Parents Booster Club Questions

[iggy1988]

Hey there everyone,

Long time no post. I have been viewing a lot lately just not posting as much. I am glad to see so many gymmies are doing well and having a fun year. I love reading the meet posts.

As far as Cait goes, not much of an update. She is preparing for level 7. Her first meet will be end of January. She is doing her floor to Vanessa Mae's Cotton Eye Joe. She loves it. She is in Houston at the TOPs B camp right now and it looks like, from the pictures, she is doing well. We only talked to her when she landed on Sunday.

Okay enough about that, back to my topic...Booster Clubs. I am trying to see what other booster clubs do, are responsible for and so on....

1. Does your gym have a booster club?
2. Are all parents automatically part of the boosters club?
3. What is the level of participation by parents? example, 25 team kids, 10 parents are involved for 40% participation
4. Does the booster club pay meet entry fees for each kid?
5. Does the booster club pay for the coaches time during meets?
6. Does the booster club buy christmas presents, throw parties, etc...?
7. Does the booster club pay for regionals, nationals, TOPs? Any competition that a gymmie has to have earned the right to go and represent his/her own gym?
8. What is the overall mission of your boosters club?
9. Are you involved in your booster club?
10. Do you pay fees apart from your tuition to cover meet costs and coaches expenses?

I know that is a lot but Jen and I are heavily involved in our booster club and we are looking at best practices and things like that. We are very curious as to how other booster clubs operate.

thank you in advance for your participation. We appreciate it...

Sean and Jen

 

[bookworm]

In the gyms we've been in , there have been booster clubs of one type or another. In our current gym, our assessment fees (paid to the booster club) cover all meet entry fees, coaches fees, team fees etc through Level 10 Nationals (if that is your level). It does not cover TOPS or any fees associated with that program. It also covers coaches gifts and parties (beginning of year, Christmas/Holiday, and end of year) . If you were a member of the competitive team, your parent was automatically in the booster club.

In our prior gym , the assessment strictly covered meet entry fees, coaches fees and team fees and only through States..after that, your wallet was bled dry. I had a huge problem with this approach because the majority (95%)of their upper level girls went to Regionals and Nationals but this type of system did not reward the excellence to which we should aspire...as a matter of fact, it penalized it...if your kid did well and made a Regional and/or National meet, you owed the booster club another 300-900 bucks!! On top of your original assessment.

Gym tuition was never used to pay any type of fees associated with any meet. I have been involved in booster clubs and I would be wary of doing it again.

 

[iggy1988]

In the gyms we've been in , there have been booster clubs of one type or another. In our current gym, our assessment fees (paid to the booster club) cover all meet entry fees, coaches fees, team fees etc through Level 10 Nationals (if that is your level).

Thank you for your response. Is your assessment fees paid one time or monthly during meet season. We pay 30.00 per year to be part of the Boosters and then we have meet fees for a six month stretch during meet season...

Sean

 

[bookworm]

I pay $330 a month for 4 months for my assessment. Per the boosters, all fees need to be paid BEFORE they will enter anyone in meets...and that is on top of the $375 a month gym tuition!! Off topic, I could have a really nice car...

 

[gym law mom]

Booster club is not mandatory at our gym. If you do join then you agree to work bingo which is the biggest fund raiser by far. Parents not in the booster club can still participate in fund raisers. This year all team parents opted to be in the booster club(think some of that was due to the economy). Booster club pays all meet/coaches fees and travel fees for the optionals that go to the out of state meets. Yes, they also throw a Christmas party and end of year banquet, but those will be scaled back this year----larger teams/less coming in through fund raisers.

We pay no fees to belong to the booster club. As for paying for girls going to TOPS etc., that is being reviewed. Regionals/sectionals etc. are paid for the coach and gymnast by they booster club. We do have required volunteer hours, but really they are not hard to get even if you're minimally involved.

