Thread: Class Amalgemation...feeling the blues??

Economy and the times, plus some other little factors have left me with three intermediate classes open, every one of them now rattling around half empty.

Common sense and all logic says it is time to combine a couple of them and shuffle my weekly class line up around. Benifit to me [less time, more $ per hour spent etc] aside, I have always felt it is better for the students when they aren't in a measly grouping and there are actually a few others to bounce off of and draw energy from.

It should just be a logistic thing, shouldn't it? Yet for some reason I am ultra glum, and keep provaricating actually doing it.

I worry, naturally, about inconveniencing people who are used to times, etc...especially one very loyal student who would get both her class times mussed up [which makes me feel awful]...but at the same time can't really limp on with so few people in some of the time slots, or I am going to end up subsidising them being there. Which I can't do.

Any advice on the smoothest ways to do so? Anyone out there with a good clue as to why I have decided to mountain this molehill issue,because I seem to be doing it very well? Any one want to comiserate or slap me?

Anywho...just whining really. But it is sad...one would be the first time slot I ever opened when I started the studio, but it has got awkward for everyone recently.

One thing might help - telling them you may have to raise rates to defer the studio space.

And what about handing out a survey to ask them what days/times would suit them best? [or location, if you'd need to change that too].

Talk it over with your students in the classes you wish to close down. You will be surprised on how they would be willing to move to another time and day slot. We had it happen at my last studio I trained in. It was not a problem since teacher gave us the options of other times and days so we could pick and choose which class time work work for each of us. We lost our classes group in one sense but made new friends in the other classes. No one stopped classes so it all worked out. Since you want to reduce 3 down to one or two ask what would be best. It will not hurt but might be more helpfull than you know.

There is no sense haveing classes with just a couple of students when it is not meant to be that type of class. You are undercutting yourself. Reducing the amount of classes and times will give you more free time and make classes bigger. When you need to add more due to too many in a class then you can open a new one.

As a student who just went through this, let me ask you to do ONE thing:

Give them some warning!

Our classes were combined with no warning whatsoever, just after we'd all paid for our semesters. Suddenly we had a new time, a bigger class, and our teacher asked us for more money. It was really stressful and frustrating.

Try to announce it with some time to spare and time it for in between sessions or something. We did lose a couple people who just couldn't make the new class time.

Good luck!

I would say you need to explain it to them straight up and see what you can all come up with together. Higher level classes are always the most expensive classes for you. More work, fewer students. But also very rewarding.

Several years ago my teacher had to cancel our highest level class for quite a long time. She explained it straight up. Her daughter was a teen, at a tricky age, and she felt it was important that she had one evening a week that was family time. Our night was the one that made the most sense as we didn't really bring her much income. We were understanding about it and just scattered ourselves back into the lower level classes. Eventually the class was resumed.

Everybody knows times are tough and it makes total economic sense to merge classes.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I have been chatting it over with them all gradually for a month or so, so no sudden suprises- I feel your pain, TigerB, that just wasn't on!

I am very 'lucky' that 2 of the classes actually back-to-back each other [1830, 1930] so I think what I am going to do is combine them in to a 1900 timeslot, so it is only a 30 min issue either way for them. It seems like that will work for most of them.

The other is the slot that is proving problematic for a lot of them anyway, so hopefully they will find a better time for them out of the others.

Thanks :)