Welcome to
THE
VORTEX
One studio, two worlds.
Students & members
THE
VOYAGE
Make your account and you're in — book classes, manage your passes. It takes a few seconds.
Welcome back
THE
VORTEX
First time here?
Enter the email Andie invited you with. We just use it to pull up the place we are holding for you.
The Rite of Entry
So, you feel the pull. Good.
KUUMA trains many teachers and keeps a small, close team. That's not a closed door. It's a careful one. We're calling in teachers of every background and body who share our methodology: trauma-informed, heat-led, human first.
What follows isn't a résumé drop. It starts with creating your account, then a few questions we actually read, answer as yourself. However it lands, you'll be able to sign in and see where things stand.
i. Identity
Who are you?
The Vortex will remember you by this. It becomes your key if you are chosen.
ii. The Flame
Show us your fire.
iii. The Offering
Why you, of all flames?
Many apply. Few are pulled through. This is the part the Vortex weighs heaviest.
iv. The Vow
Before the Vortex takes hold.
Initiates who enter agree to the shape of this place:
It is done
The Vortex has received you.
Your rite is complete. You'll hear from us within the quarter. Sign in anytime to check where things stand.
Welcome back.
Your fate
The Vortex is still turning.
Your rite has been received. Decisions emerge with this quarter's review.
Your embers are your KUUMA points, same thing, two names.
✦ Every point here is time you chose to give the community. Seva is always your own choice, never something KUUMA asks of you.
🧚♀️
Hi, I'm Lumi! Welcome in 💛 Want me to show you around?
Everyday embers
Little treats you can claim on the spot, 110 points and under comes off right away.
Deeper journeys
Trainings and time with Andie. She confirms each one before any points come off.
Confirm
Points history
Every point (ember) earned and spent, your full record.
Team Calendar
Classes, covers, trainings: the shared schedule.
Contracts
Every agreement you have with KUUMA, in one place that cannot be lost in a drawer. Read it at 2am if you want to. The page runs top to bottom: where you stand, what to sign, how to change it, and how to grow past it.
Where you stand: money or points
Everyone comes to this page to clarify one of two things: am I getting paid money or am I accumulating points. Express your interest below, and the two columns underneath spell out both sides of the deal in plain language.
This agreement points both ways
Contracts can be a really positive and supportive thing. Most of us "perform" better when we know exactly what to do, and these assessments are designed to bring clarity and structure into the working relationships at KUUMA. If you have been feeling confused about where you stand, this is the natural opportunity to seek and find the clarity you have been looking for. This is our beta contract system, so please report any bugs if you find an error or disruption.
Paid teaching is always paid. The points system is there for the people who choose it, and it never replaces a paycheque.
Your schedule is yours to build. You tell us which classes you want to hold, and the roster grows out of what people actually ask for.
You are an independent contractor, and we treat you like one: real autonomy, and a real conversation any time something is not sitting right.
And one honest thing, named with love: KUUMA is a small boutique studio, so there are only so many paid spots each month. That is exactly why we ask the whole team what they want each quarter instead of guessing.
Teach KUUMA classes the koulu way, and give students the class they booked.
Trust the room. It lives at 31.5°C, and it holds that best when we let it be.
Hold our students with care. They are a community, not a client list: no selling to them outside the studio, no romantic pursuit, no looking anyone up.
Come prepared, invoice on time, and bring anything heavy to us early. We would much rather help you carry it than find out about it later.
Agreements
The studio agreements that need your signature, in one drawer. There are two today, and more will land here over time: photo releases, retreat waivers, event forms. Anything unsigned is waiting on you; anything signed wears its check mark.
My Personalized Agreement
The KUUMA Staff Agreement
The base agreement every teacher signs when they join. It covers most teachers as-is. The details (your rate, specialty roles, and so on) are set here and can be revisited at the check-in windows below.
Read the full agreement · 26 sections, both sides
Password & Security Agreement
Covers your MINDBODY and studio email access. Sign it to receive your login credentials, and to keep everyone's data safe.
Read the agreement
Grow into a paid teaching role
Ready to teach for pay? Apply for a paid role and enter at $30 a class. Everyone begins the same way, new grads and current staff alike, so we all start on level ground.
Changing your agreement
Signed does not mean stuck. Rates, roles, certifications, styles, and the whole shape of your work move through one door, and it opens four times a year.
Want to change your agreement?
Rates, certifications, roles, and agreements all move through the same door, four times a year. Doors open on the 15th of January, April, July, and October and close 15 days later, on the 30th. Andie then reviews for 15 days (reading, interviews, negotiation) and posts results on the 15th of the following month. Your contract stays exactly as it is until the next quarter opens, and it is renewed or changed at that point.
Not every application is a yes: rates, the monthly budget, and studio needs all play a part. But the doors open four times a year, every year. Submit on time, extensions are not provided.
Apply for a change
One door for everything about how you work here. It opens on the 15th, four times a year.
