Effective March 15, 2008, RCFC will begin charging a fee to help cover at least 50% of the expenses associated with sending coaches to tournaments that require airfare and/or overnight stays. Read on for more details.

As you may be aware, most clubs charge a fee to fencers for coaches’ travel, and many require that all fencers traveling to a tournament split all the coaches’ travel expenses among them. We believe charging a coaching fee is fair and, if you have been with us for any length of time, you know that we try to keep our all of our fees as reasonable as we can.  With more and more of our fencers traveling to major regional and national tournaments, we hope that this policy will allow us to cover more of our coaches’ travel expenses, which are substantial.

The particulars of the new RCFC travel policy are as follows:

1. The standard coaching fee will be $50 per event fenced for any tournament involving air travel or an overnight stay for an RCFC coach. For example, if you are fencing Y12 and Y14 foil at a youth NAC, the coaching fee will be $100.

   If the expected coaching fees cover at least 50% of the travel expenses, the $50 per event fee will apply. For tournaments where few fencers are attending, the fencers will pay a pro-rated portion of 50% of the coach’s travel costs based on the number of events they are fencing.

   Traveling expenses include airfare, lodging, and a $40 per diem, which helps cover food, taxis, etc.

   We will be able to give you an idea of the expected coaching fee per fencer by the time of the tournament’s entry deadline. Fencers will be invoiced for their respective coaching fees after the event.

2. Coaching is mandatory for Youth, Cadet, and Junior fencers.

   Coaching is optional for adult fencers. Adult fencers wishing to have a coach accompany them to a NAC or Summer Nationals should make arrangements with their coach in a timely fashion before the event.

3. Youth, Cadet, and Junior fencers need permission from their coach to attend their first RYC, SYC, NAC, or Summer Nationals. Fencer should always consult their coach regarding the appropriateness of the tournament and which events to fence before registering for an RYC, SYC, NAC, or the Summer Nationals.

4. In general, RCFC will be sending at least one coach to most NAC’s, JO’s, the west coast SYC, and Summer Nationals. We determine how many coaches will travel to an event based on how many fencers are attending.

5. The coach or coaches will set their coaching priorities for each day’s events. Despite our best efforts, not everyone will get equal time at every tournament. In general, fencers new to a particular level of competition will get more attention in the warm-up and pools. More experienced fencers will get more attention in the DE’s. While the RCFC coaches would like to be with every fencer for every bout, it is not possible at a large NAC or Summer Nationals. The RCFC coaches are experienced and knowledgeable and will do their absolute best to set priorities in the best interests of our fencers at any given tournament.

Please don’t hesitate to come to us with any questions. Thank you!

Steve, Greg and Barbara