Post by DPU-Lange-1 on Nov 18, 2010 13:23:44 GMT -6
Something that I would say can be considered one of the most important things to a club dodgeball team, but something that rarely gets discussed is funding. The only time this ever comes up is when someone makes a comment about how little funding and money their team has. I thought it might be beneficial if each team discussed how their club is funded, whether it is funded directly by the school, if you charge fees to your players, if each player is responsible for his or her own uniform+a few dodgeballs, etc. Everybody knows that even a sport such as dodgeball can get expensive, especially with traveling to play other schools. I'm curious as to how all teams deal with funding their play and their travel, so feel free to share. I also have an interesting topic to debate at the bottom of this thread, but first let me explain DePaul's process.
All student organizations have access to funding from SAF-B, which stands for Student Activity Funding Board. You have to submit a proposal that explains exactly what you are requesting funding for, at least two separate quotes for that item, when you expect to purchase that item, etc. You then need to attend a hearing where you explain your proposal and they will approve you for a certain amount of funds based on your request. Then once you make those purchases, you have to submit a reimbursement request to SAF-B and furnish a receipt for that item, and then 3 weeks later(if you're lucky) they will directly deposit that amount of money into your club account.
I have a few issues with this system, whereas I understand the school is covering their ass and making sure that clubs spend the money the way it was intended and have to give a receipt to prove it. However, when nationals rolls around, and hotels need to be booked, tournament fees paid, cars rented, etc. Usually all of those costs, over $2000 last year for DePaul, have to sit on the credit card of one or a few team captains until they get reimbursed. I think this is annoying, and also can be discriminatory, because you technically cannot make use of your funding unless you have that amount of money to put up front.
An idea I was toying around with this year was that when we pick our nationals roster, each player is required to submit a $100 deposit. $100 x 20 player roster=$2,000. That way the team treasurer, or captain, can make arrangements for the team to travel to nationals, and not have a huge bill sitting on his or her credit card until the school reimburses them. Once the school goes through the reimbursement process, all of those players get some, if not all of their deposit back. Not only does this help out the captain by him or her not having to front the money, but it also guards against last minute drop outs. You tell your players that if they drop out they will not get their deposit back unless the team can find a replacement who can also put in a deposit.
Which leads me to another topic of discussion which I will probably get a target on my head for bringing up. I know every team is poor and none of us have any money. In light of league expansion and legitimizing ourselves, has anyone thought about implementing a league fee? For example, if each team were required to pay a $100 league fee at the beginning of every season that would give the league a few thousand dollars. This money can be spent in a variety of ways. 1. It could be spent to pay actual referees for tournaments throughout the year. 2. It could be used to offset the cost of the national tournament at the end of the year, because it is very expensive to host a tournament of that size, so a few thousand extra dollars would be extremely helpful to the host school. Or 3. It could be used in a variety of other ways, which I have yet to give much thought to. If you look at some very established collegiate club leagues, many have league fees to help them operate. If we have dreams of the NCDA expanding nationally, eventually I believe some sort of league fee will need to be implemented. What are your thoughts?
All student organizations have access to funding from SAF-B, which stands for Student Activity Funding Board. You have to submit a proposal that explains exactly what you are requesting funding for, at least two separate quotes for that item, when you expect to purchase that item, etc. You then need to attend a hearing where you explain your proposal and they will approve you for a certain amount of funds based on your request. Then once you make those purchases, you have to submit a reimbursement request to SAF-B and furnish a receipt for that item, and then 3 weeks later(if you're lucky) they will directly deposit that amount of money into your club account.
I have a few issues with this system, whereas I understand the school is covering their ass and making sure that clubs spend the money the way it was intended and have to give a receipt to prove it. However, when nationals rolls around, and hotels need to be booked, tournament fees paid, cars rented, etc. Usually all of those costs, over $2000 last year for DePaul, have to sit on the credit card of one or a few team captains until they get reimbursed. I think this is annoying, and also can be discriminatory, because you technically cannot make use of your funding unless you have that amount of money to put up front.
An idea I was toying around with this year was that when we pick our nationals roster, each player is required to submit a $100 deposit. $100 x 20 player roster=$2,000. That way the team treasurer, or captain, can make arrangements for the team to travel to nationals, and not have a huge bill sitting on his or her credit card until the school reimburses them. Once the school goes through the reimbursement process, all of those players get some, if not all of their deposit back. Not only does this help out the captain by him or her not having to front the money, but it also guards against last minute drop outs. You tell your players that if they drop out they will not get their deposit back unless the team can find a replacement who can also put in a deposit.
Which leads me to another topic of discussion which I will probably get a target on my head for bringing up. I know every team is poor and none of us have any money. In light of league expansion and legitimizing ourselves, has anyone thought about implementing a league fee? For example, if each team were required to pay a $100 league fee at the beginning of every season that would give the league a few thousand dollars. This money can be spent in a variety of ways. 1. It could be spent to pay actual referees for tournaments throughout the year. 2. It could be used to offset the cost of the national tournament at the end of the year, because it is very expensive to host a tournament of that size, so a few thousand extra dollars would be extremely helpful to the host school. Or 3. It could be used in a variety of other ways, which I have yet to give much thought to. If you look at some very established collegiate club leagues, many have league fees to help them operate. If we have dreams of the NCDA expanding nationally, eventually I believe some sort of league fee will need to be implemented. What are your thoughts?