New Membership Fee Structure
The Club’s membership fees are not changing that much, but how they have been presented to you in the past and how you may have viewed them is changing.
In the past members were charged a base Club membership fee that included a relevant Rowing Canada fee. In addition all members were then required to pay the relatively new RowNS fee. Fitness and Competitive rowers were also required to ‘pay’ a fundraising fee. This year when you look at the registration form, you will see just the one amount that includes all fees.
We are doing away with a separate fundraising fee that could, by working as a Learn-to-Row Class assistant or through individual fundraising initiatives, be deducted from the rower’s membership fees. This year the fundraising fee amount has been incorporated directly into the membership fees for Fitness and Competitive rowers (both Adult & Juniors).
We are making this change for a number of reasons:
- In the past collection and cashing of the fundraising fee cheques has been very problematic and not fully understood by the membership.
- We were utilizing the monies raised by the ‘fundraising’ fee not for fundraising but to cover regular, operational expenses. This is not an ideal way to operate – it made it difficult to budget and plan our expenses as the amount of revenue from fundraising charges would vary year to year and not be known until the end of the season.
- The practice of ‘volunteering’ to cover the $75 fundraising charge was problematic because there were a limited number of opportunities for members, and we had challenges tracking everyone’s hours fairly.
- It is important that the Club is financially sound and we feel that incorporating the old fundraising fee into the Club membership fee more accurately reflects the needs of the Club and will reduce the administrative load for the Treasurer and Coaches.
And of course, we must continue to collect and pay Rowing Canada and RowNS fees, which affect all members but are beyond the Club’s control.
This PDF file provides a detailed comparison of HRC’s 2016 vs 2015 fees. Please take a few minutes to review it.
As seen in the Increase column in the PDF file, there is only a modest increase in total fees for some programs. If you had fundraised or worked as a Learn-to-Row assistant to cover the $75 in the past, then you will notice a more substantial increase. However, please be assured that the Board is working to create other opportunities for members to gain reductions in future membership fees and/or regatta fees, trailer rentals etc.
More information about Fund Raising can be found here!