PLEASE READ CAREFULLY, I KNOW IT’S A LONG READ, BUT IT’S VERY IMPORTANT
Dear LudoSport Ireland members,
with this letter I’d like to talk about our academy, it’s current status, and the plans for our future.
On The Membership Fees
Thank you for your very much appreciated effort in paying the membership fee in time!
I’d like to talk about the change in how strict we are now in asking for the payments. Please understand that this might not be directed specifically at you, however I want you to keep it in mind and help new members to understand the reasons for this.
Up until now we have been kinda relaxed with the rules. Yes we always asked for the payment to be within the date, however if that didn’t happen, there were very rarely consequences. For example most of the payments for the second installment of 2019 came very late, but nothing much happened.
This is going to change (has already changed, really).
The reason is very simple: we need to be fair towards everybody and we cannot make exceptions, because the moment we make one, then it wouldn’t be fair towards the next person that asks for the same exception, right? The simplest way to prevent arguments, or us having to chase people around for money (which I can assure you we do not want to do), is to strictly apply the rules we have detailed in the membership form that you signed, which basically boil down to three very important points:
- If a member doesn’t pay for the membership, they won’t be allowed in class
- If a member is late paying for the membership or stops paying the installments, we will ask for a 50 euro damage fee to be paid on top of the normal fee when they resume paying
- The membership fee is an annual fee, which can be split in installments. This means that if a member pays the 2 x 225, they are not paying for 6 months of classes, followed by another 6 months. They are paying for the full membership fee, in installments. This means that if they stop coming to classes after 7 months, they’ll still need to pay the second installment.
Again this is not because we want to be evil or something, it’s just to make sure that everyone is treated with fairness and also because we have a lot of bills to pay (thousands of euros) especially in January and June (insurance, rent, and so on..) which obviously require us to have the money to pay with in the first place. Unfortunately being very few in numbers means that we end the year with very little money left in the bank account, hence why it’s very important that everyone pays on time and in full.
“But I really don’t have the money right now to pay for the membership fee”.
We understand that everyone is in a different economic situation and some of you have very high expenses due to college or similar, however the dates of the 15th of January and the 15th of June are not a surprise. You have the whole year to plan accordingly, and save some money so you don’t come unprepared.
“What if I tell you in advance that I won’t be able to pay by the 15th”
That is always much appreciated, however point 2 above still stands.
That said, we are introducing monthly installments (details in another post) that might be easier for some, however I must insist that the three points above will always be valid.
On Teaching
Teaching since we started has been.. confusing, in my opinion. This is not due to the skills of our instructors though (which are awesome!), but it’s a byproduct of the status of our academy. Since we are so small and always had a lot of turnover (people joining and others leaving) it means that up until now we could not have a “proper” clan with people at the same level progressing through their form in a linear fashion. Instead we had to jump between different parts of the program, rushing with the syllabus in some cases, having people stay on the same form for ages in others.
This is definitely not optimal and I am sorry for it, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do otherwise.
Luckily now it seems we are getting towards a point where we can start with a nice, albeit small, group of Form 2, and hopefully with Course Y, once all the exams are done.
We’ll see what happens with Form 1, hopefully we’ll manage to get new members with the open day(s) and other events.
Meanwhile I’d like to thank all the instructors that put in their time (and money) in order to help the academy grow. I would still be jumping around like crazy if not for you ð
Bray
As you might know, we want to try and open a school in Bray. This of course will only be possible if we reach a certain number of people, as we don’t really have money to invest to start the school at a loss.
So if you know anybody that might know someone interested, let them know and point them to message us on our Facebook page.
The Future
Since the new learning path has made the intermediate forms after Course Y optional, we’ll need to decide as an academy which ones to offer.In order to be able to teach a form we need:
- Enough people interested and at the appropriate level
- At least one instructor trained in it. Which means that they need to do the instructor course, which costs money and time.
- Dedicated place and time to run the class.
This means that we will not be able to offer all the intermediate forms (3, 4, 5, 8, 9), because regarding point 1, the clans would be too small, and point 2 and 3 the expenses would be too high.
We can discuss which ones we want, however keep in mind that the preference of the instructor that is going to pay for his instructor course will have more weight.
Closing Thoughts
I’d like to thank every one of you for being part of LudoSport Ireland, without your dedication the academy wouldn’t be still standing ð
If you read all of this, comment the Facebook post with “Misura is the length of the blade“.
Saluto! ðĪš
