How Does Your Figure Skating Club or Rink Handle Credits and Switches?

Dear Ice Scheduler:

I can’t bring Ice Girl to the rink today because she has the sniffles/bad hair/mosquito bite. I’m not going to take her to the doctor for this, but she really shouldn’t skate with that big pimple, either. It would throw off her balance!

Please apply the cost of today’s ice to next month’s contract. I’m sure you have all the time in the world to make these adjustments to the accounts and the ice schedule.

By the way, I’d like to switch her Friday ice to Saturday. She’s had an invitation to see a movie with a friend that evening. Even though the movie plays two hours after the ice session, she’ll want to take time to get ready. I’m sure it’s no trouble to update the book at both the Friday rink and the Saturday rink as well as your records at home, right?

I forgot! I heard you got a new full-time job. I sure hope that doesn’t interfere with all the changes I’m making to my contract. I’m going to be away from my e-mail for the next two days, so I’ll just assume you can make these minor adjustments with no problem.

Love, Ice Mom

If I sent our club’s Ice Scheduler that e-mail, she’d toilet paper my house. I’m not kidding: she knows where I live.

The point is: she gets e-mails like this All. The. Time.

Our club allows one switch per month, but no ice credits. You don’t show up to Thursday night ice because of a band concert, don’t expect to have that $11 banked for you.

If your kid is sick or injured, you might be able to receive an ice credit with a doctor’s note. No note, no credit.

You can switch once a month, and Ice Scheduler tells me that switching really isn’t a huge challenge to her time. I’m not sure why that is and I don’t want to ask too many questions: Ice Scheduler is not a job I want to add to my résumé.

Ice Girl’s second club has a more complicated ice switching process. I confess: I don’t really understand it. The club is mostly at one rink, so that makes it a lot easier to keep the book up-to-date. (Our first club is at three rinks, so we have three books – that’s a challenge.) People can switch sessions by moving their names from one day or hour to another. They can sell their ice, too, if there’s a waiting list for the ice. I don’t know how the Ice Scheduler keeps track of it all. It seems like a chore.

The question for the day is: how does your club or rink handle switches and credits on contracted ice? Do you allow people to buy someone else’s ice? Is it a nightmare to keep track of or is it a breeze?

Please copy the following form into the comments, including the weird HTML stuff.

What country, region, state, city do you live in?

Does your club or rink allow switches?

What are your club’s/rink’s rules for switching?

Does your club/rink give ice credits?

What are the rules for ice credits? (medical note, limit on number, etc.)

Is there anything your club/rink does very well when it comes to the ice contract and scheduling?

What is your club’s/rink’s biggest obstacle when it comes to ice contracts and scheduling?

Other comments:

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Photo credits:
bless you: Robert S. Donovan on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Peace Love, Happiness?: StarMama / Victoria Williams on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Mosquito bite: dr_relling on Flickr.com Creative Commons

Momof2skaters

I actually don’t need all of your HTML because our policy is very simple! No credits period. You don’t use the ice, you’re out the money. No switches are even necessary. Why is that? You pay for a minimum of 10 sessions. Our blocks are 10 weeks, that gives you 1 session a week. You can buy more if you want. We don’t assign specific hours to each child. You show up during ice hours and sign in. That is then credited to your account. Most kids go on the same day, during the same hours but it’s not a requirement. I really like the way this works because if you have something that comes up, it’s not a big deal. Just go a different day.
Lynne

What country, region, state, city do you live in? New England Region

Does your club or rink allow switches? Yes

What are your club’s/rink’s rules for switching? If you have 4 or fewer contracted session, same day switches are allowed, if you have 5 or more contracted session, you are allowed 5 switches and unlimited same day switches.

Does your club/rink give ice credits? For injury or illness with a doctor’s note.

Is there anything your club/rink does very well when it comes to the ice contract and scheduling? Our club takes credit cards for ice time. You can charge both contract and walk-on ice, which I find convenient. I also really like the fact that we have enough ice so there are sessions designated as Open (Pre-Pre to Senior), High Level (Juvenile and above), Low Level (Pre-Juv and below including no test), Freestyle only, Moves only, Adult only.
http://icemom.net Ice Mom

See? That’s so smart. A club north of here does it kind of like that, Momof2skaters. They buy the session and have unlimited ice for one flat fee. Of course, that doesn’t take into account the lower-level skaters’ needs. They sort of finance the upper-level skaters’ ice, when you think about it. Anyway: no contracts, no headaches, hey?

