Parents Pros and Cons of a Booster Club

[JoyAvenueMom]

Some parents at our gym are interested in starting a booster club. I will be attending an initial meeting to explore our options sometime next week. The biggest purpose for the club is to set up a more effective fundraising vehicle to offset costs for travel and coaches fees. (especially fees for regional and national meets). For those of you who have been a part of gym booster clubs, what are the pros and cons of fundraising through this avenue? Do you have any other words of advice?

 

[gymdoc]

So we started this same process last year. We did a few fundraisers and raised a little money, but not enough to cover big expenses like meet fees or coach fees. The 2 biggest obstacle we ran into were parent participation and the IRS.

We had several parents that had talked to the gym owner about tuition assistance, so that was why we looked into it. Interestingly enough, those parents did not volunteer for even ONE event this year. Out of our 50 gym families, we had the same 10-15 parents volunteer at our 4 events. In order to raise more significant amounts, we felt we needed more like 30-40 consistent volunteers. So it came down to "forcing" everyone to participate by having the gym require volunteer hours as requirement of being on team. We decided we didn't want to do that.

Second was IRS regulations. It was recommended that we seek professional advice in filing a 501c3, but that costs money. Plus it requires that all funds be equally distributed to all team members. If we only had 10-15 parents volunteering, it didn't seem fair to spread that out among all the families. If you decided to raise funds for coaches' fees, the coaches need to submit receipts and the booster club pays them directly, which leads to more IRS paperwork. We didn't have any parents willing to take on that level of responsibility.

So we are keeping it low key. We don't use the term "booster club", instead we are a "parent association" (we actually have a more catchy name than that). We run our events cash only, and earned enough to pay for the end of the year banquet. We are actively working on getting parents more engaged and monitoring the number of people that volunteer, and may consider full 501c3 incorporation over the next few years.

 

[mommyof1]

Our gym's booster club serves primarily as a pass-through for competition expenses, which appear on an itemized monthly bill. There are some no-effort fundraisers (primarily linking grocery store loyalty cards) that raise a small amount of money to offset post-season competition expenses for the optionals who qualify past states. There is also a "scrip" program that benefits individual families that choose to participate.

The booster club structure is one of the many things that attracted us to this gym. We were previously at a gym where meet fees (but not meet coaching fees or competition apparel) were rolled into a hefty annual "assessment" that appeared to subsidize upper levels at the expense of lower levels, and also to funnel some money to the gym for "equipment," which seemed fishy to me. Parents were also required to participate in a number of burdensome fund-raisers, including working several shifts per year at a bingo parlor that allowed smoking (!), or pay large monetary penalties. No, thank you. I prefer being billed directly for my child's actual expenses and not being required to participate actively in any fund-raising. It actually ends up being less expensive as well as a smaller time commitment.

If our booster club hosted a meet and the proceeds were used to benefit the gymnasts in some merit-based and equitable manner (e.g., to cover travel expenses for gymnasts who qualify to regionals, or to cover all gymnasts' coaching fees for the state meet), I would have no problem volunteering at the meet. Otherwise, I am busy working to pay for gymnastics and trying to keep a household running, and I don't have time or energy for fund-raising.

 

[Gymmommy71]

I have been at Gym's without a booster club, and Gym's with a booster club - don't know much about the inner workings, but I can tell you that Gym's that have booster clubs are a lot more expensive and require a lot more parent time committment/work for the gym that those that don't. In theory you would think the opposite, but in practice it is not - at least in my area. Parents hear that a gym has a booster, and they know that means "expensive" - and that is for any level. My theory is that the overhead costs (lawyers, administration, etc.) far outweight the benefits.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I'm not a fan of boosters either. I've been involved with gyms with and without and vastly prefer without. I've always happily volunteered more than most, so that's not a part of it, but I've noticed that (1) it is more expensive when there is a booster (maybe because my DD was lower level?), (2) it breeds CGMs. Obviously these are just my opinions, based on personal experience. I'm not sure if the new gym will have a booster or not- they need a building first- and I'll be 100% supportive either way, but I definitely lean toward hoping not.

