Membership fee increases

[LostOldTimer]

Been reading the latest Focus magazine (for the elite!) and the latest 2009 membership fees...
I know they have been voted on at the AGM, but an increase up to £20.00 for a Senior is an increase of OVER 20%... what with an increase in fuel costs, etc... and no real increase in the majority of peoples wages, this is just going too far... and what proportion is used for the benefit of the majority of members?
And replies comparing to the cost of membership to other sports is not applicable - it is the Increase that is just extortionate.

[SeanC]

Summary of the accounts below. To me it looks like good value for money since orienteers pay only a small proportion of BOF's income.

For most orienteers, the greatest expense is transport costs. Increasingly so in the future if predictions of $200 for a barrel of oil become true. Since the subject has come up, I argue that now is the time to increase BOF's income so that money can be spent on development and publicity to ensure that there are more events. This could save us more money than we spend by reducing our transport costs.

Income

From orienteers: (Membership fees and levies) : 206.5K
From the rest of the country: Grants and sponsership: 652K

Expenditure:

Membership services 74K:
Operations 34K:
International: 350K
Coaching: 32K
Development: 132K
Marketing: 34K
Administration: 150K

[Spookster]

To me it looks like good value for money since orienteers pay only a small proportion of BOF's income.

And that is a good thing, and a bad thing. Good, because it's nice that grants currently cover about 76% of BOF's costs. But also bad, because it means that with the leverage effect a 10% (for example) reduction in the grant funding requires a 32% increase in funding from levies and membership, just to balance the budget. Given that grant funding will reduce over the coming years, larger increases in levies and membership funding will be required.

For most orienteers, the greatest expense is transport costs.

Agreed. I reckon about £400 to £500 for me this year, just on travel, and excluding overseas events. And then there are costs of entries, accommodation and kit, all of which makes the cost of BOF membership a very small proportion (<2%) of what I spend annually on the sport. I realise others wil spend much less on travel and events each year, but even for them the BOF membership fee won't be the most significant item.

That's not to say that BOF membership costs and its spending effectiveness aren't relevant - they are. But there are likely to be more (and larger) increases in BOF membership cost and levies to come, and it's not "extortion"!

[LostOldTimer]

from SeanC:
From orienteers: (Membership fees and levies) : 206.5K
From the rest of the country: Grants and sponsership: 652K

Expenditure:

Membership services 74K:
Operations 34K:
International: 350K
Coaching: 32K
Development: 132K
Marketing: 34K
Administration: 150K

Looks like its money well spent then: Almost half the expenditure on 'International'!
The 'ordinary' orienteer hardly benefits either from money spent on Coaching or Development.


£20 membership fee as an individual amount, compared to the other costs involved in taking part, maybe small, but it is the percentage increase that is extortionate, which it is - over %20

[andy]

Perhaps a lot of the grants / sponshorships are coming in from certain sources who request they are used for these specific things?
The figures are unlikely to represent a single 'pot' which BOF can use in whatever way they feel.

The 'ordinary' orienteer hardly benefits either from money spent on ... Development.

what? depends how you define development, but I can't think of any way it can NOT benefit our sport as a whole.

[Gross]

Got to agree with LOT.... it's absolutely crazy that 50% of BOF income is spent on internationals.... that's £10 of the £20 membership fees.... just imagine how many people BOF could employ to look after bottom wiping policy if if contributed 650k to salaries etc

[distracted]

Perhaps a lot of the grants / sponsorships are coming in from certain sources who request they are used for these specific things?

Exactly - if LostOldTimer were to do a bit of research before mouthing off on here, the discovery would soon be made that the Sports Council funding has all sorts of caveats associated with it in terms of standard of international performances etc. Orienteering is very lucky to be one of the few non-Olympic sports that gets any Sports Council funding. Without the elite side of the sport most of this funding would not exist - of that 650k, 300k isn't being spent on the international side of things. Think how much your membership fee would be to cover that 300k as well... you think a 20% increase is steep!

[roadrunner]

Well you can prove anything with statistics

For example, the cost of "Administration" and "Membership Services" adds up to £224k,which is rather more than is raised from members (and non-members!) in fees and levies.

I will admit I don't know exactly what the distinction is between "Administration", "Operations" and "Membership Services" (the others are pretty explicit), but on the face of it they look rather high compared to "Development" and "Marketing", which seem to directly benefit the sport.

[SeanC]

I got my figures from the 2007 annual report http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/d ... Report.pdf. There is a bit more info on the categories.

I'm sure some of money could be spent in better ways. What organisation never waists a penny? I get the impression that we have a group of directors who are experienced and hard working and will ensure our money is spent wisely.

If only I could say the same about my bank, building society and pension fund.

[LostAgain]

But also bad, because it means that with the leverage effect a 10% (for example) reduction in the grant funding requires a 32% increase in funding from levies and membership, just to balance the budget.

This statement overlooks the other option, which is to reduce our budget spending inline with income expectation.

There should be no blank cheques, costs need to be kept under close control and we should live within our means.

It will be interesting to see what the true increase in revenue from levies an membership fees is. I suspect that the levie increase will raise far more than the +3% forecast.

[DM]

The introductory event we held last night, entry fee £1 to attract new people, which it did, got 76 runners. OK some were club members but a good number of people we have not seen before

Under next years scheme we would pay levy of £190, meaning if we kept entry fee the same a loss to the club of £114.

Do we 1) Raise fees to >£2.50 and hope people are not put off, 2) Fix fees between £1.50 and £2.50 and make sure we limit entries to 75 or less so avoiding the higher levy.

Help and ideas please..

[Spookster]

Help and ideas please..

I will help you work out the levy correctly . New Levy Proposal thread

First 75 runners - free. Then 76th to 249th runner - £1.50 each.
So your event levy under the 2009 regime is £1.50, or roughly 2p per person.

Well done on getting that many to an evening event, including several new faces. We've seen the same thing happening at evening events in Sheffield.

[DM]

Help and ideas please..

I will help you work out the levy correctly . New Levy Proposal thread

First 75 runners - free. Then 76th to 249th runner - £1.50 each.
So your event levy under the 2009 regime is £1.50, or roughly 2p per person.

Well done on getting that many to an evening event, including several new faces. We've seen the same thing happening at evening events in Sheffield.

I must learn to read....thanks for being so polite

[mappingmum]

Family membership is exceptional value at £30 pa.

When we both played hockey our club subs were about £200 pa (for both of us).

Orienteering is cheap.

[greywolf]

for some of us individual membership is already over £30....
still a fairly small %age of my expenditure on the sport mind