Lost: One Salle

[Jeeves]

Sadly, We have lost our Salle. We had use of a very wonderful Karate Dojo, and had what we felt was a good working relationship with them. We even had some students taking lessons in both.
The floor space is carpeted and we took great pains to use carpeted "runners" over the regular carpet as pistes. The issue seems to be that we wear shoes and they don't.
So... Now we have 15 people who have an addiction to fencing and no place to fence.
Serious fencing withdrawl happening all over town! While we desperately search for a new venue, we have started to travel about an hour each way to Neevel's salle in Milwaukee.
Excuse my venting, but I really need to wack somebody with a sabre. Heck at this point I'd even settle for poking at someone with a foil. I guess I'm a pavlov dog. I need to hear a score box beep. The sound of a microwave oven timer has me reaching for my equipment bag.

[DamedEscrime]

My sympathies to you guys. Did you try the local schools, Y, or churches that have gyms?
Some might even let you use the space for free if one of your members is also a member of the other establishment.
Good luck.

[veeco]

Time to roll up your sleeves and try and secure some space.

Weren't last year's NCAA fencing nationals in your town? If so, there should be for sure a university there which has some sort of a fencing program. Why not start a fencing club there that could train with the students of the university? You could give whatever benefits you make to the university and help fund the students. Every one's happy, because the university makes money and you can fence.

[Jeeves]

Veeco,
Been there, done that...
This is week two of our continuing desparate search for a new venue. We have Dr.s, Lawyers, and others making calls and asking about.
As for U.W. Parkside and last springs NCAA finals. Well what can I say. Most of us who form the dipslaced Salle are former U.W Parkside's team fencers from the early 70's to 80's. We all worked as volunteers at the NCAA finals this spring. We approached Parkside about returning fencing to the college at that time and a couple of times since. U.W. Parkside's position is that while it wanted to showcase it's new multi-million dollar sports complex to the NCAA. The university had NO DESIRE to bring fencing back at any level. I got the impression the sport is viewed as a money drain to them.
We will keep looking, but with winter approaching, I don't think we can even fence out in a parking lot much longer. Fencing loses it's appeal when you have to shovel snow off the piste. (Just kidding, I hope.)

[foodle]

Two words: tennis courts

It's hell on the shoes though ...

[BarryTice]

We got lucky in Birmingham (Alabama). A local entrepreneur purchased a defunct ice skating rink and turned it into the Birmingham Volleyball Club. Our schedule meshes with their schedule, so it's now home to the Birmingham Fencing Club, too.

It's the perfect fit -- high ceilings, good floors, open spaces. Sadly, the air conditioning left with the skaters. But it still beats fencing outside in an Alabama summer.

Before that, we used the gym at the church where several of our members belong. Also, for our tournaments, we rent the gym from a local elementary school. (The volleyball club isn't willing to move out for an entire weekend.) If you can find a principal/school board member who sympathizes, it might end up costing the club $50 a week or so, but that's less than $5 per head for a dozen people. I know the schools here are happy to have any extra money we can throw their way through such events.

Good luck -- b.r.t.

[Gav]

I sympathise jeeves. A couple of clubs here in Edinburgh have been destroyed by this. I actually have the opposite problem. I want my club to move [preferably to better accomodation] as the place we are is awful. They don't support us, they won't buy new equipment, they've stoppped letting beginners borrow equipment. In short they are a*******s.

[MikeHarm]

One of the clubs I'm at is in a gym, it works pretty well.

Mike

[ 10-07-2001: Message edited by: MikeHarm ]

[Catlady]

My club got a building--or rather a space in a mall--all to itself about the time I started with them. Previous to that, they held class at a local high school in either one of the gyms, or the dance room,-- I don't know which, but I can guess as I happen to be an alumni of that high school despite not knowing they were there until after I had graduated. They were part of a community ed. program through the local university (of Utah, if you're curious), meaning that it wasn't a class for credit, or anything,--we still work with them and are still not for credit btw--, but they were nominally supported and advertised by the university. You might look into a relationship like this. Your local university doesn't sound too cooperative, but their might be other organizations that offer class for the community who might help you. Possibly, you could use space at a local church or something, or maybe at some kind of community center e.g. the JCC or YMCA. If you're feeling especially adventurous, have sufficient equipment of your own--and are some what financially stable--you could do what SLF finally did and rent space in a mall. It's been kind of a hard road and we have occasional landlord problems--hopefully resolved now BTW--but we've been there for three years and it looks like we'll be around for quite a while. Eventually, if our luck holds we want to rent a larger space.

I hope you find somewhere to fence soon as forced disarmament stinks.