Losing members?

[JPBlacksmiths]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

We've never had a drop that severe, but there's always some. We've found that the higher you set the expectations in the fall, the fewer you lose at the first of the year. This fall, we met Mondays and Thursdays for 2-1/2 hours and alternate Saturdays for 6 hours. Come build season, we'll add Tuesdays and go to every Saturday. The sessions will also get longer, especially around the middle of the build. We met a similar amount last fall, and had less than 20% dropout during build season, and a larger percentage "step up" their commitment beyond the expected minimums.

Maybe you doing that alternate saturday is the key. We meet monday and friday for 2 1/2 hours, but come build season we meet every single day and the meetings go until we finish what we were doing that day, or until we get to a point were we can pick up where we left off the next day.

[Cuog]

Originally Posted by JPBlacksmiths

come build season we meet every single day and the meetings go until we finish what we were doing that day, or until we get to a point were we can pick up where we left off the next day.

I think this irregularity can be a big cause of your drop in students. Many parents cannot/will not put up with such short notice on transportation and will give their kids a lot of greif about attending meetings, or may just decide for them they will not be going.

I've found on our team when we started setting more solid schedules we had a lot more consistent student turnouts(we do still sometimes meet past the end time, but its a lot less).

[JPBlacksmiths]

Originally Posted by Cuog

I think this irregularity can be a big cause of your drop in students. Many parents cannot/will not put up with such short notice on transportation and will give their kids a lot of greif about attending meetings, or may just decide for them they will not be going.

I've found on our team when we started setting more solid schedules we had a lot more consistent student turnouts(we do still sometimes meet past the end time, but its a lot less).

Thank you I think this is a very valid point. I certainly understand how this is difficult, having the irregular schedule