Class Cards????

[Oso]

Does anyone do this in their school?

Apparently it's the way a lot of yoga teachers sell their time here in AVL.

I've been approached about it for private lessons and am trying to figure the pros and cons of it.

One thing I've thought of is that there should be a term limit on the card, should there not? As in: If someone buys 4-8 private lessons I would expect them to take/redeem them within....1-3 months ????

Thoughts?

[David Jamieson]

put the time limit right on the card. punch it on a little calendar printed on it and tell the card bearer they have x amount of time from t date shown to show up or the card's no good.

also, make sure that you have a disclaimer on there that you may change the provisions of the card at any time just in case you get a total idiot that you don't want to waste any breath or time on but happens to have one of the cards for some reason.

[Oso]

yea, i've done a draft of one now that has those exact things.

have you seen one in use for a martial arts school before?

thanks.

[xcakid]

Master Wong's Chin Woo school does it. They are pay per lesson though.
http://www.jkwongkungfutaichi.com/lessons.htm


Here's another idea. It would only work if you have some other instructors and/or asst. insturctor. Our school include 4 .5hr private lessons with the tuition. We teach material during private lesson. Practice and conditioning is what the group classes are used for. Much easier cause you are not teaching material to various levels and trying to split your time that way. Instead you can work on fine tuning techniques, and working on conditioning and various drills.

[Chief Fox]

We use cards at my BJJ school. EVeryone has a card. ON the card they track how many classes you've taken and the date. If you've taken the proper amount of classes and the instructor feels you are ready, you are promoted to the next belt level.

It's a great way to keep track of how much material you have been exposed to.

[Shaolin Dude]

My old school did this

[Oso]

Master Wong's Chin Woo school does it. They are pay per lesson though.
http://www.jkwongkungfutaichi.com/lessons.htm


Here's another idea. It would only work if you have some other instructors and/or asst. insturctor. Our school include 4 .5hr private lessons with the tuition. We teach material during private lesson. Practice and conditioning is what the group classes are used for. Much easier cause you are not teaching material to various levels and trying to split your time that way. Instead you can work on fine tuning techniques, and working on conditioning and various drills.

yea, right now I only have one other person helping with teaching but she's also has a full time job and teaches kids and women's class for me as well as the autism class.

and, she's not quite ready to go 100% solo (I'm also teaching kids and there for women's class as well) but very soon.

I think I've got all the details figured out...i'll post them later when I get back to the school this afternoon.

CF: that sounds like an attendance card which we have already.


SD: what? attendance cards or cards that were good for X amount of classes? How did it work?


Thanks.

[BruceSteveRoy]

just a thought. you should have it in writing if you get an expiration date on the card that they understood that condition. just make a standard form for it. the other issue would be what if they are injured or ill and can't make it to all of the classes within the given amount of time? would you accept doctors notes as a means of extending the expiration date?

[Oso]

yep, did all that last night. i have a form made in excel with the bottom part as the card the student keeps and both the agreement and card will have both signatures on them (mine and theirs). We'll fill out both parts and cut the bottom off for the student to keep as the redemption card and the top portion stays in the student's file.

i don't think i can post excel files but I'll copy it to word and post later.

[Yao Sing]

yea, i've done a draft of one now that has those exact things.

have you seen one in use for a martial arts school before?

thanks.

Haven't seen it in MA schools but it was done at a Yoga class I was taking years ago. Must be a Yoga thing.

What you did was buy a block of classes, more classes bigger discount. The catch is that you have to take the classes within a set time period or they would expire.

Not a bad idea. I was going good until I hit a few months where I just couldn't get there. Forfeiting a class or two now and then isn't too bad but I had to stop when I started losing too many classes.

Basically I would buy for the month so it's like paying a monthly tuition. I think Jeff Naayers was doing something like that years ago in Columbus. I'll bet he has a good system worked out by now.

Haven't heard anything from him since leaving WL so who knows what he's got going these days.

[Oso]

In thinking about it it seems that if a student wanted to do the private lessons, or general classes, by way of a class card then there still has to be some consistancy to the training regimine IF what they want to do is learn a skill AND what one, as the instructor, is trying to do is teach someone a skill. By requiring the lessons to be taken in a reasonable time frame (at least 2 a month) I'm still trying to promote a good training pattern.

Right?

[Oso]

here's a sample