I remember teaching my first candle making class. I had accumulated a lot of my own materials. In fact, I had gotten carried away with collecting old, used candles from thrift stores, and soon I had way too many of them. I reasoned that I could teach candle making classes to make some use of everything I had, without throwing it all away. But my main interest was to create relationships with people in our crafting community.
I intended to teach this class without a materials fee. But instead, when I submitted my request for approval, I was encouraged to charge a fee. At first, I was mildly offended by the suggestion. I struggled with it for a day or two, asking the other teachers for their opinion. Everyone claimed that charging a fee greatly reduced no-shows.
This eventually made some sense to me, so I scheduled the class with a 5 dollar fee. It was far better attended than I had anticipated, and everyone I talked to said I charged way too little.
But, despite all this positive feedback, it felt wrong. It wasn’t that I was morally opposed to charging a fee. It’s just that it wasn’t my intention. I didn’t want to charge a fee because I wanted to get more out of the experience. For me, the fee cheapened that experience. It became a monetary transaction instead of a social transaction. And after the class was over, instead of thinking about the different people I met, I began thinking about increasing my fee, all while calculating in my head, just exactly how much I’d earn for each class I taught.
The system we created, not only encouraged me to charge a fee, but motivated me to charge even more, despite my original intentions. The motivation I had at first was one of prudence, community, and altruism. The motivation I had later was what I can only describe as modest greed.
In consideration of this reflection, I’d submit that charging fees (both large and small), has solved one problem while creating another. And I’m not sure if everyone is open to discussing this candidly.