Subscriptions

As promised, I have done an analysis of the club finances to assess what our subscription level needs to be this year.
Last year, the club ended the year approximately £1000 worse off than at the start of the year. There were a number of reasons for this :-

• The cost of hosting the Northeast cross country championships.

• The cost of our own presentation evening.

• The cost of hosting a track meeting at Darlington.

The club obviously has other costs associated with its running but they were not significantly different from previous years.
We also failed to generate as much income as we would have liked from membership subscriptions, weekly subscriptions and the races we host.
All in all, not a brilliant financial year!

However, it is not all gloom and doom. I believe that we can make substantial savings this year in the three major areas we have lost money - we do not need to host another Northeast cross country championship for a number of years, we will miss a year (at least) of hosting a track meeting and we will not lose as much money at the next presentation evening.
I also believe that with more input from the committee and club members we can generate additional revenue from our races. For example, the Old Monks race on 6th January. We (mainly Stuart!) distributed hundreds of entry forms over the last couple of months at local races and with some help from the council (sent out with the entry forms for the Marina 5). There was also publicity in the national running magazines. Because of this effort, there was an excellent turnout and some decent money (and good publicity) generated for the club.

The benefits of being a member of the club are listed on our website - http://www.hartlepoolburnroad.co.uk/membership_benefits.htm and I firmly believe that our club should try to maintain its high profile and standing in the area and not decline into a “minnow” never hosting meetings or races. A lot of time, money and effort has been invested in attaining this status and it would be a crying shame to let it slip.

Having said that, I also understand that our members should not have to pay an excessive premium for this in their subscription. Having looked at what costs we can save and what revenue we can generate, I propose that the subscription for this coming year be set at £22 for senior members. (no discount for paying on time – we should all pay on time!)
I believe that this is a very fair rate based on what other clubs in the area pay, the increase in fees from UK Athletics, it’s a long time (4 years) since there was an increase and you will be a member of a serious athletics club.

I hope this adequately explains the club position but please feel free to discuss this on the forum, speak to me at a club night or ring me.

Colin Stead

January 2008