Parents What does your booster club do

[roll123]

It seems our booster club is having some growing pain. As a new team mom I would love to have some ideas from all of you on what your booster club does, What responsibilities is has, what it pays for, and what fun things it does for the girls or fundraising.

 

[cbifoja]

We do the following:

• fundraisers (car washes, tumbling marathons, a few sales)
• host meets
• new team parent orientation
• birthday cards for each team member
• host banquet

We pay for the following:

• team leos/warm ups
• coaches fees (meet and USAG certification)
• camp costs
• banquet awards

If our gym didn't already take responsibility for team building activities, we would do those as well but the team concept is very important to our owner and coaches so they are very proactive with planning team building activities: lock ins, horseback riding, corn mazes, ropes courses, cookouts, swim parties.

 

[vagymmomma]

The booster club is responsible for the following:

• fundraisers (leo consignment sales, sleepovers, team shirt sales for parents)
• host home meet
• fall/holiday/summer team parties
• gifts for seniors
  We pay for:
• meet fees
• coaches travel expenses
• coaches training
• partial scholarship based on need
• banners for state, regional and national winners
• party supplies (i.e., pizza or chicken- families bring desserts, side dishes; pool rental for party)

In addition, we have a team website that we maintain. I'm sure I've missed some. The meet planning takes a lot of time.

 

[gymmiemom]

Our booster club pays for:

• Leos
• Warm Ups
• Coaches expenses
• We pay for certain meet fees each year. Usually the bigger ones, like large invitiationals that require significant travel and state. If we have the funds we pay for in state meets as well.
• Clinics that team attends
• A gift for the girls who make it to state each year.
• Annual banquet

We fundraise by

• throwing annual daddy daughter dance
• hosting our home meet and clinics
• We usually do 1 big raffle a year
• A few concessions stands throughout the year, but not very many.

Our goal as a booster club is to keep the expenses of this sport to the bare minimum for parents. We live in a very rural area and the dollars it takes just to travel to meets is significant.

 

[Seeker]

Our booster club pays for:
We fundraise by

• throwing annual daddy daughter dance
• hosting our home meet and clinics
• We usually do 1 big raffle a year
• A few concessions stands throughout the year, but not very many.

Im curious about what type of clinics you run....

 

[gymmiemom]

Im curious about what type of clinics you run....

All different kinds. It really depends on what our owner sets up for the year. They almost all involve our owner getting someone from outside the gym to come in and work on something specifically with the girls and whatever gymnasts in the state want to come. We've done dance clinics with professsional dancers, clinics with qualified coaches for specific events, etc. It's fun for the girls to learn from someone outside of their "norm."

We will also occassionally host just a fun clinic for kids from rec or cheer to come work with team on more advanced skills. BHS clinics, kip clinics......

 

[gymmomtoo]

We fundraiser, host an annual compulsory meet, co-host (with the gym) any State meet we can get. We use this money to pay for meet fees, coaches meet expenses, senior scholarships (not a ton of money!), and, if we have money, we pay USAG/State fees, clinic fees for the optional girls and some educational opportunities for the girls (haven't had money for that in awhile!)

We also maintain a website for the booster club where we try to put all team information and updates.

We also encourage and sometimes host team building get togethers.

 

[KCHAMP]

Just curious for all those who responded that your boosters pay for coaches travel, leos, meet fees, etc.

Do all gymnasts benefit from this regardless of whether or not their parents participate in the fundraisers?

 

[cbifoja]

Unfortunately.

Sent from my LGL55C using ChalkBucket mobile app

 

[htimcj]

Our booster club
chooses the meets with coach approval,
chooses the leo every two years ( a nightmare by the way)
collects and pays the meet fees for the team
pays the coaches expenses at meets
does an end of year banquet
various other group activties

 

[cbifoja]

Our booster club
chooses the meets with coach approval,
chooses the leo every two years ( a nightmare by the way)

So do you start the meetings with boxing gloves or just bring them out when needed?

 

[gymmomtoo]

So do you start the meetings with boxing gloves or just bring them out when needed?

Can't imagine having our booster club choose meets and leos! That would be a nightmare. One of our HCs does it and she doesn't take votes ;-)

 

[htimcj]

The meets are easy compared to the leis We tend to stay with the same group of meets every year. We don't have many localish ones to choose from so the main contention is what travel meets to go to. This year there seems to be a bit of contention with two of the meets. One is a large meet with an extra event final night that some parts want to go to because it is a fun meet. But the other meet has college scouts at it so others want to that one instead. In the past the meets have been on the same weekend but this year they aren't so we could technically go to both but then that puts four serious travel meets in a row. So it goes...

Now the leo thing much more annoying, some want bling, some don't. We are trying to keep the same colors to "brand" our gym so to speak but last year our "designer" had a hard time understanding this and kept adding colors. Had to keep telling her no... must be the same colors. So glad we don't have to do that this year!

 

[skschlag]

Our booster club runs concessions at our home meet, and runs 3 sessions of Bingo at a local bingo place.

We pay for: uniforms, meet fees, travel fees, coaches fees, USAG fees, clinics, camp each year including travel. (everything but tuition)

Only the members benefit from the club for the above things. Each year the club also does something fro everyone, like bags, sweatshirts, clinic, etc.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

This whole thread has my mind BOGGLED!!! Please tell me how much money all of this is. I ask because here are our meet fees/new leo/Gym Ontario fees:

I will use a provincial level 5-9 athlete as an example.

Registration Fee: $50
Gym Ontario Membership: $240
Choreography: $250/every 2 years $50 for polishing in the off year
Warm-up: $165
Training Suit: $45
Comp Suit: $225
Meet Fees: $750 (this includes the coaching fees/travel)

So that's over $1700 per season (if they need both a new suit (thank goodness not this year) And choreography!

And this does not include the travel meet or Provincial Championships.

We are trying a few fundraisers to offset the cost of the travel meet this year, we will see how it all goes.

 

[skschlag]

We roughly estimate that our booster club pays around $4000 a year for the fees/etc for the member gymnasts.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

We roughly estimate that our booster club pays around $4000 a year for the fees/etc for the member gymnasts.

EACH? How in the world do you raise that kind of money?

 

[gymmomtoo]

Ours is only about $1200 or so per gymnast. We host 1-2 meets per year where we raise most of our money.

 

[skschlag]

EACH? How in the world do you raise that kind of money?

We run Bingo every Friday night (1 session) and Saturday night (2 sessions).

 

[KCHAMP]

We run Bingo every Friday night (1 session) and Saturday night (2 sessions).

Every week? How many team parents work?