Apply · Team Review
One door, whether you are brand new or you have taught here for years. Rates, certifications, roles, the styles you hold, your whole agreement. Set aside twenty quiet minutes: the middle of this form is a mirror, and it asks you to look at your own room honestly before you ask to be paid for it.
Petition
Grow your revenue: workshops & private events
Studio classes are where you build relationships and get your reps in. Workshops, private events, retreats, and trainings are where teachers grow their own revenue, and there are two doors in. Both are open to you.
Run it as KUUMA programming
Teach something you uniquely create: an inversions or crow workshop, a specialty series, your own flavour. A lovely example is a 6-week "build your own home practice" series that you sell to a small group and guide over a couple of months.
We help advertise and it runs as an extension of our programming. Split is 70% to you, 30% to the studio. Ask before claiming a prime-time slot, and request KUUMA equipment if you need it (as long as it is free at that time).
Rent the studio and run your own
Have a following and a student base? Rent the space (when it is vacant and available) for $150 to $170 an hour and host your own workshop. You keep it all, and you handle payment, advertising, setup, and cleanup.
More risk, more reward. Request permission to use specialty gear (sound bowls, silent-disco headphones, flow props, anything beyond basic yoga props). It has to be genuinely yours, not a KUUMA offering renamed.
A quick line on what counts: a workshop has to be something you uniquely create and want to offer, not one of our regular formats with a new name (a silent disco called The Portal is ours, not a workshop). If you want to use KUUMA gear, just ask. We support this because we want you to thrive. Ready to pitch one? Send a Teaching Agreement request above and tell Andie your idea.
Give a teammate feedback
We grow by helping each other. Feedback here follows our CLEAR method: kind, specific, and non-violent. It is always signed, never anonymous.
Ask first, name the shared standard, offer facts (not diagnoses), name one strength, then invite one small experiment. One strength plus one next step. The teacher chooses what to keep.
CLEAR feedback
My Requests
Everything you have sent up, and where it stands.
The eye of the storm
Vortex Control
Draft an offer
Pick a teacher, choose how they're paid, set their terms, preview, and post it to their account for signing. Each teacher's terms are their own.
All agreements
Mint & burn
Award embers for tasks right here, any time. Teacher claims arrive under Sparks with an award button. Both mint instantly, so if you like the monthly rhythm, batch your approvals on the 1st.
Monthly import
Paste rows as Name, Points, Reason, one per line (copy straight from the EXPORT FOR VORTEX sheet or your monthly volunteer tally). Names must match staff accounts.
Full ledger
⛑ The census
One sweep across every account: who looks like a duplicate, who is missing from the door, whose role disagrees with the hats they actually wear. One person can wear several hats — ✦ teacher, ⚡ Exchange, 🎓 KOULU — and the census reads the rosters, never just the role on the account.
The mend is Andie's hand alone: every account in every state is read, the same person's duplicates are found by email, old merges and name, the account their sign-in actually lands on is kept, and every other one folds into it and parks. Old addresses are repointed to the kept door, so each person can only ever enter one way. Nothing is deleted, and any fold can be undone from the Accounts list.
🎥 The album shelf
Each teammate's shared Google Photos album rides the private data file (🔐 Private data in Control). One tap matches every album to the live account wearing that name · known nicknames count · and sets it on their homepage as their own reel. Tap it again any time the file gains albums or someone new signs up.
Built-in roster · the whole crew
Everyone from the payroll sheets and points records, balances included, nobody gets lost. Add an email and click Hold to open someone's place; until then they simply live on this list.
Seed the roster
Pre-approve your team so they can claim their place with their opening balance. One per line: Name, Email, Role (staff or admin), Opening points.
Held places (roster)
Accounts
Post a role
Open roles show on the front gate and in the application. Close them when they're filled.
Roles
Reports are coming
Once a few months of data build up, this is where your studio's numbers will live: points earned and spent, class and shift trends, redemptions, and team activity at a glance. Nothing to do here yet, it is parked and ready for when you come back to it.
⚖ What the 200 hour costs
Two ways in, and only two. This card is not a copy of the price, it is the price: it reads the same list the store reads, so nothing here can drift out of step with what a person is actually charged.
⚖ Tuition ledger
Every human who has put a dollar into the 200 hour, read straight off the sales export, July 2025 to July 2026. Tap a name to open that history line by line, set the deal you actually made, and record embers worked off against tuition.
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⚭ The weekend case
All thirteen weekends per student, like a pill case: a filled ✦ is a weekend completed in full, a half amber ◐ is a partial (hover it for the hours), an empty ○ is a hole. Under each case, exactly which weekends they sat and when · and for anyone paying weekend by weekend, the money line shows how close their spend stands to full-price tuition, and raises the ⚑ the moment they cross it, so the settle-up offer goes out at the right moment.
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✧ Energy Exchange
Every comped Energy Exchange membership in the same window. A lit dot means her most recent one falls inside the last three months, so she is still trading.
➤ Prospects
The people you want to lock it in with. Add a name the moment you think of them, before they slip. Every applicant who has not landed yet is already here, split by whether we ever actually asked them.