much for!

 

[my4buffaloes]

You know - I honestly just check the meet website to get the info I need. I get it before we get an email most of the time. And I get all the info - and then arrive 30 minutes early to make sure we are there on time. I have NEVER been late to a meet. Way too stressful to take a chance on that.

 

[Seeker]

You know - I honestly just check the meet website to get the info I need. I get it before we get an email most of the time. And I get all the info - and then arrive 30 minutes early to make sure we are there on time. I have NEVER been late to a meet. Way too stressful to take a chance on that.

Yeah, I always look up or validate the info on my own. Was sent astray once when DD was L4...that won't happen again!

 

[gymmiemom]

This is my biggest pet peeve with our gym! NO COMMUNICATION at all. I have (with our coaches blessing) taken it upon myself to send out communications about meets (where, when, what time, hotel blocks I have set up, etc) to other team parents. Before we were all constantly chasing our coach down.....great coach but very unorganized. Now I am in charge of registering the girls for the meets so I am the person the host gym contacts when they send the final schedule. I email, text, send home a hard copy with the girls AND post on our FB page. If I do all methods then I don't have to hear "well I don't have FB" or "I hardly ever check my email!"

 

[raenndrops]

This is my biggest pet peeve with our gym! NO COMMUNICATION at all. I have (with our coaches blessing) taken it upon myself to send out communications about meets (where, when, what time, hotel blocks I have set up, etc) to other team parents. Before we were all constantly chasing our coach down.....great coach but very unorganized. Now I am in charge of registering the girls for the meets so I am the person the host gym contacts when they send the final schedule. I email, text, send home a hard copy with the girls AND post on our FB page. If I do all methods then I don't have to hear "well I don't have FB" or "I hardly ever check my email!"

I don't schedule our girls for meets (because we do an opt-out instead of an opt-in and all girls are registered for all meets through Championships in September when our meet schedule is set). However, I do host the team website, and the team Facebook page, and I field e-mails and texts from parents.
There is another team in our District that has a public team page with their calendar (and quite frequently, we are at the same meets- which I know when the meet schedule is set because HC gives me the master copy of all the meets in the district - whether or not we are attending... I look for our initials to create the team focused version). If I am getting antsy to know the schedule for a meet they are attending, I check their website. Then I post it as TENTATIVE on our team page and our FB. When our coach hands out the schedule, I compare and make any necessary changes (all season, the only changes I had to make were to times when one meet had a large number of scratches - they moved the last 3 sessions up a little).
If HC needs anything passed on to the parents (information-wise) she asks me if i will send out an email or add it to the calendar
I make sure everyone knows whats going on.

 

[profmom]

Things are a lot better on the boys' side since we set up a FB page and compiled our own email list. Now any time the coaches tell some group of boys some critical piece of information, it's out to the team within a day.

 

[sleeping judy]

We get email blasts from the gym, but they are usually very last minute.

Most of the meets we attend have web pages and we can typically find the schedule there before we get the email blast. We also have level reps who send the info out to parents from a shutterfly site.

Even with all of that information, I still have to make sure I track down one family because while our information will all say be there on Friday at 6:30 p.m., they will think that they are supposed to be there Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m.

 

[shelovestoflip]

when i first started i gave nothing except xerox copies and put them in the lobby. the parents would complain...why don't i mail them to make sure they get it. and when i did they didn't read it cause they would show up to the meet 2 hours late. and all those zerox copies COST ME MONEY I DIDN'T HAVE CAUSE I NEEDED TO EAT!

now we do everything. xerox copies in the gym, email, website links, texts, etc; NOW THEY SAY IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THEM IF IT CAME TO THEIR "i" THIS or "i" THAT OR TWEET THIS OR TWAT THAT...THE TECHNOLOGICAL LIST GOES ON AND ON.

and they STILL can't understand the difference between "check-in" and "warm up" and "competition time start".and this is AFTER several team meetings and phone calls and texts and tweets and twats....

and then there is always a parent who says after showing up late or early or whatever..."oh, i didn't know there was a time zone change".

dunno is now screaming and pulling his hair (what's left of it) out once again.

lol!

 

[cbifoja]

Even with all of that information, I still have to make sure I track down one family because while our information will all say be there on Friday at 6:30 p.m., they will think that they are supposed to be there Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m.

Now see....this is where natural consequences come in. Can't be bothered to know when the meet is? Then I guess you miss the meet and waste the money you paid. I think after a couple of times, the lesson would sink in. I mean if you are an adult, act like one. No one should have to hunt you down individually to give you publicly posted information!

I had an L2 mom come up and ask me to print her off a map to the meet. WHAT???? You have a smartphone, use it. You know how to operate a computer (I assume), go to mapquest. For cryin' out loud.....your gymnast is the child, not you! How about just a touch of self-sufficiency?

 

[raenndrops]

Now see....this is where natural consequences come in. Can't be bothered to know when the meet is? Then I guess you miss the meet and waste the money you paid. I think after a couple of times, the lesson would sink in. I mean if you are an adult, act like one. No one should have to hunt you down individually to give you publicly posted information!

I had an L2 mom come up and ask me to print her off a map to the meet. WHAT???? You have a smartphone, use it. You know how to operate a computer (I assume), go to mapquest. For cryin' out loud.....your gymnast is the child, not you! How about just a touch of self-sufficiency?