 

[AGM78910]

Booster club

Our previous gym had a booster club. It was a 501(c)3 non profit.
We paid for coaches fees for the time they spent at meets and all their travel expenses. We also paid for travel expenses for the upper level gymnasts to go to travel meets.
All Team parents had to belong. We did lots of fundraising with garage sales, candle sales, meets etc. The fees started out at $50/year and have gone up since we left.
We did not pay meet fees or TOPs.
Most of the parents did not participate in the fundraisers and that caused a lot of hard feelings because most of the work that was done by a small number of parents but every child benefited.
I know of several gyms in the area that require the parents to contribute to the booster club either in hours or money.

Our present gym has no booster club, we just pay additional $600/year fee per gymnast. We can pay this out at $50/month but it has to be paid before competition season. We have about 20 girls on team and this seems to cover coach meet time and travel, and upper level gymnast travel. Any left over money goes for the Xmas and summer party.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

We do have a booster club and all the team parents are members. We do not have assessment fees or dues.

Once a month we host Open Gym to raise $. This $ is used to send girls to regionals if they qualify. Also we purchase banners for girls who finish 1-3 AA @ States,

we make goodie bags for the girls going to States. Thuds isn't really paid for by the booster club, people donate items.

I am in charge of makin sure everyone has a meet schedule as well as collecting meet fees and letting HC know who has or has not paid. We pay a flat fee per meet and the schedule includes the date by which the meet fee is due. Meet fee includes the actual meet fee + coaches fees per session & travel related expenses.

We also all chip in to purchase HC a gift which we give at the team Christmas Party.

At the moment I would say parent participation is about 95%. We have a very small team, about 20 girls level 3-9. Pretty much at least one parent for each girls is involved. And volunteering, a lot of times it is both.

I think I have now forgotten the rest of your questions!!!

We have missed you around so we are glad to see you back. Please be sure to tell us about all the fun Cait had at the Ranch when she returns.

 

[iggy1988]

Once a month we host Open Gym to raise $. This $ is used to send girls to regionals if they qualify.

We have missed you around so we are glad to see you back. Please be sure to tell us about all the fun Cait had at the Ranch when she returns.

the open gym sounds like a great idea. I may steal that...

I am glad to be back.. I will be sure to update when Cait returns...

Sean

 

[snowbound]

We used to have a booster club, but they didn't pay meet fees or coaches expenses. The parents have always had to pay an obligation fee (it goes up proportionally with each level, as it covers coach time and travel, and the higher levels go to more meets farther away).

What the booster club did was offer parents a way to fund raise their obligation fees. membership was free and automatic.

They did away with the booster club and went to mandatory parent participation on all fundraisers (they only do one or two) and if we want to supplement our obligation fees we can sell advertising in our ad book or buy banners inside the gym.

Snowbound

 

[cathiann]

1. Does your gym have a booster club? Yes
2. Are all parents automatically part of the boosters club? Yes,but parents have to leave a check for (currently) $150--if they do fulfil their participation requirements, we cash the check
3. What is the level of participation by parents? example, 25 team kids, 10 parents are involved for 40% participation Actually out of 50+ families typically we have to cash fewer than 5 checks, but we get about 50% participation at actual meetings!
4. Does the booster club pay meet entry fees for each kid? After the first year--yes. So far we've had enough money the last several years to pay all meet fees.
5. Does the booster club pay for the coaches time during meets? Yes
6. Does the booster club buy christmas presents, throw parties, etc...? No, but we have sponsored fun get togethers
7. Does the booster club pay for regionals, nationals, TOPs? Any competition that a gymmie has to have earned the right to go and represent his/her own gym? We pay for entry fees for those, but not travel expenses--except TOPs, since most of the girls that do that aren't yet on the team
8. What is the overall mission of your boosters club? to help support the girls team--I don't remember if we have exact words or not
9. Are you involved in your booster club? Yes, this year I'm the secretary. The last few years I was the chairperson (not as impressive as it sounds!)
10. Do you pay fees apart from your tuition to cover meet costs and coaches expenses? Yes, the team fee each year is like $400 or something--that pays for insurance, etc. it goes to the team, though, not the booster club

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

the open gym sounds like a great idea. I may steal that...

