MAG how common are mandatory booster clubs?

[SPX]

I've vaguely known for a while that our gym has a parent booster club. I just found out that if a gymnast is on team, the gymnast's family is automatically a member of the booster club and required to pay an annual fee and a number of assessments that cover meet fees and coach travel and compensation for the meets and such. It also seems from the meeting minutes of said booster club that they have 501-3c legal issues. In the by-laws it states that if the booster dues and assessments are not paid the gymnast cannot compete. I have no problem paying the valid meet expenses to the host gym and USAG or whoever the governing organization is and coaching expenses but I don't want to put myself at risk by becoming a member of a non-profit that I know has legal/financial trouble. There does not seem to be any way to opt out of this except to leave the gym.

I am wondering how it is that the parent club can dictate who is and isn't allowed to compete on the gym's team (assuming the meet fees and coaching expenses are paid to the host gym and coaches). In short whose team is it, the gyms or the parents club's?

I'm also wondering how common mandatory booster membership is? why not make it optional? Heck if they didn't insist on membership, I'd probably even donate to support the gym as a whole.

Also, it seems that the mandatory nature of membership is contributing to the legal difficulty with the 501-3c status. It makes it difficult to argue that the booster club is a separate non-profit entity when they are so tightly enmeshed in the financials of a for profit gym.

At the moment I'm just curious as team is only a possibility. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[skschlag]

I hear about those all the time and it does baffle me. Our booster club is completely separate from the gym in all ways except...a. the gymnasts are at the same gym, b. we meet in one of their rooms.

We elect to join the club. We then participate in raising funds and we all share said funds.

I am not sure how I feel about the ones where you have to join and pay fees...how does that help?

 

[MILgymFAM]

We don't have a booster club at all, and our whole gym is a non-profit, but I have been curious too. What's the point of the mandatory boosters with fees? Wouldn't it be simpler to just have the parents pay meet entry and coaches fees directly?

 

[curlymop]

We don't have a booster club. Coach adds up meet expenses and coaches fees at the beginning of the season and divides it up between the number of boys on the team. That amount is paid in installments to the gym. Last season we hosted a meet, and our team account was credited an hourly rate for hours worked the weekend of the meet. There hasn't been any organized fundraising that I know of.

 

[Gymdad2]

Many youth sports programs have a booster club and the purpose of them is to provide a means through which parents can provide both financial and non-financial support to the team. The more expensive the sport, the more value a booster club has. Club gymnastics is one of the more expensive sports due to meet fees, coaches fees, etc and a well-run booster club can make a significant contribution to help with the cost. When dd first started gym our booster club was new and not well organized and fund raising was limited to selling things like cookie dough and wrapping paper to friends and family which got old for everybody pretty fast, but as we grew and learned we found that there is real money out there and after we started putting on a meet, (and later getting state and twice regional meets) collecting meet fees, admission fees, concession money and selling adverting it began to really support the team. We got to the point where the club paid all meet entry and coaches fees and expenses, put on the awards banquet and even donated some new equipment to the gym. IMHO a booster club is only as good as the effort that parents are willing to put into it, and it can be a lot of work, but working together brought the parents together and gave us sense of having a common goal and being part of the team. Making your club be successful takes time and work, but it can pay off big dividends if you make it happen. Good luck.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Many youth sports programs have a booster club and the purpose of them is to provide a means through which parents can provide both financial and non-financial support to the team. The more expensive the sport, the more value a booster club has. Club gymnastics is one of the more expensive sports due to meet fees, coaches fees, etc and a well-run booster club can make a significant contribution to help with the cost. When dd first started gym our booster club was new and not well organized and fund raising was limited to selling things like cookie dough and wrapping paper to friends and family which got old for everybody pretty fast, but as we grew and learned we found that there is real money out there and after we started putting on a meet, (and later getting state and twice regional meets) collecting meet fees, admission fees, concession money and selling adverting it began to really support the team. We got to the point where the club paid all meet entry and coaches fees and expenses, put on the awards banquet and even donated some new equipment to the gym. IMHO a booster club is only as good as the effort that parents are willing to put into it, and it can be a lot of work, but working together brought the parents together and gave us sense of having a common goal and being part of the team. Making your club be successful takes time and work, but it can pay off big dividends if you make it happen. Good luck.

that ^^^

 

[ShesAMonkey]

This is something I have done some reading about since joining CB but I'm still very confused about the legality of it all. At our gym, membership in booster club is automatic. Each girl has their own "account" within the booster club. When we do fundraising, the money that my DD raises through the fundraisers goes directly into her account. The booster club pays for meet fees and coaches' fees out of each gymnast's individual account. If there is not enough money in there from fundraising to cover the fees for the season, we have to add money to our account to bring it up to a certain balance. We are warned that if we don't have a balance of $xxx by a certain date, our daughters will not compete. Twice a year, we are assessed a (relatively small) general fee, which the booster club uses to buy equipment for the gym, etc.

...I'm not sure whether any of this falls into the realm of "legal" as far as booster clubs go.

 

[cbifoja]

This is something I have done some reading about since joining CB but I'm still very confused about the legality of it all. At our gym, membership in booster club is automatic. Each girl has their own "account" within the booster club. When we do fundraising, the money that my DD raises through the fundraisers goes directly into her account. The booster club pays for meet fees and coaches' fees out of each gymnast's individual account. If there is not enough money in there from fundraising to cover the fees for the season, we have to add money to our account to bring it up to a certain balance. We are warned that if we don't have a balance of $xxx by a certain date, our daughters will not compete. Twice a year, we are assessed a (relatively small) general fee, which the booster club uses to buy equipment for the gym, etc.

...I'm not sure whether any of this falls into the realm of "legal" as far as booster clubs go.

Two red flags are individual accounts and equipment purchase.

 

[2G1B]

It is my understanding that the booster clubs are NOT allowed to buy equipment for the gym since the gym is a for profit entity. The gyms that my kids are at now (one DD is at a different gym than the other two kids, it is just a better fit for her) both have booster clubs and neither pays for any equipment. I think that there is a lot of grey area with most gym booster clubs. Our last gym was a not for profit - the entire gym. There was no booster club, the HC just sent us invoices for all of the meet fees. We didn't pay coach's fees, they were paid for by the gym.

 

[SPX]

Thanks for your responses. For those of you looking into legality I found these two overviews.
http://parentbooster.org/Resources/Documents/Cooperative Fundraising Activities white paper.pdf

and one more:
Link Removed

What is and isn't OK depends on whether the booster club is a non-profit or a for profit. My understanding is the for profit can do any sort of individual accounts and fundraising they want but it is not tax deductible.

Update on our gym: I spoke with a representative of the booster club and it seems they are rewriting the bylaws with the help of a lawyer. Membership will voluntary and funds will benefit the entire team. Non-members can help with fundraising and other activities. It seems they will still be handling the collection of meet fees and such.