We've been making lots of changes to our program over the past year based on parent feedback. One of the complaints we hear frequently is that registration is a huge hassle. Guess what? We hate registration too! We'd much rather be playing with the tots on the field but the paperwork still has to be done... We took one step earlier this year by introducing Priority Registration. Our next step is to increase the length of each session from 7 weeks to 8 or 9 weeks (depending on the season) which will reduce the number of registration periods each year. This will be most helpful for those who sign up for each session and grow through our different age group classes.
As part of this change, we are overhauling our pricing structure. This gives us an opportunity to provide reduced costs for weekday sessions and discounts to our most enthusiastic supporters - the parents & tots who sign up each season and our SoccerTots families who bring all the kids out to play. There will be new discounts for Concurrent Session Early Sign Up (that's a mouthful) or a Sibling Sign-up. Here's how they'll work:
Early Sign Up: The current priority registration period will remain, allowing people registered in the current session to register early for the upcoming session. If you register during the priority registration period, there will be a $15 discount built into the price.
Sibling Sign-up: For parents signing up multiple children, the second tot will receive a $25 discount. Our registration system can't automatically handle this discount so we ask that you put in the notes section the Sibling's name and class. We will process the discount as a partial refund which requires you to check the box to save your card information in the payment section (not to worry, its encrypted and even we can't see the numbers!). Some fine print: only one of the discounts can be used for the same registration(s).
Also, we're happy to announce that Liz has been working hard to find a new supplier for our soccer gear and we have found a great partner with Sports Basement. For our SoccerTots community, that means reduced prices for our gear packages and also a 10% discount on all your own purchases from Sports Basement!
It wasn't easy to come up with a new pricing structure. Trishan made a big spreadsheet with lots of formulas to crunch all the permutations of the new and old pricing for various combinations of days of the week, number of children, class fees, gear packages, phases of the moon, and average rainfall by session... well, maybe not all those things, but it was a lot! The bottom line is that after prorating for the extra week, in almost every situation prices will decrease. We think providing lower costs combined with reducing the number of registration periods each year and playing more soccer is another positive change for our program - we hope you agree!
The next two sessions (upcoming Fall session & next year's Winter session) will both be 8 week sessions. As always, feel free to contact us with any comments.