Hey all:
I know the officers have been silent lately. I'll write it off as indicative of the outrageous amount of work we've been doing lately. Seems reasonable, right?
To those of you who scoff (yeah, you), SHAME. Tonight was the annual budget meeting. Its an agonizing 3 hr time suck of a meeting that usually involves yelling, tears, and a fistfight or two. Your officers have returned from battle unscathed and victorious.
Yes, that's right, they didn't cut ANYTHING from our budget. It was certainly an eye-opening experience for me. There are clubs out there that pay for their own transportation, race fees, their own coaches, etc. Many of them drive day of to tournaments that are hours away or stay at Motel 6s. Outside of your membership dues, jersey's (which the club couldn't pay for anyway, there's a rule against it) and your USAC license (which all racers end up buying), you don't have to pay for anything. Also, be happy that you don't have to pay 650 in dues like Ice Hockey. Ouch.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not sure we made any friends among the other sports clubs. Many of them took issue that we have a $5000 budget, and asked for nearly $2000 from Athletics. A few voiced concern that we budgeted $600/weekend for hotels (which, to be honest, seems like a lot in retrospect... maybe we should get cheaper hotels...)
The main reason that we didn't go under the chopping block was that our club has accumulated so many Sports Club points. In the past, these were essentially pointless, but this year, the clubs with the least points went under the chopping block first. Those with the most got to wait until later in the meeting. The theory here is that the clubs that are active, turn in paperwork on time, help keep the sports club council functioning well, meet with Pat, etc are the clubs that deserve the highest percentage of their "ask" from athletics.
GIven that there is a fixed amount of money to distribute to the 12 clubs ($13,000), and that the clubs had asked for some $14,500 or so, the Sports Club Presidents Council had to get rid of about $1,500. We were able to shake down Kendo, Taekwondo, Volleyball, and Ultimate Frisbee for that amount, meaning that Cycling remained unscathed (which, I would argue, is largely because we are GREAT at keeping the University happy, meaning we didn't even end up under the Council's lens). Kudos to the officers!
A few take-home points: Case Cycling needs to keep up its habit of getting everything done and turned in efficiently. Officers need to continue meeting regularly with Pat. Patricia has been FANTASTIC at this. We wouldn't have been able to walk out of the meeting with the Budget intact if this wasn't the case.
We also have to keep kicking ass at the races. If we have a poor showing, the Council is going to ask next year why we took $2000 and blew it. Lets keep the momentum we've started building and carry it through to next year's membership drive and race prep through the winter.
Fundraising is something we need to improve at. Ultimate Frisbee has a $15,000 budget, and they only need $2000. We have a $5000 budget, and we got the same amount. This needs to change. Many other big-budget clubs are bringing in thousands more than we are, and it looks bad... lets solve this in the coming years. One way we might be able to do this in a few years is to host a race. Lets get the cogs turning and come up with something here.
That's all I've got. Keep up the good work, and thanks so much for your support!
-Ryan
