I've been asked to run a judo club at a community recreation center and I'm getting all my "ducks in a row." I've registered the club with USJA, which will provide liability insurance once we become a "chartered club" with five USJA members. Right now, we have two: myself and my son. The city requires me to have liability insurance to begin having practices. This creates a "Catch-22" of sorts. We need to have practices to attract members, but we can't hold practices until we have the insurance.
Our target clientele is at-risk youth in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood, so the expense of joining USJA and purchasing a gi is more than most of the prospective students and their families can afford. I figured the first students would register around the first time the did grading for rank advancement, to register their rank. Once we get rolling, I figured we could do some club fund-raisers to get association memberships for everyone.
I've requested quotes from several insurance companies and it's fairly expensive compared to the USJA's. I heard that AAU in the USA also has some kind of insurance for coaches and instructors, so I've written to them for info.
What do the other instructors here in the forum use? Do any of you have recommendations? Are there any companies to avoid? Thanks in advance for your suggestions, experience, and wisdom!
After doing all the checking, I chartered the club with AAU for insurance purposes. I ended up paying $150.00 for a Class 2. You can check their website and print out insurance details...pretty cheap for everything they offer. Cost for the year for individual kids (up to 20 yoa)is $16.00-$19.00 a year depending on whether they get extended coverage or not. $29.00 a year for adults. They have options available for non-athletes (coaches only) as well. So far, it has been a really good option for us.
I started out with literally 2 kids last May. I now have about 35 registered in the kids class. Usually there are about 20-25 that are in any one class. I have about 10-12 regular adults.
As far as the USJA goes, they have been pretty decent to me. I went through the validation process and testing last summer (so I guess I am now a "real" black belt rather than just a club rank) and am now a registered life member so I don't want you to think I am discouraging you from going that route... However, the cost of individual memberships, JA promotions, etc have proven to be a problem. During meetings, very few members (less than the required 5) have expressed any interest in joining the USJA, citing cost as the main factor. We are now in the process of selecting a board and applying/registering as a non-profit organization. Once that registration is approved and fundraising can be done properly, we may reevaluate and look at joining the JA.
For me personally, I would rather have the club operating the way it is and have the participation up rather than lose students/families because of the cost of being "official."
Thanks for the reply and the info. Your situation does sound very much like ours. The AAU route sounds like it might be the way to go at first. I sent them an e-mail Saturday. Hopefully I'll hear back from them with details on how to proceed.
I also appreciate the private replies from forum members, too.
I just wanted to say thanks one more time. I was able to get the insurance through AAU and get everything squared away with the city. We'll be enrolling students and starting next week. By the way, we set up a new web site for the club on a free web hosting site. Take a look and see what you think.
I appreciate the suggestions everyone made!
Good to hear. Hopefully your club gets going and you have a thriving program for those kids.