Y masters coaches--paid or volunteer?

None of the responses really fit my team. We have 150 members, 10 practices per week and a head coach and three assistant coaches. Our coaches get free membership, plus $10 to $15 per hour, which I consider money well spent. (We have two coaches on deck at every practice and at least two at every meet. Also the head coach more or less runs the team.) Our team grew tremendously and became far more cohesive and successful after we started paying the coaches -- it gave us a real, coherent program, not just ad hoc workouts.

Just hoping to move this poll up in the standings to get a few more people to vote! It doesn't matter completely if your team is at a YMCA or not--I suppose any community oriented health and fitness center would qualify as well. Please vote soon. I need to take the results to my supervisor! And thanks for those who have voted so far!

I go for: "Our coach gets paid decently plus benefits" I look for this trait, as the mark of a professional standard. My coach's biography and present status can be seen at www.swimsmarter.com Compared to another good program I tried for three months starting in September 2002, an amateur type program, my current coach -who "...gets paid decently plus benefits"-, has more responsability and competence at stake towards what he knows of the goals that I stated.

Jim, I agree with everything said thus far; however, Ken's mention of money well spent rang very true to me. Having been in the Church music business for many, many years, I've seen many institutions limp along with unpaid, volunteer musicians, more specifically, the choir director and/or organist. While it has worked in a few instances, the reality is that this doesn't work as the norm. It boils down to the fact that "you get what you pay for." For any successful program, in my book, be it music, swimming, etc., you have to hire someone who knows what he's doing, where's he going and has the support of his group. Doing it "on the cheap" tends to turn out to be "the most expensive" in the long run in my book. Whenever I hear the word free, I get that funny feeling. Someone's getting the short end of the stick. Jim, tell that supervisor that in order to get quality, you need to spend a few bucks. Like the axiom goes in business, to make money, you have to invest money. Or so it seems to me. Good luck on this one! Hey folks, can you give Jim some more input on this? Mark

If the masters club charges an extra fee perhaps you can consider making commission part of your pay. In my case members pay an extra $25 per month in addition to club membership for masters. Part of my pay is a percentage of those fees. It might make things easier since you can easily point and say that well, the club brings in X amoutn and only (some percentage) will be used to pay me. It also gives an incentive for you to help the club grow. If there is no fee for masters at you rclub well then that's out the door.

Thought there should be another catagory. We are a small college practice group. about 10-20 per practice Coach is paid $15 a practice (might be $12). (which is more than $6) Very worthwhile for a club. It provides consistency and some focus to the practices. For the larger teams in our area (also paid coaches) they have groups of people that do the adminstration (and get free membership).

I don't get paid But I started this Masters team. I do think a coach needs to be paid some amount of money if any thing just so he's not taking money out of his own pocket. After a while it could creat a negitive approach for the coach. It's a pleasure to work with my team, I want to keep the positive drive I have I look forward to each and every practice. If you are doing that. YOU are doing it right. Just my thoughts. Coach Mark;)