I am glad to be back.. I will be sure to update when Cait returns...

Sean

If you want add'l info on how we do it, feel free to PM me?

 

[mariposa]

This info is based on Abby's new gym she has been at for awhile now

We have no booster club at Abby's gym. We pay an assessment fee before fall season of $200 and if they are going to do a spring season we pay one of $115. Can't remember what it covered, but something about up keep of equipment, coaches training, etc. Meet fees are usually set at the beginning and we are told approx what they will be, they include the actual meet entry fee, coaches fees and travel related expenses.

We do have a 501c thing, but it isn't ran by the parents. I heard that they had a bad experience with parent run booster club years ago and that is why we don't have one. We do get to fundraise and host 2 meets a year. We don't do a lot of fundraising. We have to work one session at each meet we host, but can work more if we want. We are "paid" by the hour and that money goes into our individual account and can only pay for meet fees, leos, etc, not tuition, same goes with the fundraising. I have heard that the meets actually are fundraisers for the optional team, but not sure if that is true. We have no booster club meetings to attend.

It is more expensive than our old gym, BUT at old gym we were nickel and dimed with little required expenses that you just ended up paying out of pocket and it ended up almost the same unless you were a huge fundraiser, which we aren't.

Previous gym DID have an actual booster club, here is how they did it

1. Does your gym have a booster club? YES
2. Are all parents automatically part of the boosters club? YES and you had to attend monthly meetings. If you missed more than a certain number, you were assessed a fee of some sort.
3. What is the level of participation by parents? 100%
4. Does the booster club pay meet entry fees for each kid? Booster club paid 10% of the actual gymnast entry fee and covered coaches/travel fees as well.
5. Does the booster club pay for the coaches time during meets? Yes.
6. Does the booster club buy christmas presents, throw parties, etc...? No.
7. Does the booster club pay for regionals, nationals, TOPs? Any competition that a gymmie has to have earned the right to go and represent his/her own gym? Not sure as my DD wasn't an optional and gym didn't do TOPS. But I heard that it did cover quite a bit as we were always told that it was a lot as a compulsory, but we would be thankful once our DDs got to optionals.
8. What is the overall mission of your boosters club? To help the gymnasts fund their sport.
9. Are you involved in your booster club? Yes, I was.
10. Do you pay fees apart from your tuition to cover meet costs and coaches expenses? Yes. When your daughter first got on team, you paid a flat one time fee. For level 4s in was $150 and it went up to $400 for L10. Reasoning was that as you went up in levels, you required more FROM the booster club. We also had many fees we had to pay through out the year if you couldn't get it donated or fundraised that totalled about $250/year (concessions donations $50/meet, yearbook $100, various raffle ticket sales, etc). Plus you had to work about 25 hours at the 2 yearly meets that were hosted.

--------------

I have to say that what I loved about the booster club was that it made the gym feel more like a family. Especially working the meets (though I felt that at our new gym's meet this year, too). I feel like I knew more parents and their kids, too. It was fun sometimes, but also could be very difficult for some families to meet the commitment required from the booster club, both financially and time wise.

Good luck Sean and Jen making your booster club better. If anyone can do it, it is you guys!!

 

[fruitcake]

Here is how our booster club works:

