Company Fees, Forms & Finances
Being a member of a Competition Team or Company is not an easy commitment. It takes many hours of time and many dollars of money to fulfill this obligation. In most instances the commitment of time can be met by personal schedules being changed and family meals and events being adjusted to accommodate the demand. The financial cost element is quite a different aspect by far.
Before your members commit to the company they and their families are entitled to know and be informed as to what the general overview of expenses will be for the coming season. It is unfair as well as embarrassing for them to commit and then realize they cannot afford their part of the bargain and have to refuse the membership. It causes more problems than you want. In most cases the family must have fairly deep pockets to be comfortable with them being able to meet the financial ob-ligations set out before them. Even with Fund Raisers throughout the year, individual minimal outlay can well exceed $3500 on the average per dancer per year. When you as the Company Director make plans for the upcoming competition year, be sure to keep everyone's pocket book in mind...including yours.
Now let's Chat about some Fees that factor into this costly equation of Company Membership:
...SUMMER REQUIREMENTS: Included in this could be fees for Summer Camp, Master Classes, Workshops, Guest Choreographers, Choreography Fees & Audition Fees.
...REGISTRATION & MONTHLY CLASS FEES: These can range from a low of $75.00 per month to a high of $225 per month per dancer. Depending upon the number of weekly dance classes the members are required to take.
...CLASS UNIFORMS & SUPPLIES: These are the average fees for class supplies and shoes for the upcoming year. ...COMPETITION ENTRY FEES: These can range from $15.00 per dancer for a large group to $75 per Title Solo entry. Plus the nominal service charge added on by the Studio to cover all the office and accounting procedures. ...MUSIC & EDITING FEES: A nominal charge to cover the purchasing of all the CD's and/or Tapes you need to make for competitions, as well as the Staff hours to do the editing.
...REHEARSAL FEES: These are flat fees based on the number of routines each dancer chooses to be in. This covers the cost of Staff to rehearse the group routines, and if you are lucky (we are not) some of the cost of the Studio overhead as well.
...COMPETITION VIDEOS PURCHASED: If we chose to buy a full competition video for the Studio that year, we divide the cost of the video, which stays in the Studio archives, amongst the company. It comes out to be very nominal per person fee.
...COSTUMES, ACCESSORIES, and TRAVEL UNIFORMS: We shop till we drop in trying to find the best buys for fabrics & trim when making company costumes. But still when everything is added up, they are not cheap. We even implement some ready made components when they work out with the design. Each company member must have the Company Uniform, which we keep for several years, so it is a new expense only every 3-4 years. There are also Accessories such as earrings, necklaces and bracelets which are purchased and used for about 4 years as well. We try to keep all these one time outlays to a minimum as they come up in the beginning of the year when financial outlay is quite high for most families today.
...TRAVEL EXPENSES: If you are going out of town for 1 or 2 Regionals, this can add up quite quickly, especially with the price of gas and transportation these days. We as Teachers and Directors pay for all our own travel expenses.
...SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS: Most of us fail to include this in our cost analysis, but it must be in there. If you or other teachers travel with the Company on a weekend and you usually teach on Friday or Saturday...you must pay a teacher to replace you and/or the others. This is an expense that should be factored in when you are deciding what competitions to attend.
...NATIONAL COMPETITIONS: Last, but by no means least, we must chat about National events. We try to attend a National every other year. To keep costs down, we choose an in state one and then one that is out of state for the next year. Because we live in Florida, we do have many comps that hold their nationals here, so we are lucky. If you do not have that, then perhaps choose one that is closer and then opt for a farther one the next time. We try to plan longer trips, which would include the Competition as well as local workshop master classes, to New York or Las Vegas every 4 years. This year we are excited to have been invited to attend the Dance Excellence 15th Anniversary Festival in Los Angles in April as the representative from Florida. We are so excited to be honored for this, so fund raising has already started. It will cost about $1700 per person including meals, so therefore to help off set outlays, we are limiting the amount of our out of town regionals we will be attending this year.
There are several Forms that we use for our Company. Look them over and let me know what else you think would be great to include. We all want to know. YOU might have just the one we need to make our packet work better.
