Out-of-club testing: permission forms and fees

[jjane45]

More survey questions!!   Researching rinks and clubs, I noticed there is a huge jump in fees going from midwest to west coast.

My home club charges $15 for out-of-club testing. The club I test at later this week does not charge this fee if skater's club is part of the skating council of Illinois, $20 otherwise (which I think is the standard fee here). Then I looked at the LA area clubs. Oooops, out-of-club fees range from $40 to $60! I do not know if the availability of tests / clubs / rinks are a factor here. Chicago and LA both have a lot of rinks in my opinion. What is the out-of-club fee like in your area?

Also for permission forms... Does your club just release a blanket permission form without asking a question, or are they very specific about exactly which tests will be handled by which club?

Stories, tips, advices appreciated 

[CaraSkates]

My club (east coast) charges $25 non member fee. This seems to be standard around here, however my club is one of five clubs/rinks within 30-60mins of each other that have an agreement to waive the non-member fee. Nice because there is a test session almost every month (sometimes two a month!) between the five clubs.

As far as permission forms, some years we get a letter from the president (that you can copy and send), some years we don't and then you have to ask a board member to sign the test paper (if you are mailing) or write you a letter to email (online registration).

[sarahspins]

Off the top of my head I think ours is $40.  Some nearby clubs have the non-member fee as low as $20.  To be honest I kind of feel like ours is so high to discourage non-club members from testing.. we have limited ice time and there have been skaters bumped from sessions before because there just wasn't enough time.

I know where I am it seems like if you are planning on taking 2 or more tests with another club it makes sense to just join the club as an associate member (which with our club is $60, others in the area are similar).

[TreSk8sAZ]

In AZ, all seven clubs are members of the Arizona Interclub Association so there is no fee for taking a test at one of the other clubs if you are a member of a club in the Interclub. Handy, because two of the clubs have test sessions every 28 days and the others have additional test sessions throughout the year.

If you are out of state (or not a member of one of the clubs) the fee is $35, and you must have the letter of permission from your club attached to the application. I don't think it has to be specific to the tests, but it does have to be specific to the skater, the club hosting, and possibly that session's date.

[PinkLaces]

Our club belongs to a 20+ council of clubs. Most clubs charge $15-20 to non-members to test even if their clubs belong to the council. There is an agreement between test chairs that permissions to test can be e-mailed to each other instead of signed papers. The council holds one all day test/year (all judges in the area participate). It is usually on a Saturday. No extra fee since all are technically "members."

Also for permission forms... Does your club just release a blanket permission form without asking a question, or are they very specific about exactly which tests will be handled by which club?

Not sure what you are asking. My club does not hold dance tests anymore, so my daughter has to test out of club. I would shoot test chair an e-mail.

 Hey, Test Chair! Need a permission to test. Daughter is testing X dance at X club on Date.

Test chair checks daughter's tests to make sure she's passed the dances she needs to to test. If it's inter council, test chair will e-mail other test chair and cc me. Other test chair also checks daughters tests and e-mails back - thanks we're cool. If host club is out of council and needs signed forms, daughter and I work with the test chair as to how to get signed copy from her.

[FigureSpins]

Our test fees vary by test type and are a little higher than the surrounding clubs. However, our members are eligible for "skater support," which is a rebate of test/competition fees from the prior season if they volunteer 5 (Ind) / 10 (Family) hours or more during the membership year.  It's not a full-fee rebate, but it does bring the fee back in line with the other clubs at the end of the season.  ETA: our tests include the USFSA bar pin for each test passed, in addition to the certificate.  The other clubs tell the skaters to buy their pin/patch from the USFSA directly.

Skaters from other clubs who take tests with us pay an extra $35 hospitality fee.  Their coach's email is requested on the application and verification is requested via email by the test chair.  The application says that a permission letter from the home club must be received at least a week before the test date.  I don't know if a scan/email would suffice over a snail-mail paper copy.

The Washington FSC has their permission letter request online and notifications are done via email:

https://wfsc.wufoo.com/forms/permission-letter-for-out-of-club-testing/

They're always so progressive with technology - they even ask "Why are you testing out of club?" to find out how to better serve their members.  I like it!


This is a great find: a video Guide to Testing