 

[flippin out]

I have been at clubs with and without. I personally prefer without or at least non-mandatory. Current gym is mandatory and forced volunteering and fundraising. I wouldn't mind if the forced fundraising and volunteer was on the short and sweet side, but ours is extensive and at times utterly ridiculous in it's requirements and I don't see a lot of individual benefits.......I'm sure it helps keep costs lower, but as I think our meet/coaches fees are much higher than other gyms around I'm still not seeing it.

I agree with the above poster -- being a part of booster club is more expensive--and I'm not even figuring in the 'cost' of the amount of volunteer hours that I have to do. If I figured how many hours I have to take off work in order to fulfill these hours I actually lose money!

If they would offer a way to "buy out" of having to participate I would take it and run.

 

[skschlag]

Our booster club is huge help. It is fantastic. It is not mandatory. In fact, you have to make a conscious decision TO join. Then the benefits are so worth it. I am not sure I could do it without. In fact, the gym we were considering switching to had higher tuition, higher fees, higher coaches' fees for meets, and no booster club.

 

[Seeker]

I have been at Gym's without a booster club, and Gym's with a booster club - don't know much about the inner workings, but I can tell you that Gym's that have booster clubs are a lot more expensive and require a lot more parent time committment/work for the gym that those that don't. In theory you would think the opposite, but in practice it is not - at least in my area. Parents hear that a gym has a booster, and they know that means "expensive" - and that is for any level. My theory is that the overhead costs (lawyers, administration, etc.) far outweight the benefits.

I have had the opposite experience. Yes, if there's a booster club there will be some responsibilities that go with that, but a well-run one can be hugely impactful on reducing expenses for all team members. It's hard to understand and/or see that when you're just starting out and are told you have to volunteer X number of hours but if your child sticks with the sport, it can have a big long term boost. Our BC spends about $1,800/per gymnast annually covering meet fees, coaching fees and apparel (Leo/warmup) expenses. Optional meet fees are more expensive, so the number is slightly higher for them, but overall the benefit for the class of gymnast (compulsory/optional) is equal across the board.

But not all programs run in that fashion....

 

[Sneezyone]

When DD was a compulsory gymnast, the benefits of the booster club seemed suspect and it was excruciatingly difficult to get my fellow compulsory parents (of which there were a lot compared to optionals) to participate. As the girls move up tho and get closer to L5/6 and optional travel meets, the benefits become more evident. The gym we went to had 70-80% of L4s progress to optionals. It felt very much like we, as compulsory parents, were extending a hand to the upper level girls and pulling the lower level girls along in the hopes of getting help for ourselves later. If your gym lacks that dynamic and team feel tho, a booster club will probably cause resentment.

 

[mommyof1]

I have had the opposite experience. Yes, if there's a booster club there will be some responsibilities that go with that, but a well-run one can be hugely impactful on reducing expenses for all team members. It's hard to understand and/or see that when you're just starting out and are told you have to volunteer X number of hours but if your child sticks with the sport, it can have a big long term boost. Our BC spends about $1,800/per gymnast annually covering meet fees, coaching fees and apparel (Leo/warmup) expenses. Optional meet fees are more expensive, so the number is slightly higher for them, but overall the benefit for the class of gymnast (compulsory/optional) is equal across the board.

But not all programs run in that fashion....

The key here is "well-run." At our old gym we were looking at paying around $1,300 out of pocket for booster expenses and useless competition attire for our daughter NOT to compete for her first year on team, then that plus several hundred dollars more each year once she started competing. On top of that, we would have had to do "volunteer" work or pay about $600 to buy out of it, and do other fund-raising. At the new gym, our out-of-pocket competition expenses for the first year (actually competing) were under $1,500, including a full set of competition attire.

 

[skschlag]

oh yea, none of that in ours. We pay nothing to the club. The club pays uniforms, meet fees, coach fees, travel, camp, USAG, etc.