...COMPETITION PACKET: This packet is handed out at a Parents Meeting in early September. We go over each paper and entertain any questions from the parents as well. This way we can be sure that everyone is on the right page so to speak. This important packet includes the following Forms and General Information Sheets.
...COMPANY CONTRACT & AGREEMENT: The most important one to use. This project was discussed in detail in the September issue of Dancer. So please refer to that article for its detailed contents.
...MEDICAL RELEASE AFFADAVIT: Each year we have the parents sign this pre-printed form & have it notarized. Be sure you take it with you to every competition. It comes in handy when you have a dancer get injured and if the parent is not in attendance this form allows you to have medical attention provided for the student.
...COPY OF BIRTH CERTIFICATE: This written request is needed only one time for each member and can be kept from year to year. Also take it with you to each competition in case an age challenge is made by another competitor.
... REHEARSAL FEE SCHEDULE: This allows the parent to see exactly what it will cost to have their dancer in routines. The fee is set and it is discounted as the number of routines rise. Our fee averages out to be about $3.35 per hour of rehearsal per student per routine.
...COMPETITION DATE SCHEDULE: We give this out in the beginning of the year so individual plans can be made accordingly. We usually attend 4-5 mandatory comps each year, always choosing ones that include workshops when and if possible. We also list on there the optional ones our Solo dancers may attend if they want to.
...COMPETITION HINTS & GUIDELINES: This is a general list of the What's Why's Who's and How's of competition etiquette and life. It is a great help especially for the new members, but we include it in everyone's packet just to refresh their memory.
...ENTRY FORMS FOR EACH COMPETITION: These forms are ones that we design to serve our purpose and need for specific information to complete the official forms we receive from the Competitions. We print each form on different color paper and staple them together in order of Deadline Due Dates. The parent only needs to fill in the blanks, check off the routines their child is in and submit the signature form with the payment by the Deadline date. Easier said than done! Some parents are great at following rules while others are horrible. We have both.....and I think most other studios do as well.
I would like to share with you a few creative methods we have devised to help the procrastinators out. While not always considered to be fair...they do work...and that is what is most important in today's hectic paced society.
#1...We encourage those who "seem to forget" to turn in the forms and checks by the deadline date to do the following. They are asked to turn in all forms and checks before they leave the meeting that night. This way everything is filled out with the proper dates and there is no pressure for them to have to remember to turn them in on time. We hold the forms in our files and process them on the correct dates. This method provides us no hassle to have to hustle them for the forms! Many of our parents select this easy pre-pay method....some do not.
#2 - Those parents who opt not to do the pre-pay plan are expected to pay by the posted deadline date. Most succeed ... but others do unfortunately fail. IF they do not meet the requirements here is a pre posted pre set option for them to succeed with. We will ONLY make one courtesy phone call to remind them they missed yesterday's deadline. They MUST come into the studio with cash TODAY along with a 10% late fee charge of the total entry fee money due. If they do not have the cash, they can pay with a credit card but must increase the entry fee total by 6% which will cover the credit card finance charge. They must also include the 10% late fee. If they cannot respond that day, it is understood that the alternate will take their child's place in the routine for that competition. If this happens a second time, the Ensemble Committee has the right to remove the dancer from the routine and replace her with the alternate permanently. Although this might seem a bit harsh, we cannot jeopardize having our entry forms being late due a few irresponsible parents. It is not fair to those parents and students who meet the rules and deadlines each and every time. We want our parents to feel comfortable with meeting their Company responsibilities. With all these alternate pay plans, we feel we give our parents every opportunity to succeed in meeting the Deadline for Forms and Payments to be turned in. It has worked well for us for many years.
...PARENT & STUDENT SURVEY FORM: This is the last form that we include in the Competition Packet and we consider it to be part of our success in choosing events to attend the following year. We identify each competition we plan to attend and have a system of numbers from 1 to 5 for the Parents and Students to "grade" the comps we attend. This tells us if they liked the event and why or if there were problems and what were they. We ask that they turn them in no later than 10 days after each event, so if a problem needs to be addressed with the organizer, we can do so in a timely manner. We want our students and parents alike to be happy with the events we ask them to attend. We want and need their support.
The topic of finances is quite fickle. Because we have so many members from numerous different economic scopes within our company, we try to use the middle of the road in regards to finances. Although collecting money is never easy, I think the methods and plans that we offer, work quite well for our students and families.
