Unified Financial What? | Understanding Our New Unified Financial Policy

October 14, 2021

Attention all OSC Competitive Members:

 

We’re writing you to explain the fee structure for the season. The cost to run a swim club includes paid coaches, pool rentals, office space, equipment to run a swim meet, etc. These costs are divided into a fee for each swimmer, dependent on the group your child is in and the number of children you have swimming in the club. To minimize costs, OSC members agree to support the club through volunteer commitments before or during swim meets, participating on the board of trustees, working bingos and concessions and participating in various fundraising activities to generate revenue for the club, and so on.

 

As you can imagine, there are a lot of changes and uncertainties this year. We have the ability to earn funding through bingos, but we don’t know how much revenue will be earned from each bingo or if the number of bingos available to us will change. We are planning to develop a major fundraising campaign, but the details and estimated revenue are still to be determined. Swim meets such as JP Fiset and the 10 and Under series normally provide additional revenue through fees charged to other clubs and sponsorship revenue, but there is no guarantee we’ll be able to host these swim meets this year. Since each of these things provide a level of uncertainty in revenues, we need to be able to account for them while ensuring revenue certainty for the club - in order to be financially responsible and keep the club sustainable we need to continue to balance revenues and expenses.

 

In developing our fee structure this year, we had to take all of these factors into account. As a result, here’s how the fees are broken down:

 

Registration Fees – Registration Fees are one-time fees paid at the beginning of the swim season. These fees are due to Swim Alberta, our sport governing body, and include the cost of group insurance coverage.

Monthly Program Fees - Program Fees are a portion of each member’s financial commitment that is billed to you on a monthly basis for your child / children and is dependent on the level they swim at in the club.  These fees account for a portion, roughly half, of the cost of swimming.

Annual Financial Commitment – The Annual Financial Commitment constitutes the remaining cost of your child’s swimming. In previous years, this amount was divided into specific commitments for bingos and fundraising. This year, because of the uncertainties mentioned above, we are being very transparent about the amount required for each child, which can be covered through any combination of cash, bingos, concessions and fundraising.

  1. Bingos - for every bingo you work, you will be credited $100 ($150 for late nights). Fundraising credits are dependent on the fundraising activity and/or number of tickets, etc. that you sell. There is no minimum or maximum number of bingos that must be worked. At such time that the Annual Financial commitment is met, members are free to work additional bingos (should they be available) to supplement their member account.
  2. Casinos - There is unlikely to be a Casino available in 2020-21 season as we had one at the end of 2019 and they are normally awarded to a club once every 18 months. When a casino is held members work shifts for credits equal to bingo credits.
  3. Concessions - We will have concessions. They will follow the CFL and event schedule at Commonwealth Stadium.
  4. Fundraising - The Board of Directors will designate a minimum of 5 fundraising opportunities, and we will likely run many of the same fundraising activities we did last year - Purdy’s, Popcorn sales etc. Given the loss of concession this fall and the decline in meet revenue we would like to undertake a major fundraiser - this is TBD and will be determined by the 2021-22 Board of Directors. Members have the option to initiate fundraising activities in order to supplement their Annual Financial Commitment, but these member-initiated fundraisers are subject to BOD approval.

 

Member Participation Points

For the 2021-2022 season, the Member Participation Points (MPP’s) will be as per the fee schedule. Volunteer labour is required to successfully run our events. Joining a committee for a specific event, or officiating at our swim meets are the best ways to earn your MPP for the season. Officials training information and opportunities will be released early in the season.