It is to expensive

Its that time of the year again where Judo Clubs ask for membership fees and look at their pricing structure and of course prices will rise mainly because of external factors. Now the moaning starts you are too expensive, why should we pay that amount, you should not charge kids, who gets the money need I go on. I have singled out Judo mainly as the one Combat Discipline the public think should be offered free of charge or at a very low price. Most Judo clubs are run by well meaning amateurs who give up their time free of charge and they run their clubs on a shoe string with little no help or thanks from the parents and this is my point LOYALTY.
My own club is 50 years old this year and we are one of the more expensive NO that is not quite true we expect payment in a more business like manner i.e. monthly or by Standing Order this makes us look like we are expensive. Yet when my mother and father started the Young Judo Club member paid 3D (that’s an old 3 pence about 1p of today’s money) if a member pays by standing order they can be paying as little 84p making members pay this way guarantees an income and the club can plan for the future. Another reason we charge this way was because of an incident that happened many years ago, the club was going through a bad patch membership was down so we approached parents of ex Junior Judoka, only those youngsters who had a lot from the club i.e. won lots of medals, been taken to comps home and abroad which in most cases was subsidised by the club, those who had become an extended member of your family, we asked if they could help support the club in its hour of need? The reply was "what for we paid our fees" do you not want to see other children get the benefits yours had? Reply "that’s not my problem" and so on, so the majority of the public see Judo as just a commodity, a commodity they do not like paying for.
The above is not always the case many of our instructors are people who done Judo as a child and came back as an adult, they realise the benefits of Judo and how important it is in producing better human beings. So when you get that winging parents complaining about prices and how you as an instructor should be thankful their child comes, look down at the Childs feet see how much his designer trainers cost, ask them about their expensive holidays, big screen TV etc, etc and they moan about a few quid educating their child. Because it will be the instructor giving up his or her time to fund raise, give up his or her weekends for courses and competitions, be out two or three times a week need I say more and they will be doing it long after the whinger has left who most probably leave without even a Thankyou.
Remember charge to much you will called elitist do not charge enough and you devalue you and Judo