Rec Director 101 - Intro to Rec Directing

Are you a new Rec Director looking to go from unsure to locked-in?

“Intro to Rec Directing” is our flagship intensive course that will dig into the foundational skills to lead recreation-based gymnastics programs.

Our goal is for all participants to finish the course feeling empowered with new skills, improved confidence and supported by community of like-minded professionals-turned-friends!

This course is FOR YOU, if you:

New (or new-ish) to the Rec Director/Manager (or similar) role
Responsible for managing staff & making program decisions
Feeling a bit lost, overwhelmed or stressed trying to juggle & learn all the aspects of this position
Looking to connect & find community with like-minded leaders
Keen to fast track your learning when it comes to key RD skills
Able to commit to attending and actively participating in LIVE lessons & tutorials

This course is NOT FOR YOU, if you:

An experienced Rec Director
Comfortable with your staffing & programming systems
Settled into the basics of the job
Unable to commit to attending LIVE lessons & tutorials

Course Details:

We meet twice a week, virtually (LIVE) on zoom:

Lessons every Monday @ 2:30-4:00pm (EDT) Oct 17 - Dec 12, 2022 (except Nov 21)
Tutorials every Thursday @ 2:30-3:30pm (EDT) Oct 20 - Dec 8, 2022 (except Nov 24)

Each week includes:

One lesson and one tutorial each week - both are LIVE on via ZOOM
Experiments: Actionable tasks to complete on own time during the week
Weekly workbooks to accompany lessons & tutorials
Bonus resources, tools, templates + lessons

To get the most out of this course, we strongly recommend you attend lessons & tutorials live. While we do record the main lessons, our breakout room discussions are not recorded. This is where a ton of the magic happens - with course participants connecting and creating a community to swaps best practices, share ideas, ask questions, offer thoughtful feedback and brainstorms solutions in real time. It's one of the best things about RD 101!

Course Overview:

Week 1 - Leadership & Goal Setting
Week 2 - Short & Long Term Program Planning
Week 3 - Program Scheduling
Week 4 - Staff Scheduling Systems
Week 5 - Staff Management (Part 1)
Week 6 - Staff Management (Part 2)
Week 7 - Communication & Feedback
Week 8 - Next Steps & Graduation!

Overall, we're estimating the time commitment to be 3-3.5 hours a week (including the experiment).

Course Instructors:

Ali Stoffels is the founder of Rec Gym Pros and enthusiastic (aka obsessed) about all things rec gymnastics - especially anything "outside the box" when it comes to program planning, coach development & leadership training! After Rec Directing for 10 years, Ali now runs RGP full time consulting with gyms, building opportunities for our industry to gather & learn, and most recently co-launching Red Director 101! Outside of the gymnastics world, Ali can be found travelling, getting crafty, adventuring outside or binge-watching Survivor.

Alicia Hutson has over a decade of experience in recreation, and she is passionate about creating programs for all ages, and abilities to thrive in. When she isn't on the floor working with the recreation program at her gym, she is helping new coaches and athletes fall in love with gymnastics and leadership. As an NCCP Learning Facilitator, Rec Director and one of the creators of Rec Director 101, Alicia takes pride in educating and learning with future coaches and fellow Rec Directors.

How many spots will be open?

We keep our group intentionally small, maxing out at 20 people, so that we can ensure each participant has a meaningful experience and makes forward progress. If there is demand, we may consider opening a second cohort.

How to Register:

The course fee is $697 CAD (approx $520 USD).
Registration opens on October 5th, 2022 (at 10am EDT). Make sure you’re on our email list to get notified when registration opens.

Testimonials from past RD101 participants:

From Eimear (Inertia Gymnastics Academy, Northern Ireland):
"This course was truly the BEST investment I have made for myself as a gym owner/director. The knowledge bombs dropped over the eight weeks were so valuable and even though I have experience of each weekly topic, I still walked away with more info, ideas and various new systems and methods of how to do this role bigger and better than I ever imagined. I LOVED learning from Ali and Alicia and of course our cohort. If there is ever a 2.0 version, sign me up, I’m there!"

From Laura (Teulon Gymnastics Club, Manitoba, Canada):
"This course was so incredibly informational about so many different relevant topics. I knew there was a bunch of stuff I was not familiar with as it had not been something I have had to take care of in the past (staff scheduling for example) but I came away feeling confident that they are tasks that I could take over if/when required. I also cannot say enough positive things about Ali, Alicia and the rest of my cohort. They are passionate about what they do and helped instill a sense of comradery within the course participants. Excellent experience all around, definitely recommend."

From Jackie (Younique Gymnastics, New York, USA):
"I would definitely recommend this course to help you get in touch with other RD’s. This course helped me a lot in building my confidence, being able to hear that I’m not alone with the same issues, and being able to work together and get ideas from one another to help situations in the gym. Also helped my organizations on schedules and availability! The amount of resources that were given was so helpful."

From Jade (Golden Bears Gymnastics Club, California, USA):
The main thing I really loved was having a cohort of people across the country and internationally that share the same ideas, concerns, and thoughts as me. I have never been able to feel related to in my work position before and I felt so heard and understood because as Rec Directors, we all have so much in common. Even though we all have various ways of running our programs, we generally ran into the same issues. I found it so helpful to bounce ideas off of everyone. I am starting some new ideas in my program that will be a big hit."