Booster Club Dues

The Booster Club is so important to the High School programs. It can be very expensive though. I'm a single mom so money is pretty tight. It gets harder & harder every season to approach friends and neighbors for money. But you know what, overall they are pretty generous. For our program we need to raise $750 and Booster is $100. My son raised that in 2 weeks. I guess we've gotten pretty good at it over the past 4 years. The money goes to a good cause so it's worth it.

Our HS did not have a booster club--we never felt that it was needed what with all the problems that it can bring with it

We have a very active booster club. We don't get in the coaches way, though. He coaches and we boost. Every year we ask what new equipment he might need, or what minor improvements to the field he might want. The school district is not always able to fund bells and whistles for the baseball program so that's where we come in.

Our booster dues are just $20 per year but we coordinate several fundraising efforts each year. Our annual budget is around $10,000 so we are able to help the program in some fairly significant ways.

Booster clubs can be very beneficial as long as they just fill there role and not try to be GM of the baseball program.

But TR, have you not told us many times how terrible your high school program was when your son played? Perhaps a strong booster club would have helped. I am not sure. The coach at our high school raises most funds through an annual camp at Christmas (which is very good and also very well attended. Sessions are $60 for a week).

Last week, we held a fund-raiser breakfast that included a talk by Paul Konerko and raised more than $20,000 for the program. It can only help in many needed ways.

Whether it is through booster fundraising or feeder teams or just broad awareness of what is required and expected, every successful program I have seen is based on deep and substantial community support which seems inseparable from strong coaching.

I know we constantly see much criticism of high school coaches on this website, but I must say that in AZ the best coaches by far are the high school coaches. The summer programs are fine, but even the best of them (which include some awesome players) with some outstanding coaches cannot compare with the best of the high school coaches.

And every one of them have broad and deep community support.

jemaz

A booster club would not have helped the lack of baseball talent in our town at that time and apparently from what I see it is still poor

I abhor anything that can lead to interference when not needed nor wanted--booster clubs fall in that group

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
I abhor anything that can lead to interference when not needed nor wanted--booster clubs fall in that group

TR
The original purpose for booster clubs is to allow parents to help make the HS baseball experience a little more enjoyable for the kids. Unfortunately some clubs take it too far and stick their nose where it doesn't belong which obviously is where you are coming from. We're all not that way.

politics is a terrible thing and the boosters clubs are the #1 culprit.. I just want to see the best 9 on the field and a coach with enough backbone to put them there over all the pressure todays parents,athletic directors,and booster clubs put on them... Its a hard job but somebodys gotta do it.

Mom I hear alot of kids in Texas just play select league ball and dont play High school is that true?

We have one booster club for the entire school. They do their best to run everything through the AD. We needed storage rooms, a concession area and bathrooms at our baseball/softball diamonds. The Booster Club provided the funds and my Baseball Dad's built it. Other than the plans, I didn't have to do anything. In my opinion, that's how a booster club should operate. BTW, for any "Big Purchase" the head coach of the various sports has to submit the rational for the purchase, the approximate cost ... to the AD. He takes that request to the Booster Club.

Seems that our booster club does a pretty good job of fundraising and staying out of the coaches business.

In baseball, each player had to pay $100 to supplement booster club money to purchase spikes, practice shirts, workout jackets, etc. Seems like a decent price for the amount of stuff they got.

It sounds like we are fortunate, but I don't see the major problems with our booster club that some of you have experienced with yours.

quote:

Originally posted by Mniterambler:
Mom I hear alot of kids in Texas just play select league ball and dont play High school is that true?

I don't know of any kids that do this. They play for the school team until the seaosn ends in May, then they join their select team for summer play. Sometimes they play on the HS team in the summer, but since Texas forbids the HS coach from participating in the summer team, many kids just play select.

Thanks for clearing that up..I was wondering about that...I heard some talk about that when my son was playing travel ball and I just wondered if it really went that way with most players in Texas..

The player fee at our school is $300.00 per player for baseball. The booster club then raises more to fund the program.

For real fund raisers look at our competition:
http://www.americanfootballmonthly.com/Arena/NS_Magazin...otlight01_jun02.html

Let me add another of our competitors has hired a professional to raise the money with him taking a % rake off the top and it seems to really be helping their program.

If you have a coach with integrity, then booster clubs will not be a problem. If you have a coach without integrity, then it doesn't matter.

But I don't view booster clubs as the key. What is important is broad community support for baseball and the baseball program at the high school. If that exists, then it will be very, very competitive, but the best players will play and the program will flourish. If not, it will all be an afterthought. And the support cannot be fleeting. It must exist through generations of players.

WE aren't allowed to charge anything, and if we did, half the kids wouldn't pay!! We can't even get them to buy the same spikes. When I took over the Boosters 3 years ago we had $281...we're up to over $1900 now, but we don't do big trips or anything, no snack bar, just car washes and beggin for money from local businesses.

wow

quote:

A booster club would not have helped the lack of baseball talent in our town at that time and (now)....I abhor anything that can lead to interference ...

I guess it's possible, but it would be unusual for for ANY town to be totally
lacking athletes for generations.

more likely is the best athletes chose football or basketball over baseball -

also likely that baseball

lacked facilities
lacked quality coaching
lacked school support
lacked community support
lacked a guy with energy & vision

all of which would improve with a strong booster club


I guess your town got what you wanted and is still getting it - who pays?
the kids

.

Bee:

Thanks for expressing the point better than I could have. Community support is the key, in whatever form. Not politics.

Our schools/county do not require athletes families to be a member of the booster club. There are various levels of support, lowest being $15.
There is no fee, per se, to play on the baseball team. However, there is a $75 "uniform" fee. While the base uniform is covered by school funds, the $75 covers matching underarmour cold gear (We are in Northern VA and it can get quite chilly in March), Workout shorts, sweat pants, BP shirt, and I think team t-shirt.
We also have a team fundraiser (raffle). Each player is required to sell 20 tix.
Other than basic safety equipment (helmets), the county does not provide operating funds for the baseball team.

our booster club dues are $100 for a family and that gets 1.The ability to vote in meetings. 2. 5 passes to all regular season home games(we give 2 to the grandparents) 3. 2 team t-shirts.
We also pay a $200 player fee. Our fundraising is very helpful, as in shelby county we have to supplement some of the coaches fees. This was nothing compared to our out-of-pocket money for competative ball.

The fees at our highschool are $25.00 transportation fee, $25.00 spring training fee (covers food for a weekend), $450.00 spring season fee, booster club membership $30.00 for a single or $50.00 for a couple, spring break trip to Disney $371.00. I have not added all of those together yet as I don't want to think about it. We do have fundraisers if your willing to put forth the time and effort or you can just pay out of pocket. The county and/or school does not support any programs, they are all self supporting.

Our Booster Club is pretty low key. Dues are $20 per kid. Elected board that works hand in hand with the coach.

Booster club is responsible for equipment, uniforms, facility maintenance, and long term facility improvements. Our field is about 8 miles from the high school. It is for that reason that we have to mow and maintain the facility. The booster club also provides a stipend for non paid assistants.

We receive revenues from football concessions, raffles, outfield signs and other fund raisers. Pretty much all the teams’ parents take pride in the facilities and volunteer to support it in some way or fashion either monetarily or in labor. We have two times of the year that we have work projects. A spring work time to get the facilities ready to play for the year, and fall work time to do some large facility project. Last year we skinned and replaced our whole infield and installed a sprinkler system.