I had an exceptionally large Reiki 1 class today. But even through the size and other hardships, it went very well.
An ideal Reiki 1 class for the studio is four people. That allows me to put two tables in one room and let people trade that way. When it becomes necessary, I can teach up to six people by putting a third table in the lobby. Today I taught 12.
My landlord has an empty office she has been trying to rent at the other end of the building, so she let me use it for this class. I had gone in and asked her about it. I told her I knew what the hotel I had reserved for the Body Mechanics classes charge, and I was hoping she would charge me less. (Not that I even knew if I could have gotten the hotel at this short notice.)
She asked me what it was worth to me. At that moment I knew I was in trouble. It went back and forth for a bit when she asked if it was worth a massage. Done. That by far was the easiest thing to do.
But setting this up was not as easy as it seems. I had to think about what had to go down there to make the class work. I had to bring in chairs from home and from the studio and cart them to this other office. And I had to do this the morning of the class and back at the end as my insurance does not cover this other office.
The same was true for massage tables, and a couple tables for lunch. And I had to come up with some background music, so I went out and bought a speaker set for my IPOD. This was by far the easiest. (And I certainly made enough money off the class to cover the $80 that it cost.)
I also had to print up enough manuals, have bottles of water in ice, have pens, and totally have my act together. Thankfully, I had a helper. BJ came to help me deal with this. And she was able to be in the other office with the students that had already arrived while I waited in the shop for the rest as I did not have time to notify everyone of the location change.
I was not able to print certificates at the lunch break as there were too many, so I had to mail them out later. (It was after this that I found how to ask additional questions on the online registration form.)
But for the most part, even with all this, things went quite well. But there were still some issues like having only one bathroom. The other was temperature. That entire office faces west, and has full windows across the entire front of it. So, when it becomes afternoon, it starts getting warm in there. (My Southwest room is the same way. I have to keep pushing the A/C down if it is to stay habitable.) Unfortunately, even though there were two A/C units pushing cold air into the place, they could not keep up with the afternoon heat, and it was hot outside. The temperature inside reached 82ยบ by the end of the class.
And the other thing I faced was doing 12 attunements at the end. It was almost like speed dating, but it was speed attuning.
It all got done. People got their continuing education (most of them were massage therapists). And it worked. It was a lot more work, but it was worth it to provide a class to that many in need. (And on top of that, I have another Reiki 1 class this coming week and what looks like it is going to be a large Reiki 2 next Saturday.)