November 4 Holiday and Billing Update

 Good evening!

I want to thank everyone for the kind words outpouring of sympathy during my mom's final days and after her passing.  It meant a lot to me, and makes me appreciate all of you even more.  I know I have the most wonderful students, and they have some wonderful parents!

My husband and I have started working updating our spreadsheet to reflect the lessons I missed while I was away.  If you paid in advance for lessons in October, please know that you will receive credit for any missed lessons on your November invoice.  Also, in the chaos that was trying to schedule lessons through August and September, we discovered an error in our spreadsheet that caused a few of you to be billed for fewer lessons than you received in the July-September timeframe.  We are currently working on a statement that will give you (and us) a full accounting of all lessons and payments since July so that you can double check it for any mistakes.  For most of you, this will not cause any changes, and we apologize for any inconvenience it may cause those whom it does affect.  We thought about just sending the detailed statement to just those few that we knew were affected, but we thought that it might be better to give everyone an opportunity to look at everything to make sure it looks right to you, and that will simplify our billing process.  As I'm sure you can relate, simple seems like a good option right now!  =)

Depending upon your school, you may have a holiday on either November 4, or November 3 and 4. My plan is to see all of my students that week, and so will be rescheduling as needed to accommodate that.  If I need to reschedule your child's lesson that week, I will be in touch.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend, and I look forward to seeing all of you this week!

And, again, thanks for everything!

Welcome New Flute Students!

Good Evening!

I so excited to start lessons with your child!  Learning flute and music can be such an exciting and fun adventure.  Thanks for letting me share this time with them!

This is my blog that I use for keeping in touch with all of you about general lesson information.  Posting all of it here makes the emails and texts you receive from me shorter and to-the-point, which if you're like me and reading everything on a phone, I hope you appreciate.  This particular post is just to introduce a few things to you so you know what to expect going forward.

First, you should know that my husband, Paul, helps me with this blog and with my billing.  So, if you email or text me with a question about your invoice, he is probably the one who will respond.  He started helping me with this a few years ago so I could focus on managing my schedule, giving your child the best possible lesson experience, and giving you the feedback you want about your child's progress.

We used try to always bill lessons for the month in advance.  Billing in advance is the common practice for lessons, and most school districts' private lesson guidelines expect that.  I understand the reasoning behind those guidelines, but over the years, I have found that billing in advance causes confusion in some circumstances, especially if we are not able to get the invoices out exactly on the first of the month, and is completely unworkable in the summer when most students don't take lessons on a regular weekly schedule.  So, for the time being, I will be billing at the end of the month.  That means I will expect full payment promptly after I send the invoice.  I am very flexible, however, in making payment arrangements with you if you prefer to pay week-to-week, on the 20th, at the end of the month, etc.  Just let me know what payment arrangements work for you, and we'll make it work.

Flexibility is one of my hallmarks when it comes to many aspects of scheduling and billing.  Over 20 years of experience teaching lessons in schools has taught me to expect the unexpected.  There are always unexpected interruptions in our schedule. It used to be fire drills and picture days, but we often have unexpected testing days and the like anymore.  Of course, we still have doctors appointments and the usual life-happens type of stuff.  So, I plan with flexibility in my schedule, and will rearrange things to make sure your child gets a lesson every week to the best of my ability.  That means, occasionally, I will switch your child's lesson day to make that all work.  I do keep track of each lesson your child takes, and then on the invoice the following month, you will see an accounting of the dates your child received lessons.  If, for some reason, your child receives more or less lessons than what you have paid for, you will see a credit or charge for that on the next invoice.

I accept various forms of payment, and I mention those on the invoices.  I have a blog post that covers all of the different payment options here: https://www.hudsonmusicstudio.com/2020/04/how-to-pay-for-lessons-in-remote.html

I hope this helps you understand the billing and payments.  Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.

And, as always, thanks for letting me share my love of music and flute with your child.

Flute Lesson Invoices: September and looking forward to October

 Good Evening!

