Heartland Harmony
Heartland Harmony


Course Cancellation Policy
• Cancellations up to 21 days prior to the start date of a class are eligible for a refund contingent on the spot being filled from the waitlist, for a $50 cancellation fee.
• Refunds are not available within 21 days of a class start date.
• If a class must be cancelled due to an instructor or venue related emergency, illness, or weather event, all students will receive full refunds for their course, or the option to roll their registration onto a new class date.
Details
Due to a number of factors, this is a no-exceptions cancellation policy. It's been shaped from years of experience in independent organizing and teaching, as well as cross-referencing post-pandemic cancellation policies of craft and folk schools offering similar programming.
Upholding this policy is essential for the sustainability of this programming, which we want to be able to resiliently offer long into the future. It's notable that policies like these would need to be much less stringent if the arts were publicly funded in a meaningful way. As always, it's a good reminder to find actionable ways to alter the systems that create these conditions.
Following is a list of the factors that have shaped our policy:
1. All the classes we offer are for small-class sizes, designed so that each student is able to receive a higher degree of individualized attention. Most courses are up to half the size of comparable classes, which means each student's presence and financial contribution to class is fully counted on.
2. Prep for each course is extensive. Materials are prepared for each student weeks in advance, and are expensive and labor intensive to produce. Willow can only be soaked for weave-ability once, and has an expiration date once prepared, so cancelled classes equate material waste.
3. An instructor performs the same amount of work that's been contracted and paid for through student registration whether all students attend or not. For a student, the class experience begins in the classroom; however, by the time a class begins, 70% or more of the class labor is already complete.
4. In almost all cases, craft courses are a leisure activity purchased by attendees with discretionary funds. However, for a craftsperson, the compensation earned from labor already performed and from teaching the class is not dispensable, and whether or not we are paid for this labor cannot be contingent on individual attendee's health or availability.
5. It is not sustainable for an instructor or organizer of a class to take on the consequences of risks associated with registering for a temporal course - i.e. unpredictable illness, personal emergency, etc. An instructor's portion of that risk is encapsulated in the part of our policy that awards full refunds in cases of instructor illness, emergency, or weather event. However, an instructor cannot assume the risk for attendee illness or emergency.
6. Overhead for courses is high, and our ability to pay for venue and other bills cannot be contingent on attendee illness or emergency.
7. Offering refunds for a class paid for months in advance is equivalent to footing an emergency bill an instructor may or may not have the funds to pay. In many cases, course tuitions are spent on bills and expenses shortly after they arrive, and paying them back later may not be possible.