if the booster club raises money it has to be spread out. If an individual team raises money it can stay with that team. At least that's how it is here.
So tired of hearing "it's not fair" from other parents
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Always interesting to hear how others do it. So you only have 1 BC for the school? Each sport here has it's own BC.
Each sport has it's own booster club at DD's school. Girls and boys basketball separate their booster club. Only gate fees are redistributed.
Our school also has a school-wide booster club, plus individual booster clubs for each sport (I'm not sure if every sport has its own BC, but most do).
The school booster club handles sales of letter jackets and also gives out grants to any team that applies. Their money comes from sales of spirit wear and membership dues, which includes a weekly newsletter and calendar of events. Due to an interesting District policy, booster clubs can not pay for uniforms. We can raise money for pretty much anything else, but not uniforms. The District claims that it is an equity issue - if school A can't afford nice, spiffy uniforms, then school B shouldn't have them, either. I get that, but seriously - baseball pants from 10 years ago as part of the softball uniform? The girls end up all agreeing on one color of pants and everyone buys their own. Sort of an "under the table funded uniform" sort of a thing.
The individual team booster clubs raise money for equipment and the end of year banquet.
Gate fees are school specific during the season; some schools charge them for softball, some don't. I was at an away game last year and didn't know about the gate fee - I had no cash on me. It was an awkward moment - there I was, an hour away from home; the parent in charge couldn't really just turn me away, and I felt like a heal for not paying. Softball isn't exactly Football around here - the only spectators were parents and dragged-along younger siblings. In the end, I sent a check to the school's Athletic Director the next week. The AD called me to thank me personally, which was really nice. She and I had a nice conversation and she explained they used gate fees to try to offset the "per sport" fee that everyone has to pay these days for high school sports.
Gate fees during playoffs go to our state high school sports and activities governing body, which is kind of strange. Championship weekend is played at a big public facility (the same one used for the Fireworks tournament in the summer here) so I understand the gate fee policy there. Playoff games during the week prior are played at hosting schools. I asked around, and the school doesn't get to keep any of that gate money, even though they are providing the facility.
High School always seems to attract more rumors, politics, myths and truths than Travel Ball. There always seems to be one or two TB teams that have more than their fare share of drama, but drama seems to thrive in every High School team - I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because athletes have somewhat of a choice with TB teams, but no choice with HS - for the most part they play for the school that is in their district?
The school booster club handles sales of letter jackets and also gives out grants to any team that applies. Their money comes from sales of spirit wear and membership dues, which includes a weekly newsletter and calendar of events. Due to an interesting District policy, booster clubs can not pay for uniforms. We can raise money for pretty much anything else, but not uniforms. The District claims that it is an equity issue - if school A can't afford nice, spiffy uniforms, then school B shouldn't have them, either. I get that, but seriously - baseball pants from 10 years ago as part of the softball uniform? The girls end up all agreeing on one color of pants and everyone buys their own. Sort of an "under the table funded uniform" sort of a thing.
The individual team booster clubs raise money for equipment and the end of year banquet.
Gate fees are school specific during the season; some schools charge them for softball, some don't. I was at an away game last year and didn't know about the gate fee - I had no cash on me. It was an awkward moment - there I was, an hour away from home; the parent in charge couldn't really just turn me away, and I felt like a heal for not paying. Softball isn't exactly Football around here - the only spectators were parents and dragged-along younger siblings. In the end, I sent a check to the school's Athletic Director the next week. The AD called me to thank me personally, which was really nice. She and I had a nice conversation and she explained they used gate fees to try to offset the "per sport" fee that everyone has to pay these days for high school sports.
Gate fees during playoffs go to our state high school sports and activities governing body, which is kind of strange. Championship weekend is played at a big public facility (the same one used for the Fireworks tournament in the summer here) so I understand the gate fee policy there. Playoff games during the week prior are played at hosting schools. I asked around, and the school doesn't get to keep any of that gate money, even though they are providing the facility.
High School always seems to attract more rumors, politics, myths and truths than Travel Ball. There always seems to be one or two TB teams that have more than their fare share of drama, but drama seems to thrive in every High School team - I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because athletes have somewhat of a choice with TB teams, but no choice with HS - for the most part they play for the school that is in their district?
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Here's a good summary of how Title IX views booster clubs:
http://www.nmact.org/file/Booster Clubs and Title IX.pdf
http://www.nmact.org/file/Booster Clubs and Title IX.pdf
This is becoming more common as it helps ensure equity. What's a good reason NOT to have just 1 combined booster club?
Another item that seems to be happening is only 1 fundraiser per team. More than that it's deemed to be a team/community burden.
I believe a coach in our area did a non-sponsored team fundraiser beyond the 1 allowed. Money made may not have been properly documented? It may have been one reason that coach didn't have their contract renewed, um, I mean, decided to leave.
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Financial equity across all sports? That sounds like a recipe for disaster. The reason for more than 1 booster club is so the sports with active booster clubs reap the rewards of the hard work of their members, and it prevents others from leeching off the ones that put forth the effort.
My DD played her first year of HS ball this spring. She was the only freshman to make the varsity team and there were 7 juniors on JV. She started almost every game, most of the time behind the plate (the other catcher on the V was a junior) and she did a great job. But her batting wasn't as good as we had hoped it would be - mostly mental not physical but she still managed to hit fairly well with the most triples on the team. So I heard a lot of the same whining from the upperclassmen and parents of both the varsity and jv about how my DD was getting more playing time than the uppers and that freshmen should only be allowed to play jv, blah, blah, blah. Never mind that she has played travel ball for the last 3 years for 10 months out of the year, has taken hours of privates & camps, works her guts out at every practice and is just plain better than them...
WARRIORMIKE
Pro-Staff Everything
I just get tired of hearing parents complain about anything and everything
Actually I just get tired of "people" in general complaining and whining. Especially when people don't take blame for themselves
Actually I just get tired of "people" in general complaining and whining. Especially when people don't take blame for themselves
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Specifically, equity applied towards each gender within the athletic program (not necessarily each sport), that's the law.
If booster clubs raise money for a specific sport, that's fine, but then it is the responsibility of the district to correct the inequity by allocation of their own resources within the athletic program. That's also the law.
