All-Star Attendance Policies?

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My almost 9 year old cp is entering her 6th season of cheer and has missed exactly 4 practices total in that time. 2 for vacation, 1 for kindergarten graduation and 1 for an extremely contagious skin disease (ick). She shows up on her birthday, she misses friends parties or goes late, she does not miss practice period. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. The parents need to be corrected and now. The kids may be young but you are setting them up for a lifetime of if I don't want to go I don't have to. And that so does not fly when you have a job. I think a poster displayed so the parents can see exactly how much practice they have missed is a great idea. Also have a team drawing only open to kids who have perfect attendance, a former gym did this and the child got a gift basket and free open gym for the month, I thought it was a great idea. When you are dealing with parents of younger children sometimes the more obvious you make the rewards and consequences the better.
 
Do you allow girls to miss a week to attend cheer camps like camp woodward? They will practicing on cheer skills, but still missing team.
 
Do you allow girls to miss a week to attend cheer camps like camp woodward? They will practicing on cheer skills, but still missing team.

Yes, absolutely...

BUT, I would recommend for summers doing a "vacation week".... close the gym down for a week, and encourage parents to schedule any vacations/camps during that particular week. This will cut down on a lot of summer absences.

At my prior gym, when we had "vacation week," we also had a gym-wide event going on for the people who didnt go on vacation. Usually it was a beach day or a day at six flags:)
 
- If you're missing during the 2 weeks leading up to a competition you will not compete.
.

okay so you have 18 kids on your team, ... which i imagine in pyramids etc doesnt leave many spare. I cheer on a small senior team and we have just lost a flyer for our comp next weekend, we are now spending our last practice rearranging our routine to try get our pyramid and stunt sequences in the air.

i can't comprehend putting anyone under that level of stress as these athletes competing are good attenders
 
My daughter really doesn't miss practice, so I guess when I think of a big event, or "once a year event", I am thinking of something like a prom, a religous occasion of their own (like their confirmation), a family wedding, etc. I don't think a birthday party or something like that qualifies as a once a year event. I think I should have said once in a lifetime instead of year.

Prom is overrated... 5 years down the road, nobody cares. I didn't go to mine, and I have no regrets (then again, I skipped it to sing in Carnegie Hall lol)

Wow, that's awesome! You must be really good. Carnegie Hall would pay me NOT to sing. :)

Like I said, it's unexcused... it doesn't mean they can't go, it just means it counts as one of their unexcused rather than an excused:) It sounds like your daughter probably wouldn't have maxed out on her absences during the year anyway, so she'd probably not have any issues under my system;)

That's a fair policy.

What if your Prom was Worlds weekend? Many schools hold prom in April.....

True. They are both dates that she would know well in advance, so she would have to decide early on (tryouts) which she would prefer to attend. I would never allow her to be on a Worlds team and decide sometime into the season that she won't be attending the biggest competition of the year.
 
My daughter really doesn't miss practice, so I guess when I think of a big event, or "once a year event", I am thinking of something like a prom, a religous occasion of their own (like their confirmation), a family wedding, etc. I don't think a birthday party or something like that qualifies as a once a year event. I think I should have said once in a lifetime instead of year.

Prom is overrated... 5 years down the road, nobody cares. I didn't go to mine, and I have no regrets (then again, I skipped it to sing in Carnegie Hall lol)

Wow, that's awesome! You must be really good. Carnegie Hall would pay me NOT to sing. :)

Like I said, it's unexcused... it doesn't mean they can't go, it just means it counts as one of their unexcused rather than an excused:) It sounds like your daughter probably wouldn't have maxed out on her absences during the year anyway, so she'd probably not have any issues under my system;)

That's a fair policy.

What if your Prom was Worlds weekend? Many schools hold prom in April.....

True. They are both dates that she would know well in advance, so she would have to decide early on (tryouts) which she would prefer to attend. I would never allow her to be on a Worlds team and decide sometime into the season that she won't be attending the biggest competition of the year.