 

[flippin out]

We still pay meet fees, coaches fees, booster fees, competition attire, camp fees, camp attire, travel fees on top of the required hours of volunteer (approximately 100+ hrs worth) and a set amount that HAS to be raised through fundraising ---so I would prefer to opt out of this if I could. The club that had no booster was much better for parent moral ....no resentment

 

[MILgymFAM]

Our booster club is huge help. It is fantastic. It is not mandatory. In fact, you have to make a conscious decision TO join. Then the benefits are so worth it. I am not sure I could do it without. In fact, the gym we were considering switching to had higher tuition, higher fees, higher coaches' fees for meets, and no booster club.

Clearly your gym's booster is exceptionally well run. Last gym of DDs had a booster. No cost to join (everyone was automatically joined), but volunteer hours were required. The team was a decent size, around 40-50 girls. We had the highest assessments I've seen around here, plus uniforms, choreo, etc. The only tangible thing I could figure the booster covered was the yearbooks/banquet. That's nice and all, but not at the top of my money priority list, tbh. New gym charges $20 per family for the banquet and has much lower fees in every other category. On top of everything it turned into a bit of a mean mom's club, but behind closed doors. I think the biggest problem is that when they are bad, boosters can be pretty bad. I am glad that there are good ones out there though!

ETA: how does the booster raise so much money? That's fantastic. That would have been well over a hundred thousand dollars for DDs team last year.

 

[skschlag]

We run bingo on Friday and Saturday night in town. It is a long weekend when you work, but you only work about 1 time every 6 weeks. It does make a lot of money.

 

[alongfortheride]

In my personal opinion, booster clubs/parents associations are great if you like drama, cliques, power struggles, that "back in high school" feeling, etc.

I don't see them as financially beneficial. When you calculate the hours of work fundraising and figure out the actual "pay" per hour, you would typically be better off working more and paying the fees directly to the gym.

Also, I think it is very difficult to keep them IRS-compliant. I believe many gyms are not in total compliance to the IRS regulations, and are running the risk of getting caught and fined. This was definitely the case with one of the parent's association at our previous gym (each team had their own association). Current gym has no booster club or parents' association, and I couldn't be more happy with that!

 

[Gymmommy71]

In my personal opinion, booster clubs/parents associations are great if you like drama, cliques, power struggles, that "back in high school" feeling, etc.

I don't see them as financially beneficial. When you calculate the hours of work fundraising and figure out the actual "pay" per hour, you would typically be better off working more and paying the fees directly to the gym.

Also, I think it is very difficult to keep them IRS-compliant. I believe many gyms are not in total compliance to the IRS regulations, and are running the risk of getting caught and fined. This was definitely the case with one of the parent's association at our previous gym (each team had their own association). Current gym has no booster club or parents' association, and I couldn't be more happy with that!

Haha! The bolded is so true! I've seen booster club drama cause athletes to leave gyms more than once - or basically a parent gets so fed up that they take their kid elsewhere when there was nothing really wrong w/ the gymnastics/coaching side of things. It's a shame that something set up to allegedly save parents money (when it really doesn't in the cases I've been able to compare) could cause a family to leave a gym, but it happens.

 

[bookworm]

In 17 years in the sport, I saw no "pros" to having a booster club...give me a club without one any day

 

[Flyaway]

We don't have one and I hope it stays that way!

 

[Committed]

DDs gym has a very well run booster. We host several meets a year & a seasonal booth. Yes, there is a large volunteer contribution, but I think the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Also, I agree about a lot of gyms being non-compliant. Check with a lawyer who is knowledgable about the requirements.

 

[GymMom4]

Our booster club is well-run and everyone is encouraged to help out at our hosted meets. Our biggest money maker is the concession stand at meets and rec showcases. All of that $$ goes to the team and is for all kids despite parent involvement/volunteering. Last year they made enough to help with uniform expenses. It pays for the awards banquet and things for the kids (a new personalized gym bag this year) and never for the coaches or equipment.

We don't tend to do a lot of other fundraising.

Yes, some gyms don't comply with the legalities of having a non-profit booster club but thankfully our owners are very careful about that.