Life Has a Funny Way of Working, Ya know?
Where the last year went, what the club looks like now, and what it actually costs to keep the doors open every month.
How long has it been since I wrote a new article? Looking back, it was November 2025, everything after that was member’s spotlights or topic post. Sure sure sure I did one in August about the new system but that was just software and about 400 hours of my time. Well, more like 600 now since I’ve been updating, improving, and fixing thing since then. All that to say, many of y’all have asked me in person how I’m doing, how my mom is doing, how’s the kiddo and everything else in between. As always I’ll give y’all a genuine answer:
“Life has been a tough little pickle, but I have very little to complain about.”
1Where have you been for almost a year?
To be quite honest I ask that most days. Normally this is my schedule every week:
Mother’s chemotherapy appointments
Mother’s doctors appointments
Current baby appointments
New baby appointments
(oh yea in case you didn’t know, we got number 3 on the way!)
My own doctor appointments
Had a colonoscopy, found some polyps I lost .5% of myself and I miss them dearly but that’s okay it was a toxic relationship and I’m better for it now.
Normal salary role
Shout out to Ericsson, they have been amazing in accommodating time for my mom. I’ll never be able to thank my manager enough.
And of course, DFW Young & Social Club.
That is just a few things to name a few but is not an exhaustive list at all. That accounts about 75%ish of where my time has gone. I digress. I have been quite busy trying to get life reined in and just to be relatively stable.
The other giant project which many of you know about is that we are now on our own system. You can read about it more here. The system was a monumental effort but it does include everything: booking, credits, memberships, private events, merch store, private lesson system, waitlists, check in, and financial reports. It went live in August, and the annual cost dropped from about $5,995 to roughly $180.
I am proud of it and I would probably not do it again the same way. It ate the spring, summer, my free time and most of my sanity. It also didn’t give me time to write any blog post. Which I genuinely missed, because writing here lets me take the time to truly reflect on what we are doing, how it is affecting those around us and what we should do next.
2DFW Young & Social Club Update/Metrics
Since we first started, here are the biggest callouts:
The calendar is fuller than it has ever been. Somewhere between 130 - 140 sessions on the books every month.
Private dance lessons have ballooned. Alexi booked around 35 lessons last month alone, and October is already tracking past that. YAS dancers, wedding couples, and folks who just want to learn something. She does not take a cut from any of it either, all of it goes straight back into DFWYAS.
We are not leaning on dance to hold us up anymore. TTRPG and Arts & Crafts have both grown a lot since last year and are becoming strong pillars of funding for the community.
We run more free events than we ever have.
About 38 free sessions a month, which is close to a third of everything on the calendar.
- Hatha Yoga
- Morning Zumba
- Crafting Circle
- Crochet Circle
- Paper Crafts & Journal Social
- Writer’s Support Group
- Learn Spanish
- Improv Games & Workshop
- TTRPG Roleplaying Workshop
- Dungeon Master’s Guild
- Board Games & LAN Midweek
- Board Game Night
- East Coast Swing social
- Monday night line dancing practice
- Two book clubs
- Arbor Hills Walk N Talk
- DFW area hikes
- Volunteering at LLELA
It has always been part of the plan to use the funding we make elsewhere to open up opportunity in different areas. More importantly we have great event leads to thank for donating their time to host these free socials.
The board game library hit 305 titles.
At least 70 of them came from Justin, aka JustinNotOnDiscord. All of them are catalogued in the system and searchable by player count and playtime, and 300 of them have how-to-play videos attached.
Writing all of that out in one place is a little strange. Day to day it just feels like calendar invites and group texts and somebody needing a table moved. Then you see it sitting in a list like that and go, huh. We actually built something.
3The Real Cost of Keeping DFWYAS Open - 2026 edition
We have had many visitors over the past year ask about how we stay afloat and how much does things cost. Most of the time they are surprised that I’m completely open to talk about the expenses and revenue of the DFWYAS. As I’ve done before and will continue to, let’s talk real monthly numbers (some averaged and rounded)
You can then add 2-3k extra in supplies, equipment, and other items every month for events.
No, Alexi and I are not in that payroll number at all. We have yet to take a paycheck out of DFWYAS and we don’t plan to. As we have shared, we are very fortunate in this life to be able to ensure all the money that is made at YAS stays in it to help it stay solvent and growing.
That might be a sticker shock for many of y’all, but it’s quite low all things considered. Last year we had it at $7500 + Instructor Fees + Materials, so it really isn’t that far off, but why did it go up? Well our rent went up, our cost of electricity went up, but most of all and one we completely stand behind we started paying everyone more. All our instructors now take 50% of all profit we make on our events. Maria also received a big pay raise as well since we increased her scope of work significantly and she deserves to be compensated for that.
And with all that, we still lowered prices on events, created a universal credit system to make things more affordable, and continue to expand our free offerings as much as we can. That is what it’s all about, making sure we take care of our people and provide value to the community that supports us.
Oh, and for everyone who asked “why would you share all of that? Isn’t it supposed to be a secret?” Na, not really. Transparency and intention is my number 1 value. You all deserve to know how much it costs to run this place and how we keep it alive.
4So what happens next
I mean there is so much I could say but I’ll keep it simple:
Not because a content calendar told me to, but because I want there to be a record, and because these posts are genuinely how I work out what I think.
They are far and away the most read thing on this blog! Everyone loves to hear learn about one another and it’s a great way to recognize our members.
What a first D&D session looks like. What a crochet circle is like when you cannot crochet. How the credits work, including when they are not worth buying. All the stuff people want to know before they walk in and feel a little silly asking about.
The one thing I cannot promise is me being around as much as I used to be. My mom’s treatment schedule is not mine to control, and baby number three is going to have ALOT of opinions. So if I look tired or go quiet for a while, don’t worry, the club is not falling apart. It is just another Tuesday in the Noble-Panama household.
5How you can help
I am not going to put a donate button at the bottom of this. But people ask what helps after they see numbers like the ones above, so here is a quick list off the top of my head:
Bring one person or share with your friends.
Almost everybody reading this came the first time because somebody else brought them or were recommended.
Ninety seconds of your time, and it is the single biggest reason strangers ever find us at all.
Volunteer to setup.
A lot of my time is spent on setting up tables, chairs and decor. We have a dedicated group of members who do help on Friday events, but we could always use more throughout the week. If you have an hour or two to spare we can always find something to help alleviate time pressures on us.
6Thanks for making DFWYAS what it is
Alexi started this whole thing back in 2021. I joined her in 2022 and we have been building it together ever since. Almost nothing about this club looks like what I thought it would a year ago. Let alone 5 years ago and I absolutely adore that.
You have all made the last half decade worth every single second. The hundreds of hours of monthly labor, not taking any income, and just pouring my heart into every area I can is completely worth it. It is worth seeing every single one of y’all who leave home on a random Wednesday and to be around folks you don’t even know yet. That is a hard thing to do. A lot of y’all do it every single week, and some of you do it on the weeks where it is the only thing you do.
And to everyone who asked about my mom, who asked about the kiddo, who told me to slow down and then would not let me argue about it: thank you. You have no idea how much that carried me through this year.