Anon Booster Club Setup

[Anonymous (0d9c)]

My daughter recently joined a gym and was quickly moved up to the competition team. I started coming to booster meetings and getting involved in the fundraising. At our gym, the booster club 501c3 was established by our gym owner and she's the Director although there were voted in members such as our Treasurer, President, & Secretary (I'm not sure if there was a VP or other officers). We recently found out that none of them in the voted in positions actually manage the booster bank account or financial records. The gym owner manages this along with her lawyer and accountant and they said that its completely above board. The gym owner recently came to our meeting and said there had been questions about how the club was set up and reiterated that she was the director and had to approve anything done with the booster name. Then the very next day sent out an email that the booster club was being dissolved and that we could fundraise but not using the gym name or booster name in any fundraising. It was all very abrupt and really odd to myself and the other new parents I talked to.
Up until recently, my son was involved in travel baseball for a couple years and I did fundraising for our booster club there but there was never coach involvement beyond just giving advice sometimes and making suggestions. Has anyone else been involved in a booster club where the club and the gym were so closely connected? Not sure what to do here. My daughter really seems to love it but this is all still very new to us so I think we could easily adjust to a new gym. There is another gym close but I hadn't heard great things about them either.

 

[Anonymous (f854)]

In a 501c3, the gym owner (owner of the for profit gym) cannot be involved with decision making and financials of the booster club. It is a conflict of interest. Now if the gym is a non-profit as well, I think there are some loopholes. I am thinking this is why they are dissolving.

 

[Anonymous (a349)]

Oh this is all kinds of illegal. If the gym is a for-profit the owner can have NOTHING to do with the boosters.