This is Paul, Lynne's husband, and as most of you already know, I help Lynne with the billing for her lessons and with this blog.  Lynne, by necessity, spends a lot of time communicating with you about schedules and your child's progress.  That personal touch on things is important to her, so last year I started helping her so she could focus on giving all of you the best lesson experience she can.  So, for those of you who are new, when you get your bill or ask questions related to that, often, but not always, I may be the one replying to your message.

Of course, scheduling and billing go together, and at this time of year the scheduling is always a little crazy.  With almost all students doing remote lessons right now, it's been an exceptionally challenging year for her, so we are a being a little more flexible with the billing until things settle in.  Of course, when and if the schools transition into a more normal, in-person situation, and she start to see students face-to-face, there will be some more upheaval.  As long as we all remain flexible and understanding, we will get through it all just fine.

So, here's the billing plan for the next few weeks.  If it has to change for some unexpected reason, we will let you know.

• We are billing for September as we solidify weekly lesson times.
• Some of you have already received the September invoice, previously or tonight 
• You will not be billed again until the October invoice.
• If you have not yet received a September invoice AND you have lessons scheduled, you may expect to receive the September invoice sometime over the next few days.
• If you made a payment for any lessons after 8/30, you will see that payment on on the October invoice.
• If you have any questions about those payments, please send a message.
• We will bill for October based upon the schedule that is in place at the end of September.
• That's the most optimistic schedule
• You will receive credit/charges on the November invoice if we miss/add any lessons in October due to schedule changes
• We will try to have all October invoices sent out by October 5th.

Thanks to all of you for being such great parents and having such great kids.  Lynne has been so happy and having a lot of fun meeting with all of them.

Take care!

-Paul

For my students whom I have not seen in a while

 Good Evening!

The time for me to set up my lesson schedule for the coming school year is here.  I know many of you had to stop lessons during the quarantine for any number of reasons, and I completely understand those reasons.  But, since school is starting back up, I did want to check in to see if you were interested in starting up lessons again.  I know for those of you who have been hurt financially by the pandemic, that it still may not be a possibility.  However, I would suggest that you contact your child's band director and see if there may be scholarship money available to help pay for lessons if you are interested.

So please feel free to contact me.  If you're interested in lessons, great!  But if not, still do as I would love to know how all of you are doing.

I am thankful for the time I had teaching your child, and I hope and pray that you are all doing well!

Flute Lessons - August 2020 and Beyond

 Good Evening!

This post is a little long, so I apologize for that.  But please bear with me so we can all be on the same page.  There's important information in there, though, so please read carefully! =)

I hope that as we are preparing to go back to school, or have gone back to school at this point for some of you, that everyone is doing well.  These are certainly unprecedented times, and I know we have all had challenges adapting to the changes over the last 5 months.  Like I have always said, it's important to be flexible.  If you told me a year ago that I would have to be teaching all of my lessons as well as several masterclasses each week remotely, I probably would have laughed.  I had never even considered that before this spring.

So I am very thankful for your flexibility now that we (yes, my husband, Paul, is still helping with the billing) are finally billing for August lessons.  We have delayed billing as my schedule each week fluctuated a lot, and we wanted to make sure we were billing as accurately as possible.  We will try to bill in advance like we always have as much as possible going forward.  So, as soon as I have a schedule for your child that I feel fairly confident that won't change, I will notate that and then Paul will generate the invoice for September the next time he works on them.  And, for those who have them scheduled, lessons for 8/31 are included on this invoice.  If we miss that day for some reason, you will get credit on the September invoice. 

And, as I am already starting to add new students for the coming school year, and for now lessons are still online-only, I would like for you to review my previous post about payment info. I have updated it with all of the latest information.  If you need to know where to send PayPal, Venmo, Bill Pay, or personal checks, just send me a text or email, and I'll share that with you individually.

