How do you establish officers for upstart booster club?

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gymjuice

Brand new gym in a new town with only 3 or 4 team girls from the prior gym/prior town. None of us have been involved with a booster club before, coming from a YMCA. Going into a new town that is highly competitive, I'm afraid the coaches are going to have to turn girls away but none lined up yet, as it will be about 2 months before opening. There is not a sanctioned, competitive gymnastics program in this town at all right now. Never has been, just some tumbling classes offered with dance. The only sanctioned programs are 45 minutes away so knowing the people in this town, business is going to pick up extremely quickly.

My question is this...do I wait until we have a whole bunch of new team girls in the gym and then try to get a booster club going and hit these new parents with booster club dues and quotas and volunteer hours? Or do I try to get something established now with bylaws going into the new gym so that new team parents are aware of what to expect going into the program? If the 2nd choice, how is the board established and how are the officers chosen for an upstart gym and booster club with only a handful of team girls?

Any help would be appreciated so much as my DD is about to begin traveling quite a bit. She is 8 years old, L6, soon training L7, TOPs Testing...etc. Since the Y has been covering coaches travel costs previously, I feel it is imperative to establish something as solid as possible as soon as possible to help them with travel costs in their private gym.

Thanks!
 
Look in the section of previous posts under booster club for some great ideas from others regarding starting a booster club. It is a lot of work but well worth it. Don't expect too much right away.I would start by becoming a non-profit and that requires oficers and policy. Ask around at other clubs also some are great help. Best wishes to you.:eek:
 
Thanks, but I was wondering specifically about the establishment of officers and the timing, with the new gym. I had read the other booster club information a couple times and couldn't find anything that really addressed that issue.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just take the bull by the horns and say "ok, we have a booster club and I'm the president and here's the bylaws." Or if I'm supposed to wait until we get going with the new gym and new team and then get a bunch of parents together and toss some ideas around. :confused::confused:
 
I would contact some of the bigger gyms around you and get copies of their bylaws-you will have to write your own. I'm pretty sure you have to work officially- post notices of all meetings so all members can attend, and have nominatons and vote for officers. I'm sure you can find info online of all you need to oficially start and get tax exempt status. Once you start taking $ and taxes, you need to make sure you work within the guidelines of the law.

I also agree w/ the other poster- start small year one!
 
One person shouldn't/can't just set up a booster club. You need to contact the other team parents and see if they want to do this now and then start having some organizational meetings. Have to write by-laws, descriptions of the duties of the officers and length of terms, decide who would be on the board of directors, pick a name---set up a bank account(2 signatures for checks is a good idea) and start your 501c3 paperwork. There is alot of dull paperwork in getting started, but it has to be done. Don't expect to bring in thousands of dollars the first few years. You may end up being president by default if nobody else is interested in doing it. If nothing else get a few committees going to work on various aspects of the booster club so nobody is stuck doing it all.

If you get no immediate interest, then you may want to do research on your own and try drafting some by-laws etc. so when parents see the benefit of some type of parent organization, you'll at least have a framework.
 
That's very good information and I really appreciate it! That was my dilemma, how to approach the club start up with a start up gym and very few parents at this time. Thanks for addressing that issue, not that others haven't given great advice. It's just that even though I've contacted several of the booster clubs I'm familiar with and gotten copies of their bylaws, their booster clubs have long been established. So long that their officers can't tell me about start up.

Our coaches signed for their building Friday so everything is beginning to move quickly now. I know that once they open they are not going to know what hit them; with all the girls coming in to be evaluated and that will surely be put be on team. So I want to be prepared and I've talked to a couple of the parents I know are going with us and they support the idea of a booster club completely. I've already thought about the possibility of president by default just because I'm the one that has been talking it up, and I guess I'm up for the challenge. I'm sure I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. :rolleyes:
 

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