Thread: Argh!

I'm bummed. I posted a notice for a spring mini-class to fill the break between my normal session. The class (a special 4 week mini-series on ballet basics for bd-ers) was supposed to start tonight but when I only had 3 people signed up as of Tuesday, I cancelled the class & sent refunds. Turns out 3 more people showed up tonight to take the class. I would have run it with 6. I'm bummed out because if I had known they were planning to come...,m::,m::
Lesson learned:
1. Specify that students MUST pre-regsiter by such and such a date
2. Specify no-drop ins
3. Specify that students who missed the registration cut-off should contact me to ensure that there is room in the class.

How do others handle this?

4. deposit required to hold their spot.

and specify that the class WILL be cancelled if there are not enough pre-registrants by a certain date. That usually lights a fire under some people.

That's it! Must pay in advance...

yep, we gotta deposit to hold a spot in the class
i'm actually taking a similar workshop this sunday! what r the odds? hehe

Originally Posted by caasious

and specify that the class WILL be cancelled if there are not enough pre-registrants by a certain date. That usually lights a fire under some people.

This is what I add also.

thanks for the suggestions!

I do all of the above, and yet I still have people call me and say 'I'm at your studio for such-and-such class and no one is here, what's up?' *sigh* Well, if you'd REGISTERED for that class, I'd be there or I would have called you.

A significant penalty for late registration works best (a significant discount for early registration is a nicer way to do the same thing)

My bBeginner I classes are advertised as walk in friendly, but everything else is not. Any of my ongoing classes that are higher level require permission of the instructor to join, so I always know how many are coming for those.

I do focus classes (we focus on a particular movement or body part...this month is the shimmy and the next one will probably be veil work) and I ask that students pre-register. I still take walk ins though...cause I hate turning someone away when I have room. I just don't advertise that I do.

One way that I encourage pre-registration is by giving a discount. If you sign up for the class at least 1 week before its start then you get $10 off. It works pretty well. And don't just say 1 week prior...some people will try to say that they were thinking that Monday would be ok for a Saturday class. 5 days in a week versus 7 days...its a semantics thing. So if my class starts on the Saturday April 25th. I would set the discount cut off for Friday April 17th. Cause Fridays are good cut off days and I'm not at the studio on Saturday unless I have a special class going on.

I'm kind of a slacker with it at the same time...as long as they give me a firm commitment that they are going to show up, that's good enough for me. Because I'm not at the studio every day for someone to give me a check I don't feel like they should be penalized for not physically giving me a check before the deadline. As long as I know the next time they see me they've got a check for me, I'm good.

Its worked great...I usually know a week in advance roughly how many students I have showing up for a special topic class.

I only do sessions at community centers (studio classes are ongoing). If the class is close to hitting minimum, we'll go ahead and do the first night. If more people show up - great! If not, students are refunded on a pro-rated basis and I am paid for the one class.

Originally Posted by Andrea2

If the class is close to hitting minimum, we'll go ahead and do the first night. If more people show up - great! If not, students are refunded on a pro-rated basis and I am paid for the one class.

This is the norm for me as well. I have heart-attacks EVERY session because of low registration. However, on the first night, most often, students just show up out of nowhere. I once had a class with two people pre-registered and had 14 people just show up and register on the night of class. If I had cancelled the class, we would have lost out on all those students.

The most fun part is when I do cancel a class and students complain becuase they can't "drop-in". I consider dropping in a privilege and can't count it toward registration.

Makes me CRAZY. ,m:: How do I handle it? Uh...not well....heh heh....