Booster Club Questions

iggy1988 · #1 12-08-2009, 01:19 PM

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 · #2 12-08-2009, 02:07 PM

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 · #3 12-08-2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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).

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 · #4 12-08-2009, 02:19 PM

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 · #5 12-08-2009, 03:02 PM

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 · #6 12-08-2009, 03:08 PM

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 · #7 12-08-2009, 05:39 PM

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 · #8 12-08-2009, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gymmomntc2e6

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 · #9 12-09-2009, 04:00 AM

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 · #10 12-09-2009, 05:37 AM

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