LOL at that:)..... Sorry to threadjack, but it's my greatest passion outside of cheer... Yes, I went to college for vocal music performance of the classical variety. BUT, I was lucky enough to be in what we call "the finest high school choir on earth"... our high school was (and still is) used as a filler choir for large choral performances in Carnegie Hall on a regular basis. (Like, oh we need 30 more voices for this 97-page Requiem in 3 weeks, can you do it? lol) Since our incomparably amazing director (who was like a 2nd father to me all these years) passed away, we have formed an Alumni Chorale now in his honor. We raise money for a scholarship fund in his name, and just did our 2nd Carnegie Hall performance in the past year. In fact, our debut concert as a group was in Carnegie Hall, which is awesome but really all owed to our director. He was an absolutely amazing teacher- over 200 alumni came out to sing at his funeral, and about 400 more were in attendance. Such a profound influence on us all, I miss him every day! He taught me one of the most important phrases that I still need to be mindful of so many years later- "Keep your eyes and ears open, and your mouth shut. What what you say, how you say it, and who you say it to." He was right when he used to say "Who am I? A goddamn genius." lol <3

And, you bet your arse that I didn't miss a single rehearsal... because excellence cannot be achieved if you're not in attendance- much like cheerleading... see how I got back on topic? how nice lol ;)
 
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Do you allow girls to miss a week to attend cheer camps like camp woodward? They will practicing on cheer skills, but still missing team.

With what we have planned that would be a "family vacation" during official school vacation so it would be an excused abscence. We actually plan on starting to count abscences the week after summer vacation which will be in Mid-August, because I have the feeling that starting right now and everyone already having plans will not get many of our parents to like the attendance policies ;).

okay so you have 18 kids on your team, ... which i imagine in pyramids etc doesnt leave many spare. I cheer on a small senior team and we have just lost a flyer for our comp next weekend, we are now spending our last practice rearranging our routine to try get our pyramid and stunt sequences in the air.
i can't comprehend putting anyone under that level of stress as these athletes competing are good attenders

Well, when we thought about how many practices someone could miss we first had a higher number we thought about. But even with 6 excused abscences - if every kid uses them on different days we will not have one single practice where everyone is attending. With those 2 weeks leading up to a competition we will at least have a minimum of 2 practices with every single kid. And with so many kids missing each practice we got really really good at "back-up plans" and changing formations (and the kids attending got really good at it, too!). What I just thought about is, that it might be good to say that we only excuse contagious illnesses with a doctors note - but then on the other hand there is the question whether she will be okay for the competition when she is contagiously ill in the 2 weeks preceeding a competition...
 
Our policies don't state specific occasions or anything that can be missed. It simply states that all absences are unexcused unless approved by the gym owner.

Num1Stunta, your singing history is so interesting. Please feel free to keep sharing.
 
Our policies don't state specific occasions or anything that can be missed. It simply states that all absences are unexcused unless approved by the gym owner.

Num1Stunta, your singing history is so interesting. Please feel free to keep sharing.

<insert sarcasm font here? lol>

Don't get me started...
 
We live in a "resort town" and summer here is a little crazy......but we DO NOT have attendance problems : )

#1- I have a parent meeting and stress the importance of practice especially during the summer.

#2- we only have 1 practice a week (in the summer).
I tell my parents if you can't commit to one day a week (all summer long) they should leave now.

#3- If you can't be at practice and are having a real emergency, you have to find another cheerleader (in our gym) to come to your practice and "fill in" for you.

We have full team practices, all summer long.... on all of our teams .
I love my fill ins !
 
We live in a "resort town" and summer here is a little crazy......but we DO NOT have attendance problems : )

#1- I have a parent meeting and stress the importance of practice especially during the summer.

#2- we only have 1 practice a week (in the summer).
I tell my parents if you can't commit to one day a week (all summer long) they should leave now.

#3- If you can't be at practice and are having a real emergency, you have to find another cheerleader (in our gym) to come to your practice and "fill in" for you.

We have full team practices, all summer long.... on all of our teams .
I love my fill ins !

I have to say, I kind of like that idea!:)
 
our team has an attendance policy. The summer is a little more flexible than the school year but always attendance has been stressed. plus I love cheering and if I did not want to be there I would not cheer.
 
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