I’ve had to pay like 100-200 or so dollars to go to regionals.
Our team does something very similar. It works well and is very fair across the board.
Looking at the posts in this thread, I see that we pay quite alot every year.There was no join fee prior to my freshman year (afaik), but the join fee my freshmen and sophomore year was $300, and it was lowered to $200 this year. The join fee includes shirts, sportcoats, and the regionals/nationals, but does not include food or “entertainment” during the regionals/nationals. On the other hand, our team isn’t a “fundraising” team, but we have GM and our school district as great sponsors, and have many other sponsors in the works.
I don’t believe we’ve ever had a joining fee (although I personally like the idea), but we have to pay for our hotel rooms, food, etc. We don’t have to pay much for travel because we are close enough to all the events we attend to travel in private vehicles (although I did make an attempt to convince the team to go to Waterloo this year… for some reason the 13hr drive didn’t appeal to them). Travel costs for VCU are usually around $120 + food; when we went to Palmetto, it was $150ish + food (I may be a bit off on this one, I don’t remember very well); and the Championship was around $150 + food back in 2005, but is $200 + food this year (rising cost of hotels, I guess). The team subsidized some of the cost for Palmetto and, IIRC, the Championship this year.
Because of the funding our team gets from the Chrysler Foundation we don’t have a “team fee”. However, we have started a travel fee that ends up being $300. $75 dollars for our one out of state regional that we drive to and stay at a hotel for and $225 for the championship which we fly to.
I don’t believe that my team has ever had a fee to be on the team. To go to the competitions the students have to be at the meetings (most of them, 100% participation is not required, but never turned down :D) and we do Little Caesars Student appreciation where we get a certain percentage of what they sell of the medium pizza’s that we help make. That is one of our big fund raisers, it works really well also. Our sponsors help pay for the rest, along with other fund raisers to get the students to go to the comp. and not kill their wallets.
For us we pay twenty dollars every year which includes a team, shirt, and any trips that we take a bus to. Anything overnight we pay out of pocket and fundraise for. The only trip I have paid out of pocket for is The Championship and I wanna say it cost about $530 this year. I suck at fundraising though so, I pay a lot more than other kids do.
I know of several teams, though ours does not have one, that have a fee system or a dues policy. I think the dues policy is more effective as it tends to be less intimidating than a large all-in-one fee.
On RUSH, we have to pay $500 for the season, but since the team is considered a club, students that attend Clarkston High School have to pay an additional $50 as a club fee to the school.
Another thing we do on Team RUSH is alot of fundraising.
We have no major corporate sponsor, just like alot of rookie teams. We have many smaller sponsors, but still, our fees do not even get paid. We ask every student to donate a 500$ team fee and then we ask them to be a part of all of our fundraising. Fundraising is not easy or fun (COLLECTING AND RETURNING 100$ IN RETURNABLE CANS IS NOT FUN)…but the students build ownership in the team. With the prices for everything on the rise… we have had to do 10 times as much fundraising as last year. This year we actually volunteered to clean up our football stadium after homegames…making about 400$ per game.
Nah, just get a group together and do it. Yeah you have to raise more money (unless they aren’t on the team) but it is often more fun to go through a neighborhood with friends. Plus, people are more likely to donate cash if they see a group out. Oh, and get some nice rubber gloves for those people who don’t return their bottles for like 2 years and things start living in them…
Having a team fee encourages fundraising, and helps support the team. However, it can drive some people away. I wouldn’t suggest it if you’re trying to expand your team, but I would suggest it if you have a nice-sized team filled with faithful members.