During the Summer months all Company requirements can be paid by Check, Credit Card or Debit Card. In this way people do not feel pressured to have immediate access to money and have the chance for delayed payments. Once we reach the Fall Session, all payment methods can be used for class uniform supplies and tuition. We offer tuition payment plans that include Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly payments. If the later two are selected, there is a savings passed on to the parent.
By October 15th we ask for a $30 Company Costume Deposit for each routine, a $50 Deposit for a Company Uniform if they need one, and approximately $65 for stage make up and accessories. We limit the Company money due in the Fall as it is also the time our Recital Costume deposits and Balances are also due. So again...bad timing to ask for too much money and even worse around Holiday time. Let's face it...there is never a good time to ask for money! With the exception of Entry Fees being turned in at specified dates, the above fees are all the Company is required to pay until April of the Following year.
Except for one state competition every year, our competition season is basically completed by April 15th. After that time we must devote ourselves fully to our non company students and our Recital, who deserve our complete attention. Once April 15th comes, we distribute Ensemble Bills to all the company members that MUST be paid by April 25th. The parents have known about these bills since day one and therefore should be prepared to meet this responsibility. In essence, with the exception of the $30 deposit paid, our dancers have competed in costumes all year long that have been paid for by us. And they have been rehearsed and groomed to win without laying out any money for all those rehearsal hours until now. We have graciously underwritten these functions all year, thus allowing our parents to meet their other studio & company financial responsibilities. Now it is the studio's turn to be compensated.
These Ensemble Bills are synopses of all fees as well as credits that have accumulated over the past year. If a soloist or group wins money at a comp it appears on the bill as a credit. If a student perhaps did not pay enough for an entry fee it appears on there as a debit. This bill provides a full overview of all financial transactions that occurred involving the company member all year. If a parent raises a question or finds a discrepancy, all ledger cards, entry forms and computer postings are available to back up all the figures. Although it financially straps us quite a bit for a few months, it is much easier bookkeeping for us to have everything on one bill instead of piece meal and bit by bit. We find it to be a more accurate way of keeping records.
Because our Parents are very familiar with the Ensemble Bill they will receive at the end of the year, many of them choose to "bank money each month" starting in September to be credited on their bill in April. When the parent signs their Ensemble Contract in early Fall, they indicate on there if they want to pay an additional amount of money each month over and above their set tuition. These funds will be used towards payment of their Ensemble Bill in April. The majority of the parents pay an additional $50 to $70 monthly. In this way they have "banked" either $450 or $630 by the end of the year to be shown as a credit on their bill. This makes it easier for them to meet the high balance due on their Company account. It also enables the studio to have use of these funds each month to help offset our tremendous outlay all year. Don't let this banking plan sound too confusing...it really is simple and works out great. This banking courtesy is extended to Company members only.
Over the past 20 years we have used a fail safe method to be sure that all studio accounts, Company and non company alike, are paid in full by the end of the studio year. First of all we do not accept checks after April 30th which is about 4 weeks prior to our Recital. Unfortunately through past bad experiences, we find that end of the year payments made by check have a great tendency to bounce and bounce big. Collecting on these bad checks can really cause headaches, thus we do not accept them. Secondly, May tuition, which is our last month to be paid, is due and payable by April 23rd. Thirdly, we do not release any recital costumes for studio photo sessions until all accounts are paid in full. All of these policies are well known and are included in writing in our Registration Agreement. So again, the parents have known about these "end of the year payment policies" since August when the Studio opened.
My goal has always been to keep fees as low as possible along with a finance method that is easy to pay. We really work hard to keep everything at the lowest possible cost. In some instances when we have full control we can do just that. But, in reality, in other areas where we do not have control, we cannot maintain the lowest possible costs. Sometimes my goal wish works...other times not. What goals do you have? What wishes work for you? How do the required fees above compare with what your company dancers pay? What forms do you use to expedite your paperwork and information? What payment methods work best for you and your studio pocketbook? There are so many questions and answers to be shared. Let's all chat to hopefully help solve some company dilemmas we all seem to have. Contact me at danceun@aol.com and your information will go in our Readers Comments and Suggestions column in the Spring. I look forward to hearing from you soon!