1. Does your gym have a booster club? YES
2. Are all parents automatically part of the boosters club? YES
3. What is the level of participation by parents? example, 25 team kids, 10 parents are involved for 40% participation
4. Does the booster club pay meet entry fees for each kid? NO, YOU CAN DO INDIVIDUAL FUNDRAISERS TO EARN THIS IF YOU WANT
5. Does the booster club pay for the coaches time during meets? YES, THEY GET X AMOUNT PER SESSION THEY COACH
6. Does the booster club buy christmas presents, throw parties, etc...? ONLY PLAN YEAR END BANQUET AND TAKE CARE OF GIFTS TO GIRLS AT BANQUET AND AT STATE
7. Does the booster club pay for regionals, nationals, TOPs? Any competition that a gymmie has to have earned the right to go and represent his/her own gym? WE DON'T DO TOPS, BOOSTER CLUB PAYS FOR REGIONALS/NATIONALS
8. What is the overall mission of your boosters club? TO SUPPORT THE GIRLS
9. Are you involved in your booster club? HAVE BEEN VICE PRESIDENT AND MEMBER AT LARGE
10. Do you pay fees apart from your tuition to cover meet costs and coaches expenses? YOU HAVE TO PAY YOUR CHILD'S MEET ENTRY FEE; IF YOU CHOSE YOU CAN DO FUNDRAISING--COOKIE DOUGH, MAGAZINE, ETC

EACH FAMILY MUST HELP WITH THE GENERAL FUNDRAISERS WHICH COVER THE COACHES FEES AND COACHES EXPENSES RELATED TO TRAVEL. THOSE FUNDRAISERS ARE A POKER TOURNAMENT AND 1-2 HOST MEETS/YEAR

 

[mpkbt]

In reading a lot of these posts, I would be very careful about not violating both non-profit rules and NCAA rules.

If your booster club is non profit...everyone must be a member and you can't require anything from them. All proceeds must be distributed equally to all memebers of the booster club regardless of participation.

Per NCAA rules( I am still learning these) A gymnast cannot be paid for her participation in gymnastics....some of the ways that a booster club distributes money would be classified as this.

I am sure there are members out there that have a better understanding of both sets of rules........I just wanted to broach the subject.

 

[iggy1988]

I want to thank everyone for their responses. This helps a lot and I want to encourage more people to respond if they can. I would really like to get a nice sample of responses...

On the Cait front, she arrived home safe and sound today full of excitement and energy.. The first thing she told me was that Chellsie Memmel stretched her five times... LOL..

Sean

 

[thnkGd4kds]

Good luck Sean and Jen making your booster club better. If anyone can do it, it is you guys!!

That's so sweet, Mariposa! Thanks.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

My daughters gym has a booster club that all parents are members. They do fundraising and our assessment fees go towards all the meet fees coaches expenses and other things such as team banquet airfare for the the optionals to travel to meets. Assessment fees are based on what level your daughter is competiing such as optionals pay more because they go to out of state meets. Every family has to run a fundraisers so everybody has to participate these are usually easy to do and each family has its own account so if you partcipate by fundraising that is money toward your own account. At the end of the season any extra money you have in your account you can use towards summer tutition. Last year I had half of our summer tution credited because I had extra money in my account.
Our gym seems very organized and our headcoach owner oversees the booster club so this seems to keep it fair between parents and it also helps avoid conflicts.

 

[Gymdad2]

Panda Girls Mom,

I don't want to be a wet blanket here because it sounds like your booster club is very well organized and effective in support of your girls, but if your club is registered as a non-profit 501-3c (IRS designation) then I would advise your club to seek some advice from a tax accountant or tax attorney about the 501-3c rules regarding distribution of funds. Our club was audited by the IRS a few years ago (we passed TG) but we learned a whole lot about what is legal and what isn't. We also learned a great deal about potential fines and penalties.

Please understand that I am not saying that you are doing anything wrong, but I would reccommend seeking professional advice as these rules are very complex.

Good luck

 

[gym law mom]

PGM-
Not trying to dump on you and your booster club. I'll bet each of us that belong to booster clubs have something they do that is in a gray area or just not "legal." My concern for your situation is the HC/owner being involved. Since they are in a "for profit" business, they cannot be in any way a part of your 501(c)3 organization. That totally crosses the line.

 

[mariposa]

You would think with as many gyms as there are in the US, that someone would write a really consise book on how to legally run a booster club, methods, etc. Someone with either a legal background OR someone who would consult with the IRS, etc.

Maybe an idea for someone who enjoys that kind of stuff. I think that many gyms just don't realize the legalities of it all and it IS very confusing.