Sounds good to me.
http://icemom.net Ice Mom

You take credit cards for ice time? That’s beautiful. I know that when we looked into it, the processing fee is something like 2.5% or so. That’s not much when you’re talking $10 (25 cents), but when you’re talking a $400 ice contract, that’s $10. Who will pay that? The credit card user? The club? It’s a loaded topic.
Thomahawkenator

If we sold ice like the club in the previous post we would have some angry parents. We have more skaters than we have room on the ice so it would be a free for all to see who go to the ice first and signed in.

When I was a new member at our club I was not aware that I could even switch so I just ate the ice. The hard part with switches is that who is going to update the book so we don’t sell out. We require a 24 notice. Sounds good in theory but that means the ice scheduler needs to be available and checking requests every day and all day. With fluid numbers someone needs to be handling the book at the rink each session and that’s unrealistic to ask of a volunteer. This does become a chore and what to do if someone doesn’t give you 24 hour notice but there is room to switch? I guess a contract is a contract…so you use it or loose it. Our club offers punch cards which are more expensive but then you don’t loose the money if you can’t make it…on the flip side your spot is not reserved so when we head into hockey season you risk not being able to skate the days you want.
Jozet at Halushki

I admit, we’re very lucky to live in an area with three rinks within about 15 miles of each other all with very generous freestyle times available (our rink alone has 7 1/2 hours of freestyle every weekday during the summer), and 7 rinks total within about 35 miles.

There’s lots of room for growth here, and I’m guessing that there is always the possibility in the future for scheduled ice. Right now, my daughter has had plenty of summer Fridays with a sheet of ice all to herself or one or two other skaters.
Jozet at Halushki

Whoops! Looks like my original comment disappeared.

Our rink sells ice like this, too (pay one price per month, skate as much as you want, when you want) but we have a lot of ice time and a lot of ice time that isn’t busy, especially in the morning.
Anonymous

I’m in central New Jersey. We buy ice time in 1/2 hour sessions that are good for 60 days. They are sold in blocks of 15, 30, 45. The more sessions you buy, the cheaper the 1/2 hour of ice becomes. We can use Credit Cards. The management at our rink will also extend your 60 day window if you make a polite request. I guess we have lots of open ice – there are several rinks nearby. Reading about everyone else on this site, I feel very lucky!
Anonymous

Our rink has a drop in rate, a punch card rate, or a flat rate. Drop in and punch card work the same, but punch card you can buy 20-50 sessions and you get a discount the more you buy. Flat rate is a better deal than punch if you skate more than 30 sessions in a month. Flat rate is purchased monthly and punch cards don’t expire. When you want to skate, you sign in the book. If there are 25 skaters on the ice and the book is filled for that session, you need to wait for the next session (or you sign in on the back of the page discreetly and get on the crowded ice!) That’s it. No credits needed, cause you don’t need to sign in unless you are stepping on the ice!
Erica Turner

I’m in the UK, and most rinks here seem to work on a pay-as-you-skate sort of system.

At my rink we pay £4 per session (regardless of session length, which can vary from 45 mins to over 4 hours depending on what else is scheduled).

It is quite a low level rink though, I guess. One or two peole working on triples, probably less than 20 on doubles. But there’s no limit on number of people on the ice, just turn up and skate, pay the head coach cash (who then pays the rink) and sign the book.
Mom

I’m a little late but wanted to add a comment because our club has a good system. We pay for our contracts through our club website using a credit card. Pre-registered/paid skaters get priority. Those skaters are in the book. Other skaters can buy-on at an extra cost or make-up subject to availability. We don’t allow more than 20 skaters on the ice. All makeups are coordinated through the volunteer rink monitor. As an example, if my daughter misses a Wednesday night because she is sick, she can come to another session and provided that there is room, she signs in and notes the day that she is making up. All make ups have to be completed within the same contract period, such as Summer. At the end of the contract, the rink monitor supervisor double-checks the notes but most parents and rink monitors are good about making sure the dates match. Our ice is expensive (over $13 per hour even for those who pre-pay) so I value the opportunity to not waste ice.