A map to the meet... Well, lets see - decide on a starting point (a block from the meet or an obscure starting location in another state works for me)... Make sure you have the starting point address and ending point address listed and print off JUST THE MAP from yahoo maps. I bet the parent would get the picture then, lol.

 

[cbifoja]

I just looked at her and asked, "Seriously? Does your phone not have GPS?" She said she didn't know so I understood what I was up against. Sometimes, it's just easier to capitulate. I printed a map.

 

[raenndrops]

I just looked at her and asked, "Seriously? Does your phone not have GPS?" She said she didn't know so I understood what I was up against. Sometimes, it's just easier to capitulate. I printed a map.

It was good of you to print the map.
Honestly, my phone doesn't have GPS... but I own a GPS... and I still print yahoo directions just in case the GPS dies and I am lacking a car charger or the cigarette lighter doesn't work in the vehicle I am in.
I also like the yahoo directions because I can easily change what roads we take and it will give me an accurate time for the trip. My GPS magically catches up eventually, but there is a small town 10 minutes from my home and the GPS says it is a 20 minute drive... Yahoo says 10. Once we get past that town either coming or going, the GPS starts getting closer to the real time estimate

 

[MaryA]

Yes, I'm like raenndrops... my phone is just a phone (gasp!). But I have a GPS and I print out directions off of mapquest. The only issue is that the GPS often sends me on a different route than the mapquest directions I have printed, which then makes me paranoid. Because the GPS usually gets us where we need to go, but it has on occasion left us stranded on some dead-end road in the middle of nowhere. I leave LOTS of extra time to get to meets because getting there really early may be boring, but it's not as stressful as worrying that you might be lost and not having the extra time to get found again. Last year the gym made an effort to send out directions to each meet, but eventually it was decided that was silly. All the directions started at the gym, and nobody was actually leaving from the gym. If they ever decide to make people pass a test in order to become parents, being able to figure out how to get their kids to their various activities ON TIME should definitely be on it.

 

[cbifoja]

Not having GPS on your phone in general is not a big deal but this family always has the newest technology. The husband/dad is a big wig in a tech firm so it's a priority to them that they always have the newest iPhone version and all the techy trimmings. So I feel fairly confident believing that someone in that family has a device with navigation on it in some form! LOL

 

[txgymfan]

I agree with Mary and Raen, when I'm going somewhere I use my GPS (with real time traffic) and if it's really important then I also print out a map or two (street by street for the destination and highway level for the route). I absolutely LOVE it. That little thing has gotten me into and out of far away towns and obscure neighborhoods within my own city.

 

[raenndrops]

The only issue is that the GPS often sends me on a different route than the mapquest directions I have printed, which then makes me paranoid. Because the GPS usually gets us where we need to go, but it has on occasion left us stranded on some dead-end road in the middle of nowhere. I leave LOTS of extra time to get to meets because getting there really early may be boring, but it's not as stressful as worrying that you might be lost and not having the extra time to get found again.

We have been late to warm ups ONCE in 6 years. We had gotten 2 rooms at a motel (really cheap so could afford 2 rooms so my brother would actually get a bed to sleep in). Well, he was supposed to take the GPS in with him to charge since the lighter in the car didn't work and we had an adapter to plug it into an outlet. There were so few outlets that i had to unplug the provided clock to get what I needed plugged in in my room, so the GPS was his responsibility.
He forgot... and my Yahoo directions were missing... so, I plugged in the GPS long enough to get the directions to the meet. My brother drives and I read the directions (and text my sister along the way so she knows where we are). I gave him a SIMPLE instruction... follow Road XXY until you get to Road PPA. Well, it turns out that while I was looking down reading a text, there was a big sign that said Road XXY veers to the left and if you go straight, you are on a different road. My brother chose to go straight. After 5 miles, he decides to mention that he thinks we are lost. When I see the next street sign, it says we are on Road GTO. So I tell him to turn around. He proceded to drive another 2 miles before turning around. We backtrack and find the road we needed and head down it. There was an accident and the road is blocked. The nice police officer gives us directions but they aren't very good, so I made up my own directions. OG is freaking out that we are going to miss the meet, so we stop at a stop sign and I call a friend that lives in that town. Her BF told us where to go (I was on the right track... it was 4 blocks away - 3 straight, then turn and go 1 more). We got there, OG was 10 min late for stretching. She is taking her boots off as we go in and realizes she has nail polish on her toes - and no remover in her bag. I find one of our team moms that gives us a couple of those very handy wipes to remove it. Then OG stretches and loosens up for about 12 minutes and joins her team for floor warmups. Since she was late joining her team, she was in a hurry. She was old L6... warmed up her RO and ROBHS and FT and FHS-FHS. Then she went to warm up her RO BHS BT... usually a coach was standing there when she did it (security for her), but coach didn't see that it was her turn and she didn't want to hold everybody up, she she went for it... fell on her head/face. She didn't do another back tuck (except a month later, but the coach did all the work- literally THREW her thought it) for 18 months. Then she slowly worked back into it... On the trampoline after several balks... then with 5 bounces in between BT then 4 bounces... down to where she could do BT bounce BT bounce BT. Approximately 20 months after the fall, she competed a RO BHS BT and got 1st place... But we now make sure we leave PLENTY early for meets, especially if OG is competing first