What does everyone pay in dues?

[kg4kpg]

The clubs I looked at around Dallas run an average of 75.00 per month. If you just want to fence that seems a bit high to me. For lessons and coaching time I have no problem with additional fees. Member fees just for floor time have gone up way to high over the years in my book. Keeps the average joe and lower income people from enjoying the sport or even discovering it to begin with.

[Zara_athlen]

The New Paltz fencing club (where I go) is free as long as you are a student/faculty/alumni or community member. We dont have a former olympian on staff but our coach is proficient at teaching fencing especially sabre (He got bronze medal in the empire state games for sabre)

Private lessons are only about 10-20 bucks which is also nice. Our equipment right now is horribly dilapidated but we are in the process of getting the cheap favero boxes with the new timings What bugs me out is that I have to been to tournaments at clubs which charge alot of money but really dont offer too much for the price being asked. If clubs are going to ask 60-75 bucks a month they better have some really good equipment (scoring/strip wise) and excellent coaching.

[fluidfencer]

I agree that $60-80 isn't cheap for many folks. Add in tournament and travel fees and it is even more. But two points:

You have to look at fencing fees relative to other sports as well. I have kids that swim and dance. Fencing is NOTHING compared to dance, and maybe similar to swimming. This assumes someone who is pretty serious about the sport. Start lacrosse and expect to pay $350 for equipment before you begin. Mountain biking? $3,500 for a used frame... and just the tubular frame.

Second point. If you are running a professional club, what is the likely composition of your members? Kids, of course. Parents in our community are always looking for activities that their kids will like. That's why the comparison above is important. If you don't have a competing club in your community, you sure as heck have competition from gymnastics, karate, soccer, tennis, etc. Our club is about 80% age 16 and under, with the great majority of those age 14 and under. Our beginning youth foil class has 24 kids and nearly all are age 9-11. That has to do with a LOT of hard work educating the general public, but more to do with kids and their parents finding us. We would LOVE more adults but it is hard to target market to them. We have specific plans to do something like the Peter Westbrook Foundation too, but need more time because it is such a big commitment. High school and college kids are almost impossible to get. They are just too busy, but we will keep trying.

As everyone has said, however, you first have to decide what type of club you want.

Originally Posted by Zara_athlen

***snip*** If clubs are going to ask 60-75 bucks a month they better have some really good equipment (scoring/strip wise) and excellent coaching.

[oso97]

Originally Posted by kg4kpg

The clubs I looked at around Dallas run an average of 75.00 per month. If you just want to fence that seems a bit high to me. For lessons and coaching time I have no problem with additional fees. Member fees just for floor time have gone up way to high over the years in my book. Keeps the average joe and lower income people from enjoying the sport or even discovering it to begin with.

GTFC isn't that far from you if you're in Little Elm, and the membership rate there is $45/month.

What weapon do you fence?

[Schiavona]

There's a reason (well, many reasons) why club prices are all over the map. Last year's USFA membership report listed something like 1400 club memberships. How many of these clubs will have a dedicated salle(space)? How many will have one or more professional coaches? The same membership report listed 500 coaching memberships(I think). The USFCA lists only 40 Masters in their membership rolls. This all tells me that most places don't have a Master to study under as some one suggested, or professional coaches. I believe most clubs in this country meet a few times a week and get by with people who give their fencing time to teach new people. Do these places do damage to fencing the way Achilleus said? Only in a perfect world where every town and city has one or more full time salles with good professional coaching. Guess what? This isn't a perfect world. We get by with what we have.