Annual Budget Meeting

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

More Pat K Meeting Goodness

I made a quick stop-in with Pat K today to take care of some housekeeping stuff in preparation for the Tri and this weekend's OSU trip. Needless to say, between Patricia's meeting, Matt and I stopping to pick up the car racks, and my meeting today... Athletics has seen a lot of the CWRU Cycling Club in the past few days.

Triathlon Table Tents

Are approved! I know Jenna is busy getting a few of them up... but we need more folks to get into Fribs and Leutner to put them up both before and after spring break. Let's make sure to get these up, as tons of people see them. Other than the flyers that need to go up, this is one of the most important ways we can advertise.

Travel

The Itinerary has been approved! All the driver clearance papers have been filled out and signed. After I make another stop in later this week, we'll be good to go!

Reimbursement

Not that it really helps you guys, but I just submitted the reimbursement for hotels this weekend. Anyone interested in learning the process should send one of the officers an email, as many of you will need to file for it in the near future (race entry fees and travel costs). Let us know!

February 28, 2011

Triathlon Flyers
-Showed Pat the two flyers that Kristen made ("ribbon" and "text"). He said he'd forward the Ribbon poster to sports clubs as soon as I email it to him.
-Did put Triathlon flyers in coaches' Veale mailboxes.

Racing Trip this Weekend
-Racers do NOT need to sign an extra waiver if they'll be riding in private vehicles.
-As "trip leader," Ryan will meet with Pat within the next couple of days to submit the travel itinerary.
-NOTE that we get sports club points for filing Travel forms on time :-)

Goals (see googledoc)
-Pat read the goals that we've drafted and gave us comments.
-Goals are due tomorrow; email them to the Chair of the SCPC "goals" meeting.

Workshop in Olin space
-For the record, Pat doesn't know how we got the key (wink)
-He didn't object to our Goal to raise money in the Olin shop.

Reminder to Jenna, Erika, Garrett: Club of the Year submission is due on Friday.

2/12 Officer's Meeting

Sorry it took me so long to post this! Hope everything is accurate and up to date now!

2/18 Treasurer's Meeting with Pat K.

Sports Club Points
-PK confirmed that we have 71

Club of the Year
-Note from PK: Make sure our responses agree with these criteria that the Committee will use to pick the CotY:
http://studentaffairs.case.edu/athletics/club/manual/awards.html

The Workshop Key
-We CANNOT copy it and probably shouldn’t keep it in the issue room, because there’s too much risk of having the key fall into a non-member’s hands.
-Also, DON’T lose the key, because doing so will cost us $100.

Notes from 2/14 Meeting

Patricia and Garrett met with Matt Lake

Summertime Activities
Riders can race in CASE gear. Just don't plan on using Club money to fund summertime races.

Who Counts as "Staff" for Membership Purposes?
Rule of Thumb: If your ID gives you access to Veale, then you are a Case staff member and therefore can join the Cycling Club.

Sports Club Points for Presentations
The Club earns 2 points for each presentation that it gives to the SCPC.

Cycling's Current Sports Club Point Total: 75 (according to Patricia)

Racer's First Meeting Notes

Hey guys, just a quick rundown of what we covered at the racers meeting. Remember, if you want to get on the racers email list, e-mail Matt Demarest (mcd38@case.edu).

And now, the minutes:

I. Welcome

a. Introductions all around.

II. Housekeeping stuff

a. Emergency contact forms: All racers need to either fill out an emergency contact form or have a registered RoadID (or both). If not, you don’t ride that day.

i. Club members that present a filled out Emergency contact form when paying dues save $5 (and only have to pay $15)

b. Membership forms: Everyone needs one on file. If you filled one out last semester, you’re good to go. Otherwise, you need to fill one out and give it to Jenna.

III. Stern Race VP Lecture

a. If you’re going to race, you need to put in time and effort for the club. The vast majority of the club’s fundraising goes toward racing costs, which means that less than 50% of the club is supported by the efforts of everyone else. Make good on their commitment, put in time fundraising and training too.

i. The team decided that all potential racers should be training AT LEAST twice a week.

ii. We recognized that school and life happens, so all riders will be held to the “honor system” to explain to everyone else if training falls behind.

iii. All racers should also notify the team if they will no longer be able to attend a race (preferably WELL in advance), as to avoid problems related to funding.

iv. At the very, very least, all racers need to be “Members in Good Standing” which means you must attend one ride per week, the meetings, and the fundraising events.

b. If you sign up for a race, you should attend that race. If we have to get an extra room or allocate money for another car to bring extra people, they need to be there. Otherwise, the rest of the club is paying for your absence. Not cool.

IV. Finances

a. Currently, the club has $1,957.00 allocated for racing this semester.

i. This is $588 less than what we budgeted for (as we ended up taking a budget cut and removing one of the races from our lineup last year

ii. However, we also should have $160 more in dues/fundraising than originally anticipated.

iii. Race funding will cover transportation room/lodging, transportation, and race entry fees.

iv. Race funding will not cover licensing costs ($60 for USAC and Collegiate license)

V. Races

a. The club plans to attend 3 Collegiate Races: Ohio State (March 5/6), Notre Dame (March 26/27) and Michigan/Michigan State (April 9/10).

i. Racers are allowed to attend any of the other 5 races, but must do so on their own dime.

b. Other races (USAC/Dark Star) can be attended as well.

i. Again, this will be done at cost to the racer, until we do more fundraising!

ii. Many of these races are Saturday only races, and a large portion of them are close enough that lodging will not be required, significantly reducing costs.

VI. Transportation

a. Transportation will likely happen in student vehicles

i. All passengers will need to fill out waivers, attesting that they are aware that they are essentially traveling at their own risk.

ii. Drivers will be reimbursed based on IRS reimbursement rates (currently at 51 cents per mile for business miles driven, 19 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, and 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations). Patricia is going to double check with Pat K to make sure this is the case, and to get a hard copy of the rulebook.

VII. Lodging

a. All efforts will be made to ensure single-sex rooms.

b. Jenna/Erica to see if there is a written policy regarding this.

VIII. Non-Collegiate Racing (Team Ride On)

a. Those interested in continuing to race on a non-collegiate circuit should speak with Kevin Steiner about the possibility of joining Ride On, a racing team based out of Wooster, Ohio.

IX. Final assorted items (I know, ENOUGH ALREADY)

a. Someone is going to create a Race-specific listserv, so we don’t have to keep badgering the rest of the club with our ramblings. (Thanks Matt!)

b. Someone is going to post the link to the license information. (Thanks Matt!)

c. Someone is going to help me remember all of this.

a. Introductions all around.