To not pay subs?

[PunkApple]

Less of a AIBU and more of a WIBU..
My daughter attends a local club, volunteers run the sessions but we pay termly to cover costs (hall hire, craft materials etc). She's been attending since September last year and really enjoys it.
Now since Easter the people running the club have been very inconsistent, cancelling due to their holidays (2 weeks before Easter hols, and another 2 weeks of holiday last month) there's also been one week (last week) cancelled due to illness and another week previously cancelled due to 'appointments'. To put it bluntly this term she's missed 3 sessions and the term before 4 sessions. Next week will also be the last session as the end of term party which was planned has mysteriously disappeared from the planning too. To total it, thats 8 weeks in two terms that haven't gone ahead. Which is effectively a whole term's worth of cancelled sessions!
A message in the groupchat appeared this morning asking those parents who haven't paid subs to pay them this week, I asked wether it will be a discounted rate due to the amount of missed sessions lately but was told no as its the same cost every term and averaged accross the whole year. This covers materials, rent etc which I do understand to an extent.
AIBU to be a bit annoyed? WIBU to make more of a point about it? Or shall I just pay and shut up as my daughter enjoys the club and the volunteers are giving up their time..?

I think while it's annoying that it's been cancelled so much, as it's run by volunteers, there's not a lot really you can say.

Personally I'd be trying to steer dd away if they are so flaky.

You’re not unreasonable to feel frustrated but unless you want to volunteer or risk the activity being wound up altogether because the volunteers decide that people are ungrateful, then I think you’d be wise to keep your feelings to yourself and pay up.

How much are the subs?

I think you take it as it is (a non-professional organisation run by volunteers) and make a judgement if it's worth it, based on an expectation that weeks will be missed etc. If yes, keep paying, if no, go elsewhere. Don't complain or expect it to change (unless you want to start volunteering!)

It's £25 a term, so not massively expensive but I can't say daughter has done much to show for that recently. I do understand I jeopardise ruining everybody's fun by making a point and I know people are giving up their time. Daughter would be upset if it was stopped altogether so think I'll just have to grumble quietly but pay it.

Or volunteer going forward? And extra volunteer might mean they don’t need to cancel so often.

Tell them you’ll pay at the end of term based on the number of sessions that actually went ahead.

I did fill out a form when she started the club saying I didn't mind helping out to run sessions (although with a 2 and 3 year old at home, dinner to cook, bathtime to sort etc, it couldn't be every week) but I've never been asked or invited to help with events so I assumed they didn't need anybody extra? Maybe I'll remind them the next time I drop her off.

Obviously no idea what your club is but to put it into perspective for our Scout group...

Subs... £120
Capitation... (payment to HQs covering insurance, training etc)... £65
Then we have stuff like the Hut insurance, the electricity bill, the water bill...the council tax... another big chunk gone.
The badges add up...

The actual money we get to run a session for equipment etc? Just a few pounds a term. That's for craft stuff, for ingredients, and replacement sports equipment....

Most if put money is from fundraising, not the Subs.

Our subs are £17 a month, 12 months a year and as a leader I het £0 pay and £0.30 a child per session budget to buy all resources. The rest goes to fixed costs like capitulation and rent. I suggest you step up and help in any way you can (there is thousands of hours of work done behind the scenes) before you start kicking off about the excellent value activity your daughter enjoys and people give up their free time to deliver.

If it’s volunteer led / not-for-profit I’d pay it. I pay DC subs monthly even the month they have off over the summer.

You should pay them and actually you should have paid them promptly rather than waiting until nearly the end of term and the leaders having to send out a reminder in the group chat which means several people haven't paid and that isn't fair to the group leaders.

If you're not happy about them cancelling you should bring that up with them politely and not in the group chat in the way you did and ask what will be happening going forward, again offering to volunteer if you feel you can because that might help them.

Or if you're still not happy remove your DD from the group.

i understand they have costs, my complaint isn't about what the sessions cost necessarily. I've always paid them and agreed when I signed her up just that at the moment I'm paying for very little actual session time.

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.

The reason they haven't been paid is due to the missed sessions, nobody has paid 'late' the leaders understand this as I'm not the only parent who hasn't paid yet. Did you see the message in the chat? I was perfectly polite and simply asked a question.

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.

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.

thank you, as said above I'm happy to help and left my details with them but haven't been asked or invited to help with anything. Will remind them that I'm willing to help out. My daughter does really enjoy the group so I do appreciate the work they do.
Some posters have wrongly assumed I've been rude towards the leaders or have been deliberately avoiding paying subs until now which isn't true in the slightest. I'm doing what I can to keep the relationship a good one between us, because I don't want my daughter to miss out on doing something she enjoys.

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.

£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.

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

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.

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

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.

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