Fencing.Net - Your Guide to Fencing & Fencing Equipment

Beowulfman6 · 11-08-2006, 05:45 PM

This thread is in reference to collegiate clubs only. The question is, if you have a college club, where does your funding come from? Student government? The athletic department? Campus recreation department? Fundraisers?

As for the Brevard College club, we are entirely funded out of student government, with some money made off of our tournamnts. I would say >90% SGA, <10% fundraisers.

So where does your club get it's funding, who do you answer to, and does anyone know of a college club that is part of the athletic department but isn't a varsity (NCAA) team?

Cerian · 11-08-2006, 06:05 PM

Used to be solely through dues and hosting tournaments. But an initiative was passed giving money to non-NCAA sport programs and clubs, so now we get a lot from that. Also just started to receive a decent amount from a local fencer as a yearly donation.

noodle · 11-08-2006, 07:10 PM

semester dues, fundraisers, and student government.
fundraisers usually got us the most, dues got us second most, and student government got us the least.

MyrddinsPrecint · 11-08-2006, 11:34 PM

About half from the Student Government Association, and the other half is picked up through dues, fundraising, and the occational college grant or donation.

HerrKleinerFencer · 11-09-2006, 12:24 AM

We just had a referendum passed giving sports clubs that fulfilled certain criteria money. We qualify, so about 50% of our funding comes from the Intramurals and Clubs Dept, and the other half comes from hosting tournaments, dues, and fees from allowing the club in town to host their tournaments within our facilities.

clonardo · 11-09-2006, 02:42 AM

At Stony Brook, we're doing alright on funding. We run a beginner and competitive program, and all of the competitive members pay semesterly dues. We are also beginning several fundraising programs this year.

The bulk of our budget comes from the student government here. Campus Recreation serves as an advocate for the sports clubs, and has formed the Sports Club Council to serve as a sort of voting bloc within the University government.

Alumni provide some assistance as well, though this is mostly in advising and some equipment donations.

DangerMouse · 11-09-2006, 02:48 AM

Funding? What's that?

sertafu · 11-09-2006, 02:57 AM

We charge $40/year in dues, and we theoretically get matching funds through student government (this usually shows up around April in about half the amount promised). We try to convince beginners to invest in personal equipment by their second semester, both to cut our costs and get them to commit to fencing.

erooMynohtnA · 11-09-2006, 03:12 AM

We charge $50 a semester, and we do fundraising.

We sometimes finagle a grant for some equipment.

Wafath · 11-09-2006, 10:26 AM

At UMCP, about 40% SGA (give or take, depending on the year), 20% Campus Recreational Services, the rest... dues, fundraisers, alumni, etc.

W

DHCJr · 11-09-2006, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beowulfman6

So where does your club get it's funding, who do you answer to, and does anyone know of a college club that is part of the athletic department but isn't a varsity (NCAA) team?

How about the opposite. For approximately the last 10 years that Long Beach State had a NCAA team they were funded through club sports and the coach only was paid by the PE department for teaching classes. For much of that time it was $25 per fencer per year so most of our funding was through fund raisers.

One year most of our funding came from Television. We were part of the Filmed in Front of a Live Studio Audience both for Sitcoms and game shows.

MyrddinsPrecint · 11-09-2006, 12:44 PM

Oh, as of this year, all club sports at Smith are run by the Athletic Department, but funded only through the SGA. Thus the AD has a lot more control over us than ever before, but it doesn't seem to mean anything in reality.

Wafath · 11-09-2006, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MyrddinsPrecint

Oh, as of this year, all club sports at Smith are run by the Athletic Department, but funded only through the SGA. Thus the AD has a lot more control over us than ever before, but it doesn't seem to mean anything in reality.

Does the AD at Smith care about the fencing club's results, like win/loss records, individual & team performance, etc.?

W

Beowulfman6 · 11-09-2006, 01:28 PM

Thanks for all of the input. I am actualy surprised at how much some clubs charge in dues. We have alwayse believed that fencing was expensive neough without charging our members dues, although we have discussed it from time to time. Based on what I am seeing I'm starting to think that we rely too heavily on SGA money. If we charged club dues of $40 we would probably lose half of our fencers, and our fundraisers have not proven as sucessfull as we would have liked.

noodle · 11-09-2006, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beowulfman6

Thanks for all of the input. I am actualy surprised at how much some clubs charge in dues. We have alwayse believed that fencing was expensive neough without charging our members dues, although we have discussed it from time to time. Based on what I am seeing I'm starting to think that we rely too heavily on SGA money. If we charged club dues of $40 we would probably lose half of our fencers, and our fundraisers have not proven as sucessfull as we would have liked.

i currently pay almost 10x as much in club dues as i did in college.

fencing equipment isn't cheap, but neither is fencing instruction. a minimal semester fee is a reasonable requirement. also, our student government required us to charge membership for them to give us funding.

qatet · 11-09-2006, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beowulfman6

Thanks for all of the input. I am actualy surprised at how much some clubs charge in dues. We have alwayse believed that fencing was expensive neough without charging our members dues, although we have discussed it from time to time. Based on what I am seeing I'm starting to think that we rely too heavily on SGA money. If we charged club dues of $40 we would probably lose half of our fencers, and our fundraisers have not proven as sucessfull as we would have liked.

I coach a relatively new club at Bryn Mawr. One of the things that we did to help people wit hthe idea of dues is to show them exactly what benefit they get from their dues and break it down into clear financial terms. "The gear you use would cost this much. The coaching this much. The tournaments this much." That made their dues seem pretty paltry. We also break peopel in slowly - the dues are low for the first semester, higher for the second, and after that they top out at a competitor's price.

swordsen · 11-09-2006, 01:54 PM

We get money from Club Sports on Campus and we make money at our three tournaments. There is also a little money made by dues, selling patches/T-shirts, etc. Every year we also pick up some donated by alumni.

the doc · 11-09-2006, 02:48 PM

when i was at university the students used to baulk at paying £10 per year to join the fencing club. mind you that was 12 years ago, that was a whole lot of money in those days, especially if you were a student.

the rest of our money came from the athletic union.

this is was in england, so ncaa was no interest to us, thought we did compete in the british equivalent.

akaiyuki · 11-09-2006, 03:45 PM

Club sports, dues, fundraisers. Tournaments we host are basically considered fundraisers.

Morgant · 11-09-2006, 04:22 PM

Student Activies Committee (something like that, anyway).