Admin Stuff


	Admin stuff

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Tip of the iceberg

Sifu Waller would prefer to just practice his own tai chi and teach the class. But running a class is far more than just attending class or teaching lessons.
It involves an awful lot of background work.

It doesn't run itself

Our class requires quite a lot of administration:

Registration
Keeping track of tuition fees
Answering e-mails
Handling problems
Ordering uniforms and equipment
Banking the money
Organising the folders for class
Tax return
Burning DVDs
Personal progress pages
Writing web pages
Designing, writing and uploading the website(s)
Website hosting
Preparing the hall for class
Producing and laminating information sheets for class
Answering e-mails
Providing feedback and information
Marketing
Updating the website(s), blogs, Facebook and every other on-line resource that lists our class details
Producing DVDs
Producing handouts
Keeping flyers and advertising relevant and up-to-date
Liaising with the venue providers
Marking questionnaires and assignments
Organising and hosting boot camp, private lessons, bai shi, start of the training year meal
Sourcing and ordering lineage related material
Teaching the class

This list is by no means exhaustive.

Web stuff

The internet based work is huge for our class. Sifu Waller designed the websites, wrote virtually all of the pages and managed to get our class to the top of Google without paying a penny to anyone.
He received a little bit of help and advice from time to time but most of the work he did himself. Computers are very time consuming.

DVDs

The production, burning, checking and labelling of DVDs is intensive work. It can take many weeks to create a new title.
The short term sale of a DVD is often poor and no DVD to date has ever paid for the time and effort required to produce it.

Managing resources

The management of venues, resources for class, money, marketing etc is a major job that has to be handled with care. Mistakes are inevitable.
Public mistakes can damage the credibility of the class and cause students to lose confidence in our ability to provide a professional class.
Trivial seeming things such as winter weather must be allowed for. Letting new people know how to get to our house. Helping people to get badges sewn onto their uniform.
Avoiding typos on the website(s)... It is important to be organised, and to think ahead.

Managing people

We must manage our students, resource suppliers and the venue providers. The aim is for students to arrive at the hall every week and experience a sense of familiarity, comfort and ease.
This helps people to relax. Consistency, balance and harmony are important.

Know your students

As every student is different, we must seek to gain some measure of each individual's character and provide a sense of being invested in their progress.
Earnestly taking an interest is the key here.
By taking responsibility for the development of each and every class member we can anticipate problems well in advance, and hopefully provide a pleasant, safe, effective learning environment.

Perception

How our class is seen both publicly and from within the class is important. We cannot determine how each individual person sees the class or guarantee that they will even like the class.
But we can do our best to provide stimulating lessons, a great environment and an atmosphere of camaraderie.
You cannot please everyone but we aim to be as accommodating as possible without compromising our own requirements.

Sifu Waller and Rachel treat everyone in the class with great politeness and respect.

(David)

Problems

As much as we'd love to have no problems to deal with, life offers this to no one. We all have things that vex us. Our aim is to handle things in a friendly, patient, respectful and balanced manner.
Sifu Waller always gives the student an opportunity to do the right thing.

Ugly situations

Conflict and bad feeling does occur and we are still exploring new ways to deal with unpleasant situations. There is no 'one size fits all' method for coping with hardship.
We pay close attention to how students are behaving and do our best to re-integrate people who are going astray.
Sometimes this is not enough. If we are fortunate, people quit with dignity. Some people like to cause a fuss.

Mistakes

Sifu Waller is only human. Whilst he might think matters through more than many people, he still makes mistakes. Everybody does.

The funny side

Rather than just get ground down, we try to make light of things; we joke around and have fun. Humour is important. It reduces the potential stress.

Teaching assistants

Teaching assistants are certainly not required to take on the administration responsibilities of our class. We start by increasing your awareness of what is going on in class.
We discuss current issues with you. We ask you to think about scenarios and consider how you might handle them.

Involvement

Rachel slowly makes you conscious of the administrative concerns. Some of the problems that we face are quite annoying and petty. But someone has to deal with them.
You may not want to be involved, but this is the ugly part of teaching. The class does not administrate itself.
Hard decisions are meant to be arduous and they usually have consequences. Trying to the right thing is tough because you can't please everybody all the time.

Insight

Your insights matter. You may consider options and possibilities that are new and intriguing. There are always many different ways to handle any situation.
Our aim is find ways to handle things that serve the interest of the class, Sifu Waller and the individual student. This is the Taoist approach: mutually satisfactory and beneficial.

I exchanged emails with Sifu Waller before his first Newcastle class and was there for the first night. I had done tai chi before with some very impressive teachers who all seemed to have very mediocre students (including me). I was sick of sifus that showed off, couldn't or didn't want to teach and who weren't into self defence. Like it or not, practically all aspects of tai chi can be faked by someone who has read a few books and practiced some choreography, except self defence.

(Tim)