My fencing club is a non-profit all volunteer 503c charity. I call it my club because I am the President. Several years ago I missed a meeting, they named me President in my absence. Nobody since is dumb enough to ever miss a meeting so it got stuck on me.
But for whatever reason, the most hated job has worked out, not so much for me, I put in long hours for no pay. But for the club. We still consider the club to be a "recreational" club but over the past few years we have put our students in several Division 3 college teams and as of this year we have kids on 3 different Division 1 college fencing teams.
Since I "took over" as President I've been able to promote the club and have brought in many guests, some as fencers and some as guest coaches. The fencers include World Team members from Asia, the USA, Europe and Africa. The coaches from top private clubs and some universities. We've been featured on local TV several times, had some newspaper articles written about our kids, etc. During Covid I was named Spirit of Sport winner for Region 2 (a 10 state region) for the US Fencing association. It has all helped us grow.
Earlier this week we had an Olympian, World Cup Team member, World medalist, former Notre Dame coach show up at the club and give free lessons for almost 3 hours to our Epee students. He then invited me to bring my high school students to his club for free coaching and bouts with his students.
But one thing we have worried about for the past 2-3 years is the doctor/landlord who owns the building. He is getting older. We knew he would retire. The fate of the club literally is in his hands.
Today a phone call came from our landlord. He wants to retire. The problem is, he is our largest patron by essentially 'giving' us the space. Doesn't actually give it to us, we pay rent. Started out at $120 per year. 15 years later we now are paying $500 per year. He asked if we would be interested in signing a long term lease, perhaps 10 years??? Before he retires he wants to lock us in on a LOW RATE to protect the fencing club from a future landlord.
I'm not sure if our dream just came true, but I don't know how it could get any better?
Oh, and he just put up a new sign on Monday. He clearly wants us to stay, because we saw a surprise when we arrived. We were not on the previous sign.
But for whatever reason, the most hated job has worked out, not so much for me, I put in long hours for no pay. But for the club. We still consider the club to be a "recreational" club but over the past few years we have put our students in several Division 3 college teams and as of this year we have kids on 3 different Division 1 college fencing teams.
Since I "took over" as President I've been able to promote the club and have brought in many guests, some as fencers and some as guest coaches. The fencers include World Team members from Asia, the USA, Europe and Africa. The coaches from top private clubs and some universities. We've been featured on local TV several times, had some newspaper articles written about our kids, etc. During Covid I was named Spirit of Sport winner for Region 2 (a 10 state region) for the US Fencing association. It has all helped us grow.
Earlier this week we had an Olympian, World Cup Team member, World medalist, former Notre Dame coach show up at the club and give free lessons for almost 3 hours to our Epee students. He then invited me to bring my high school students to his club for free coaching and bouts with his students.
But one thing we have worried about for the past 2-3 years is the doctor/landlord who owns the building. He is getting older. We knew he would retire. The fate of the club literally is in his hands.
Today a phone call came from our landlord. He wants to retire. The problem is, he is our largest patron by essentially 'giving' us the space. Doesn't actually give it to us, we pay rent. Started out at $120 per year. 15 years later we now are paying $500 per year. He asked if we would be interested in signing a long term lease, perhaps 10 years??? Before he retires he wants to lock us in on a LOW RATE to protect the fencing club from a future landlord.
I'm not sure if our dream just came true, but I don't know how it could get any better?
Oh, and he just put up a new sign on Monday. He clearly wants us to stay, because we saw a surprise when we arrived. We were not on the previous sign.
