Paying the Coach

I've read about rinks with elaborate schemes for paying coaches. You have to get a card, or you have to get a ticket, or you have to check in at the front desk and pay there, or you have to sign in and give a copy of some ticket to the ice monitor. I get confused with all the ticketing, and signing. The rinks I skated at, I paid cash.

Cash to the ice monitor, and sign in. Meet my coach on the ice, give him/her cash after the lesson.

When I first started skating, I paid by check. Then I had a coach who looked at me and said, "Babbette, let me tell you something, coaching is a cash business." So ever since then, I've always paid my coaches in cash. I've never skated at a rink with complex billing systems (except Lake Placid and that doesn't count).  What happens between a coach and the IRS is none of my business. I assume they report every penny.

But these easy days of forking over some of my walking around money in order to go on a freestyle session are coming to an end.  I'm about to start Freestyle sessions at a new rink. I was going through their freestyle rules when I found the payment chapter:

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  1. Payments for freestyle sessions are made at [rink] Guest Services using a [rink]  Debit Card, [rink]  Gift Card, credit card, check or cash. Please note that there is a $50 minimum for placing funds on [rink]  Debit Cards.
     
  2. It is the responsibility of the skater and parent to pay for each session BEFORE the session begins, including morning sessions. Bridging half of one session and half of the following session as one session is not permitted. Skating for any part of a session counts as skating for a full session. No exceptions will be made for lessons.
     
  3. Skaters must register at Guest Services before every session and leave a copy of their paid freestyle receipt. It is the responsibility of the skater and parent to notify Guest Services if they are having a lesson, and to name the coach and duration of their lesson. Each skater must sign-in and attach his or her receipt to the Freestyle Log.
     
  4. All lessons are scheduled in advance. Instructors must be notified at least 24 hours in advance of a lesson cancellation. Coaches will charge students the full lesson fee for any absence from a lesson that is not cancelled at least 24 hours in advance. Outstanding fees must be paid before lessons can continue.

  
  
•         5. Salutes will be rendered to the ice monitor when stepping onto the ice. (Just kidding.)
  
  
  

  

  Permission to enter the ice?

Did you catch that? There need to be at least THREE(!) receipts. One for the desk, one for the monitor, and one for the payer (because they have to give you one to keep).Plus there may be another receipt if the coach is given one they don't mention. And you have to register at Guest Services and the ice monitor.  Shouldn't one receipt be enough? Everyone will tell me this is typical or normal. Man, it sounds like a jackbooted accounting hassle to me. I still remember 'secret adult freestyle' at my first rink, where all we did was stuff cash in an envelope and sign in at 0800 on a Sunday morning,  then skate for as long as we paid for, no matter what time we showed up. Good times. Good times. 


I'll never see the like again.