Guest Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Hi all This is to do with school club. A committee member deals with the bookings done on a monthly basis. At start of month booking form for following month goes out with a deadline of 2 weeks later. We have been having numerous parents not getting their forms in on time. They do risk losing their place but have now got into the habit of going into club with late forms. This means the manager then has to spend time looking to see if there are places available etc . We did offer the ad hoc faciility to help parents out for odd sessions not for trying to fit a child in 4 or 5 sessions per week! This takes a great deal of time for manager to sort out. She either has to come out of ratio (a bug bear of mine) or we have to pay her extra to do. I did it last week and it took me over an hour to sort out 4 late forms. Then when you refuse sessions due to being full the cheques and payments are all wrong and need doing again. Any ideas how to stop this? Do we just stop taking bookings after deadline and not offer ad hoc,fine parents??? How do you do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 I am just about to set up an after school club so always find you interesting (if a bit scary!) I can only think that you make it dearer to book later. That might not stop them but will at least help with the finances. Jane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Hi Jane What me personally or the siuations I always find myself in I do like to be super organised so always seem to make more work for myself. It would be really great though to turn this school club around. Just last night at a village function i had a parent ask me if i was working there now as the place needs some maturity!!!! Unfortunately had to say that i was only covering for the fact that we didnt have a manager. Darent tell her the new manager is 20yrs old but did tell her that ladies my age (42) tend to have youngish children and dont want the odd hours of school club. Best of luck with your new venture. I have learnt alot from the others on here and being able to discuss things is a great help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 I have stuck to the deadlines in the past (one chance to be late, with a reminder that places may not be available on late bookings). It tends to only happen once that the place can't be met and they are consistently on time in the future - they can't argue because they knew the rules ( hasn't stopped them venting though!) I think when you stretch the rules the lines become blurred and it continues-much like managing childrens difficult behaviour lol! Hope you get it sorted cos the job is busy enough without the extra workload Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 I agree with Jane (about making it more expensive to book later than to book before the deadline, not about your being scary!). If parents have come to rely on the fact that they don't have to stick to the deadlines they will inevitably put that particular job on the bottom of their 'to do' list. If they know it is going to cost them an extra fiver per session for the privilege then maybe they'll think twice and you'll all be saved the last minute hassle. If you can't face doing that, then I'd say strictly adhering to the deadline for a couple of weeks would soon cure the problem! Good luck! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 we used to charge more for those late booked sessions and add hoc ones... booked on time /in advance was one price then booked after a given date a different one.. and if you want could add a third price if not booked by xxx. i used to have a sheet which allowed me to see all regular bookings and if there were any sessions free for any given day so it was fast to see if places were available... it was easy to do days of week across the top and enough lines / boxes under each day for the children per session when anyone booked days the child's name was put in for each day booked ... this allowed a really quick overview of numbers per day and any empty spaces.. i could then see at a really quick glance where I had room, where I was full, and when parents came late I made them join me in checking the days.. in this way we had facility for parents to book occasional spaces if we had them... or emergency spaces if needed.. I introduced this so anyone could see what spaces we had free and we could not end up with overbooking... I had a copy, person who did bills had one and as you have a committee member doing it she should have one all given an updated one when there are any changes.. will see if I can find one on old files... not looked at them for a while.. and email a copy- but the idea is simple to replicate and can save a lot of time.. Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Sorry didn't mean personally scary, just all the problems! Jane xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Sorry didn't mean personally scary, just all the problems! We all knew that Jane! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jenpercy Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Do you mean that no one has a regular booking?. we take bookings on the basis of a regular slot id yours until you give us a month's notice of cancellation (or permanet swapping of days. this leaves us with relatively few parents who want different days because of shift work ect, or extra bookings. for the shift workers, we don't accept any boookings further ahead than one month, even if they know their shifts further than that, as we need to be able to give preference to parents booking a permanent day. We do however tell shift workers that if anyone asks for a booking that would mean a particular day would no longer be available to thwem, we would give them first refusal. Hope that's clear. In practice, we would love to be full enough to turn bookings away!!!!! We also use a spreadshet - particularly useful as we collect from 6 different schools and also have children arriving with parents or by taxi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Hi all Yes we have people who book regular days but the way it works is that even these have to book in for the month.Hmmmm that has given me room for thought there Jen. Perhaps we could do as it you do Thinking more about that way would mean you do not have to keep booking in. Going to see what others say about this! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jenpercy Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 This means that we charge people evn for holidays that they take in term time as our argument is that we keep the place open. however, there is nothing to stop you taking them off for a week for hols if you want Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jenpercy Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 forgot to say that yo could also increase fees with a discount (to the current level to anyone who has a regular booking, or books befoer a certain time - this is easier to get than a"fine" for late booking!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 (edited) Hi Just started a new thread concerned with shift workers Thanks Edited November 1, 2010 by marley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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