Fundraising question

Got a question for some of you seasoned TB parents. Got a call from the "team mom" if you want to call her that...anyways, she notified us that this weekend we're hosting a friendly & we have to donate $20/kid (both my girls are on this team) for snack bar supplies to sell during our friendly. Also, we have to donate some coffee & donuts as well. Oh & we have to work the snack bar as well for 3 hrs either Sat or Sun. This "fundraiser" is to purchase team equipment, helmets, bats, etc.
This caught me off guard since nothing was mentioned of this last Sun when we gone done play a 3 game friendly. Only thing mentioned ws we "may" play a friendly this weekend, nothing set in stone. We've been rained out so far this week, so we haven't had practice. This we just thrown at us about an hour ago. Question is, does this happen on a regular basis? Nothing was ever mentioned about having to do this stuff such as donate $$ & supplies & time for fundraising type events. This is the first time we've gone full time TB & it's not starting off too well. Just ranting cause it's kind of irritating not knowing week to week what's going on!!! We're about ready to jump ship....

Welcome to travel softball. I would pay your 40 bucks. Work your 3 hours. And smile because your kids will be having fun. And don't forget to thank the "team mom."

^^^^ This unless the team contract you signed said your $500-1500 yearly dues was for helmets and equipment in that case I would ask for a copy of the monthly bank statements because they are obviously not doing what they said they were doing with the money so exactly what are you doing with it?

Terror Coach said:

Welcome to travel softball. I would pay your 40 bucks. Work your 3 hours. And smile because your kids will be having fun. And don't forget to thank the "team mom."

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Yup. Welcome to travel softball.

I'm almost at the end of my DD's travel ball career but the way I think I've survived all these years and made a lot of good friends (DD has too) during the process is just shut up, help and donate when I can and enjoy watching my DD play. It goes too fast to sweat the small stuff.

Yep, Like others said, welcome to travel ball. Everything is expensive, from paying for practice time on fields, to equipment, uniforms, to paying for umpires. Everything costs money. Are they using the parent money to buy the food etc, and then giving that back to you afterwards? That would make sense to me. What ever profit there is goes to the team. Of course if you want to just leave your seed money to the team, that would be appreciated. (expected)

Well, it sounds like bad planning and/or communication and it's as likely the coach as the team mom. Or both, who knows. $40 is a tiny drop in the bucket for travel ball. Teensy, teeny tiny. If you're concerned over that amount of money it is probably wise to get out now before you get hooked and go bankrupt. But on the flip side I think it would be reasonable to ask for more notice on these things, and better communication.

Ask a lot of questions till the team moms gets almost annoyed with you. That why they will always keep you involved on those group text. Just so you wont annoy them again in the future.

Travel Ball is fun, but lots of work

I agree - pick your battles and just roll with this one. I met up with some fellow moms last night - two of them have kids in travel soccer. One of the kids used to play in an organization which decided to re-organize their teams. They took two teams last spring and combined them, re-shuffling the girls into an A squad and a B squad. Both teams practice an hour away, at the same time. The A and B girls all know each other, so the parents thought, "well OK, we can still carpool". Except now the A and B coaches keep individually shifting practice times, adding in last minute practices, etc. Good-bye carpool, and good-bye use of the HOV lane during rush hour. One of the A squad girls has to leave school early so she can make it to the pre-practice conditioning sessions. One of the girls on the B squad was told last summer that she had a good chance of making the A squad, but that she would have to attend a week long tryout camp. Her family CANCELED their long-planned and payed for trip to Italy so the girl could go to the camp. At the end of the camp, you guessed it, the girl was cut and relegated to the B squad. This is 13U soccer. So, OP, your situation could be worse!

The $$ issue doesn't bother me...I know it's going to be expensive for TB & with both of my girls playing it'll be two fold. What irritates me the most is that the lack of planning. Throwing this on us with 2 days notice is what irritated me the most. I know weekend life will evolve around TB, but come on, give us at least a week's notice...I mentioned in my original post that the coach said we "might" have a friendly when we asked after last weekend's friendly. If he would've said I have this in the works & you may have to donate your time & $ I would've been ok with that!! I know I'll just suck it up, but I feel an uprising brewing cause I know some of the other parents are a little more livid! Oh well...play ball!!

Bigflipdaddy said:

The $$ issue doesn't bother me...I know it's going to be expensive for TB & with both of my girls playing it'll be two fold. What irritates me the most is that the lack of planning. Throwing this on us with 2 days notice is what irritated me the most. I know weekend life will evolve around TB, but come on, give us at least a week's notice...I mentioned in my original post that the coach said we "might" have a friendly when we asked after last weekend's friendly. If he would've said I have this in the works & you may have to donate your time & $ I would've been ok with that!! I know I'll just suck it up, but I feel an uprising brewing cause I know some of the other parents are a little more livid! Oh well...play ball!!

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It's fall. I'm guessing it's a new team. Probably 10 or 12u? Coaches saw an opportunity and are probably just trying to give the kids a few games and maybe raise a little money. Unfortunately that stuff usually needs volunteers to help make it happen. It's early. I'm sure it will get better as the coaches settle in with this team and get a schedule out. IME some coaches just aren't good at communicating with team parents. Usually they pick up a parent who is good at all the admin stuff and things tend to go better.

Personally I would rather just get all the fees up front and forget fundraising altogether. I end up buying anything we have to sell anyway.