Proposed Revenue Increases for 2023 and 2024

[Faye Doria]

For the past two years I have been on the OUSA Board watching the financial situation.  OUSA is about to enter its third year with a budget in the red.  

I am trained as an accountant, and spent 35 years in personal financial planning helping families improve their financial situations.  My personal opinion is that OUSA needs to increase revenue.  OUSA funds necessary activities (website, database, accounting, member support, insurance) at a bare-bones level.  Other important activities (team travel and uniforms, skills development for individuals and teams, championships) are often self-funded though club support.  OUSA is not able to expand on most of the good ideas we have due to a lack of funding and/or people willing to volunteer their time to see them through.    

I have proposed two ways to increase revenue - increase individual member dues and look to clubs for increased revenue.  The OUSA Board wants to be sure members have some idea that these discussions are on the table as we prepare a 2023 budget.

Our revenue from individual member (plus family, student, and junior) dues has not shown much change over the years.  It hovers around 20% of total revenue.  Ideally, we would be growing the membership base, which would increase revenue.  But we have hovered around 1,400 members for the last 10 years. Without an increase in members, it is getting harder to provide the support for championship events, annual reports, newsletters, website, and insurance that members find important.

I have proposed we increase individual membership in OUSA from $35 to $40 sometime in the first half of 2023.  Family memberships (which include up to 2 adults and 2 members under age 25) would increase from $45 to $55 at the same time.  Student memberships (under age 25) would continue at $20.  Junior memberships (who cannot vote and don't receive the annual report) would continue at $10.  I can't believe OUSA members don't think it is worth another $5 a year to support a sport they love.

Clubs made it clear they prefer we only consider start fees when they recharter and asked us to make any change revenue neutral.  At the 2022 rechartering, the statistics show about 35,000 starts generating about $70,000 of income  That makes it clear a neutral start fee payment to OUSA should be $2 for 2024 rechartering.  Club dues make up about 40% of annual revenue.

Personally, I would recommend that we go to $2.20 for start fees to OUSA in 2024 to provide a 10% revenue increase.  Other than insurance and some general support, we are not able to offer much to our clubs.  Increasing revenue would allow us to explore ways to extend OUSA technology to clubs, to offer ways to broaden services (mapping, outreach to scouts or JROTC, how-to clinics), and to offer other technical and marketing support.  Having more revenue lets us pay people to spend the time necessary to improve OUSA services.

I am curious if clubs would consider a 2-tier start fee.  I know many clubs offer a lower entry fee for white/yellow courses since these are generally run by newcomers or youth.  Since we want to encourage beginners and youth, a lower payment to OUSA for white/yellow starts could be considered.

Since we have no statistics on how many starts are on each course, I made a wild guess that 20% to 25% of starts are white/yellow.  In that case, a 2-tier system could charge the current $1.50 for white/yellow starts and $2.25 for all other starts (which would be largely revenue neutral).  That would require more records on the part of each club.  I'm not sure the benefits of lower start fees justify the extra recordkeeping.  Some club feedback would be helpful.

For those who are curious, donations make up about 20% of revenue, 10% comes from the OUSA Endowment Fund, and the other 10% comes from programs (largely sanctioning fees for championships, some from the Youth Mapping Program, and small amounts from EventReg, book royalties, and book sales).

I have included my personal email in case you would prefer to reply to me directly rather than to the entire group.  You are also welcome to reply to any OUSA Board member or your club officials.  The OUSA Board is concerned about raising revenue without the membership having any input on the decision.  Our next Board meeting is December 5, 2022, so feedback should be given before that date.

Thank you all for whatever you do to support orienteering,

Faye Doria

faye....@orienteeringUSA.org

--

Faye Doria

VP of Finance

[Ruth Bromer]

Faye,

I agree that it's well past time to increase the OUSA membership fee. It's been at $35 for a really long time. I was on the committee to come up with a plan to adjust fees a few years ago. The BOD refused all suggestions except relating to Juniors and Students. We even proposed what just passed at the AGM to eliminate member fees and increase start fees to $2. I guess it took asking the community rather than the BOD.

Most people who join get discounts when attending national events. They get a refund essentially of their membership fee. Raising the membership fee by $5 per person isn't exactly a hardship and it's not on the clubs. 

However, changing the start fees is on tbe clubs. 

I absolutely do NOT want to figure out the fees for white and yellow separated from the harder courses. It's enough work to just calculate how many starts we have each year. Another reason is that not all clubs charge a different rate for those courses. BOK certainly doesn't and never will. We keep our fees at just a level that we can pay for map printing and OUSA fees. We're not even raising our fees starting next year. We also do anything we can to keep things easy for the meet organizers. 

As far as going to $2.20, that's an absolute NO. The decision was $2. This is hardly the time to extract even more money from clubs. 

Ruth Bromer, Treasurer of BOK

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[Michael Avery]

No argument from me that OUSA revenues need to be increased.  I just question the wisdom of putting that load on the grass roots member of OUSA.

