by: Michelle Rae Sobi
Did you know Edge Yoga is a co-op? Our co-op was formed to invite local instructors to share our space as independent businesses to share their gifts with our community.
I recall learning of a study that was never completed. It was to have been about what experiences Yoga Instructors had when they attended yoga studio classes. The results? Most yoga instructors were unable to answer the survey because they couldn't afford the classes! At that time the national average was $22/class and rising!
It was then that I began pondering ways I could offer high-quality, affordable yoga. Running a studio has similar overhead to any other retail business, so needless to say revenue has to come from somewhere. That is when I decided to offer small groups at the studio led by co-op teachers. In this way, our instructors can earn much more than the national average of $25/week to teach a class. It is my mission to offer affordable yoga to our students while meeting our instructors' financial needs. After all, they have to eat, too!
Support your local co-op yoga studio and attend these small group classes. You pay the instructors directly, and they keep 100% of the tuition. Small group tuition is $12/class and passes may not be used.
We will continue to offer pass-based studio classes for $10, which is half of the national average. These studio classes fund our overhead and space, so we can focus on what we do best...teacher train! We offer the most affordable tuition for yoga teacher training because one of the contributing factors to the high costs of yoga classes is the ticket price of yoga teacher training. Passes may be used for these classes.
How does Wikipedia define a co-op?
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise".[1] Cooperatives may include:
businesses owned and managed by the people who use their services (a consumer cooperative)organizations managed by the people who work there (worker cooperatives)multi-stakeholder or hybrid cooperatives that share ownership between different stakeholder groups. For example, care cooperatives where ownership is shared between both care-givers and receivers. Stakeholders might also include non-profits or investors.second- and third-tier cooperatives whose members are other cooperativesplatform cooperatives that use a cooperatively owned and governed website, mobile app or a protocol to facilitate the sale of goods and services.
Research published by the Worldwatch Institute found that in 2012 approximately one billion people in 96 countries had become members of at least one cooperative.[2]