MEMBERSHIP FEES

 

Finance and Membership Newsletter

Following a Directors meeting, 15 March 2021, we wrote and set out a number of revised financial arrangements:

• Anyone who has a rink subscription fee for Autumn 2020 be allowed to use this for free rink fees until 31 August 2021 provided of course that they are club members.
• Anyone who has a rink subscription fee for Spring 2021 will be offered a refund or a credit against their membership fee for 2021/22.
• The membership fee for 2021/22 will be retained at £120 but those who have continuous membership, i.e. have paid £80 for 2020/21, will be offered a £40 rebate.
• Other charges for 2021/22 will remain the same as the current year.
• Any unused £3.50 rink vouchers can be used for a rink fee or set against the 2021/22 membership subscription until and including 31 August 2021, but after that date they will no longer be valid.

The Directors have met many times since but at our latest meeting on 12 July we had a good look at our current and possible future financial position and, since a number of members have asked, I thought it important to share details with current and, hopefully, returning members.

 

In a ‘normal’ year we made a surplus of about £30k but last year (2019/20) because of the premises closures this had reduced to £15k surplus. We had lost £28k on rink fees, £12k on premises work and an additional £2k on catering, but to compensate for this, we had received grants of £19k and saved £9k on heating and lighting.

 

For the current year it looks as if we could lose about £30k – a change of £60k on a normal year. The biggest losses would be on rink fees (£78k) and membership (£44k) but again we have been successful with grant applications (£61k) which help to compensate. Furthermore, Diane and I have successfully renegotiated a number of premises and utility contracts saving funds both for this and future years. It is also important to remember that, to make the centre safer, we have reimplemented a fresh air system alongside the heating/air conditioning.

 

Projecting forward if we attained a membership of 400 in September (currently 270) we could restrict the annual loss to £30k and with 500 members we might just about ‘split even’. The latter scenario (500 members) would leave us with reserves of about £100k. Although this might seem a lot it isn’t with carpet renewals, etc not too far off.

 

One further glimmer of hope – I am still negotiating with our insurers on business interruption insurance valid during the first lockdown – all insurers had changed their policies as soon as they could, but we were covered until 30 September 2020. Any possible monies received from this has not been included in the above analyses.

Remember the point  that any unused £3.50 rink vouchers can only be used for rink fees or set against subscription until 31 August 2021.

£3.50 RINK VOUCHERS WILL NOT BE VALID AFTER 31 AUGUST 2021.

We would really like members to pay online if at all possible – this considerably eases administration and minimises the amount of charges that we have to pay to the bank.

And we can also cope (however you pay) with multiple fee payments combined e.g. G and V.B. Boyd £240 for 2 memberships. Every transaction costs us in additional administration and bank charges.

 

Credit/debit card is the next best alternative although we can’t do this for membership subscriptions - companies do not allow the collection of membership fees because they have previously been involved in charge back when members wished to terminate membership early at, for example, golf clubs and leisure centres. The businesses involved had refused to reimburse so the card holders had used the ‘charge back’ facility.

 

Cheques are better than cash but again combining transactions (partners, spouses, membership and locker fees, etc) all helps as the administration of cheques is quite complex and we also get charged £0.69 for processing each one!

 

We really want to minimise the amount of cash we handle for time consuming and, of course, COVID reasons – the circulation of, the counting of and the banking of.

 

To help facilitate this we will have a new discounted rink voucher from 1 September – 8 vouchers for £30 a discount of £2 – for payment, hopefully, online, but also by credit/debit card.

 

I hope this information helps.

 

If the business interruption news is good and helps I will, of course, let you know.

 

Please look out for further membership renewal details from Di, Keith and Jo in the next few weeks

 

 

 

Geoff Boyd

Finance Director

15 July 2021