To not pay subs?

Here you go @PunkApple, you an hour ago saying you haven’t paid yet. Yet I’m ridiculous for saying you haven’t paid? You sound like hard work.

Are you being serious? Your question in your OP was literally ‘should I pay’.

I absolutely agree with you that if someone feels it’s not being run well or working for them then they should vote with their feet (or volunteer and try to improve it). I disagree with someone staying in something that they feel isn’t being run well by volunteers and then asking for a discount on minimal, much needed subs.

YABVVVU not to pay.
If you can't help out at a meeting then you can do admin, shopping, booking outings, collecting in forms.
You might find there are more sessions run.
Most of your subs go towards rent and the central organisation. You would pay the same if there were no sessions.
Outings could be at the weekend when you might have childcare, also, so you could volunteer to run them.

And her daughter loves it! Isn’t that more important than having something to show?

"It's run by volunteers" does not equate to “yeah sure, you can pay for stuff even though the service is really sub standard”.

However, "it's run by volunteers" equates to "you accept how it's run and pay your dues or, if you don't like it, you withdraw your child from the club and don't pay for future sessions". You don't just not pay while continuing to attend or insist on a reduction from a fee that goes nowhere near the cost of running these sessions professionally. If it was run professionally, you could argue a reduction for missed sessions but you would also have to pay for sessions attended.

And yes, there are good and bad volunteers. I simply didn't send my dc to clubs/sessions run by bad volunteers.

i saw that in the comments. She has also assumed they need no help, despite it being clear they do. And also that her daughter doesn’t have “much to show’ for her £25 a term. That £25 will barely cover costs, and this kind of attitude is why fewer and fewer people want to make a weekly commitment to run a group. If you only knew how many additional hours of planning / organising and admin goes on just to get that hour/ hour and a half a week.

She did offer.

How does “it’s run by volunteers” always equate to “yeah sure, you can pay for stuff even though the service is really sub standard”

We took our daughter out of Rainbows for this reason. The leader was really flaky and always cancelled at last minute, or just didn’t turn up. The volunteers who ran it with her eventually had the same vibe as she did. When our daughter joined brownies, it was entirely different. There were always more than enough volunteers to cover illness etc and the troop was run incredibly well. Guides started ok, but eventually descended in to a bunch of tweens/young teens running about yelling at each other.

There are good and bad volunteer leaders. The fact that someone has volunteered is not in and of itself a reason to pat them on the back and let them do whatever they want. It reflects really badly on the organisation.

Yes you would. The costs include subs to girl guiding / scouting (I am guessing) insurance and the hall, First aid courses, badges, books, which are payable regardless. It’s usually the cheapest club children do. I volunteer myself and it’s a huge commitment to do it every week, even when you are poorly.
Maybe you could volunteer to help so there is more consistency. If there are only 2 of them and one is ill, they will have to cancel.
if you aren’t happy, there is usually a massive waiting list.

Sounds like they need more volunteers so I would offer if I was able to (was a scout leader and loved it).

Oh and asking publicly for a discount will have come across as rude and troublemaking

Just pay the subs

Sometimes life happens and volunteers just simply can't make it.

Assuming Guides/Scouts - most of the girls don't think twice about missing a session here for a holiday and another there for a birthday etc

The subs will be being used for Rent, badges, equipment, Annual Subs, training, leaders to be able to attend events with girls, activities etc

I do understand that it can feel frustrating when sessions have been missed but, as someone who volunteers with various school and scouting activities, there’s honestly nothing more frustrating than having to chase the people who are doing the bare minimum in the first place. This also applies to people working their socks off being complained to by the people who never get involved with helping. As you’ve already highlighted, people will be giving up their time behind the scenes to help run this activity (and please don’t think for a second that they’re not also juggling work and children - it’s ALWAYS the busy people who volunteer) and all you have to do is pay a minimal donation. I appreciate that you signed something to offer help - get back in contact and ask, specifically, what you can do to help keep the activity going. And please don’t try and ‘make a point’ in the WhatsApp group.

Assuming its scouts or guides you were very cheeky asking for a discount on £25. You realise its totally demoralising for volunteers. No one wants to cancel. You basically kicked them in the teeth

This attitude is exactly why it is so hard to get volunteers for anything.

I used to run a sporting activity. There were always people whinging about various things like we didn't notify their kids' school, which was well out of catchment, about the activity and it wasn't fair they were too late to sign up and we should make an exception, or they didn't want to follow various rules that are imposed at national level or the cost was too high etc etc. Or they were busy so they didn't see the problem in collecting late or they should get a reduction as they missed a session etc etc.

My approach was to say they obviously felt strongly and it would be wonderful to have them on board as a volunteer and would they like to give me their details to arrange training.

Funnily enough, they weren't interested in volunteering, just complaining.

Yes, I know the op said she would volunteer but really, it's a totally thankless job and the whinging parents make it utterly soul destroying at times. If you want a club that is run professionally, you need to pay professionals to run it. Volunteers have lives which unfortunately get in the way at times.

How many terms have you not paid? £25 a term sounds pretty cheap per session, it’s run by volunteers and will have costs even if they can’t give up their time for other people every single week. Pay the subs and complain/offer help separately. Maybe they’d have more motivation to show up if people paid subs on time and didn’t create more work by requiring chasing

£25 a term is cheap.
A term is like 10 to 13 weeks? Works out less than £2.50 a session
Totally unreasonable asking for a discount.

Is it rainbows/brownies? If it is, you would be unreasonable to keep your daughter in but not pay. I run a rainbows group and the annual census charge now takes up 45% of annual subs paid for each child and that needs to be paid regardless of how many sessions take place.

That's not to say that it's okay to cancel so many sessions because it isn't and their commissioner (assuming it's Girlguiding) absolutely should be seeing this as a problem and helping to solve it. I've cancelled one session this academic year when two separate mishaps meant that neither set of hall keys was available for our use. I would not consider it acceptable to cancel 8 sessions over 2 terms and would expect parents to vote with their feet.

I think you will just have to suck it up and pay if you want to continue. But I don't blame you for moaning about it.

I think you should have asked the question privately.

Anyway, the rest of my post still stands, just ask them what the plan is moving forward.

Hugely unreasonable to not pay subs! £25 a term is virtually nothing - hall hire in most places is about £15-20 per hour, so unless there's 100s of kids attending, the volunteers will be doing lots with very little money, the time spent chasing parents for missing money is a huge strain on volunteers anyway, let alone when they've been ill enough to cancel sessions. It's clearly overdue by the message.

I'm assuming this is Guiding/Scouting. Perfectly reasonable for unpaid volunteers to cancel sessions, particularly with notice, for them to be on holiday, or for medical reasons. If there were more volunteers who were willing to do the leadership, first aid and safeguarding trainings, then they likely wouldn't have been cancelled. I understand it can be a bit frustrating, but realistically, you're paying so little for these clubs to run anyway. As other have said, main costs are fees paid to Girlguiding/Scouting, and hall hire, the money for the material at the session is minimal, and several weeks would be literally nothing.

You could email and say 'Thanks so much for running such a wonderful programme. DD was disappointed when the last session was cancelled. I hope you're feeling better now. I'm willing to volunteer to help organise/run sessions in future, including doing some training as needed so I can be on standby to help out if you're ill again.' If you're willing and able, which I'm sure would be a big help.