I have already started teaching remote lessons during school for a few campuses.  The platform and procedures for some of these are different than what we have been using to date, and it varies by the district and campus.  As I work through these changes, I will let everyone know what the procedure will be for your child at their school.  If you are still taking remote lessons from home, however, we will continue to use what has worked in the past.  And for those lessons, and for those who are new, please remember a couple of important items to make lessons work best for everyone:

• Please wait for me to initiate the lesson on Facetime, Zoom, or whatever platform we are using.
• I only schedule a minimum amount of time between lessons, so I am probably teaching someone else right before your lesson. Sometimes lessons run a little late. I admit it!
• If you text me or try to initiate the lesson, you're probably interrupting someone else's lesson.
• If I have difficulty connecting with you, I will call or text or email you to see what the issue is.

There is one new procedure that applies to EVERYONE to make this work: ALL LESSON TIMES ARE BASED UPON CELL PHONE TIME, not the clock on your computer or on the clock on the wall at school.  Sorry, but the school clocks are all over the map.  I can only work around so many variables!  In any case, I will make sure that the band directors know that this is what I'm planning, and I will make sure that the time I schedule your lesson falls within your band period at school.

As far as scheduling is concerned, I am going to try, as I did throughout the spring and summer, to keep my schedule as compact and efficient as possible.  I will try and fill up my Wednesdays first, then Tuesday and Thursday, then Monday, and then Friday.  I will also be setting aside some time in the early mornings and some times on a couple of evenings as I expect coordinating the remote-during-school lessons may not always work out for everyone.  If I haven't scheduled your lessons yet, I will be in touch over the next week or so, but feel free to reach out to me as well.

I am looking forward to seeing all of my students in the coming weeks!

And, as always, thank you for letting me share my love of music and flute with your child!

Flute Lesson Invoices for July

Good evening!

Well, if there is a new "normal" for working around school schedules right now, that normal could be summed up as, "Wait and see!" couldn't it?  I apologize for not getting the July statements out earlier.  Every summer I get contracted to do camps, sectionals, and clinics by various band programs throughout the area, including this summer, but there has been a great deal of uncertainty as to whether or not the camps were going to happen, and what the schedules would look like if they did have them.  Working with schools in 4 different school systems meant there has been a lot of waiting and seeing.  I think at this point, though, I have at least a good idea of what is happening this month now (finally heard from that last school today!) so now we can finally set schedules! Yay!

I have billed through the end of July assuming that I will be available to teach any student who wants lessons every week, so the invoice shows the number of lessons I expect we will have, including any exceptions you have already told me about.  If you need to make a change, or if you end up changing your plans here in the next couple of weeks, no problem!  Just let me know, and we will adjust as needed.  As always, double check for mistakes on my part.

I may need to change the schedule slightly on a few days (not sure exactly when yet) and I will let you know individually if we need to change yours.  Right now, I expect very little of that to happen.

Thanks for your patience, and, as always, thank you for letting me share my love of music and flute with your child!

Flute Lesson Invoices for 5/26-6/30

Good afternoon!

Summer lessons are always a challenge for billing purposes, and since my husband and I are working together on this, and we are trying to take into account the many scenarios that come up with summer lessons with the system we are developing, it has taken us a little longer this month to get the invoices together. You will also see that the invoice for this month looks a little different.  Here's what you need to know:

• The May invoice only included lessons through 5/21.  If you received a lesson the following week, you will be charged for it on this invoice.
• We have included any payments we have received up through today so that you know where you stand at this time.  So if you paid ahead for June, that payment is included.
• Please double check for any mistakes on our part.  I have included the payment type to help you.
• CH is a personal check followed by the check number
• BP is a BillPay check followed by the last 4 digits of the check number. 
• PP is a PayPal payment followed by the date it was sent.
• V  is a Venmo payment followed by the date it was sent.

As we usually do, please follow any payment arrangements we already have in place.  And please send an email or text if you have any questions or find any errors.  If you have any questions about how to make payments, please read this post and then contact me if you have any more questions.

And, as always, thanks for letting my share my love of music and flute with your child!