Are data available showing the percentage of local club members that are also members of OUSA?  Less than 20% of my club's members also belong to OUSA.  If that is typical, there is far more revenue upside to be achieved by targeting local club members and (local/regional) event participants who are not members of OUSA than by increasing annual membership fees on those who currently belong by 15-25%.

Mike Avery

NEOOC

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[RWorner LKohn]

I agree with Michael. I think that many of the clubs are doing quite well financially and with membership numbers, but have a very small percentage of their membership who belong to OUSA. This seems like a situation that needs more analysis. Thanks for starting the discussion.

Rick Worne

Rochester Orienteering Club

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[RWorner LKohn]

Faye,

One other quick thought. With "A" meet fees being around $50 a day the $4 OUSA discount provides less incentive to join OUSA.

Rick

On Sun, Nov 13, 2022 at 9:45 AM Michael Avery <maver...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[pgwo...@gmail.com]

The question of why you would join OUSA is a good one. As is noted, the small discount you get on National events doesn’t come close to making a dent in the cost of the event. I would also venture to say that many members don’t see much benefit in being a member. Yes, you get a digital newsletter but it is something that you probably look at once and then never again. ONA was a benefit that sat around and begged to browsed periodically. It was something that you could see and didn’t vanish into cyberspace after a quick perusal. Clubs can, perhaps, see the benefit more clearly as they don’t have to find insurance on a yearly basis which is possible but not a fun thing for volunteers to do. The clubs also have assistance with course setting for national meets through course consultants. There are also other benefits that they can use such as EventReg, templates for advertising, etc.

 

In order to increase the membership of OUSA, the prospective members need to know what benefit they get. I know that there are many organizations that have “memberships” with little benefit to the members. Land trusts are an example. Yes, the members can use the website to find activities on the properties, but non-members can, too. In some ways, being members may be sort of a “badge of honor”. As a life member, I really don’t care what happens to the OUSA fee structure, it won’t affect me and another $5 probably won’t make a difference for existing members (although some are aging out of the sport). Marketing needs to figure out how to jazz up the benefits that are given in some way. Clint is going a great job of producing great images of many of the events but most people can access them as well. It might be interesting to see how many “new” members we have gotten in the last 5 years and/or 10 years. If that number is low, that may mean that the money coming in for memberships will continue to decrease even with an increase in fees. This is not an easy problem to solve but we do have a great sport so we should keep trying.

 

Peter Goodwin

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[RWorner LKohn]

How do we get local orienteers to feel more of an obligation to help the sport grow at the national level? 

Rick

[Gord Hunter]

Thank you, Doria, for initiating this discussion and thanks to those who have already picked up the ball to offer their comments and suggestions.

I feel emboldened to give it a try.

I represent Suncoast Orienteering (SOAR), a very small club in Florida. In the 2022-23 season SOAR will stage nine orienteering events. In terms of O-USA and club members we are one of the smallest clubs in the country, so we speak with a small voice. However, this year we learned that our very small club ranks ninth of all the O-USA clubs in terms of meet levies paid. That should give us some clout.

Point 1: What do we think of the membership and levy increase proposals? Well, first a big thank you for not imposing any levy that would retroactively calculate an increase of levy on events already held. We have already calculated how to absorb the $.50 per entry increase without having to increase entry fees.  We are good with the $2.00 levy starting with the 2023 end of year calculation.

Point 2: Memberships? Yes, go for the increase. Something you might also like to do is blend the membership with a donation and give some token in return. Like a $100 super membership with $50 for the membership and $50 to a fund with a special “I support” T-shirt (or decal) going to those who give the extra and get the tax deduction. (These figures are just examples and are not to be considered take it or leave it.)

Point 3: Thank you for not proposing to increase the junior/ student membership. Suncoast Orienteering is trying to encourage our best JROTC orienteers and their teams to go to the Junior Nationals and we will do every year. One of the surprising roadblocks is when the school teams find they must ante up yet another $10 for a junior's O-USA membership. So, our solution is that Suncoast Orienteering will pay the juniors’ OUSA memberships IF they sign up as members of Suncoast Orienteering. They still compete for their school team.

Point 4: Have you at a club event had someone come up to ask where can they buy a compass or an e-stick or some other equipment? Have you had school leaders or scout groups ask about where to purchase stuff? I have. At almost every event I have someone ask where they can buy something. If the order is big enough, I will arrange a purchase. Sometimes I’ll dig out and pass on a web address of one of the suppliers spread across America. But it is always a pain in the butt to be sending them to suppliers with no return coming to the club.  I think it would be a great idea if we could just send the customers to the Orienteering USA website. Say OUSA adds a section to the website that they call something like the Orienteering Shopping Mall. They add a pass through link to various websites that gets the customer going through the mall to compass suppliers,  O-shoe suppliers, O equipment suppliers etc etc and O-USA gets a portion of the resulting sales back. Or they get a fixed fee in return for a supplier being listed as part of the mall.  OUSA does what Amazon is doing but by by-passing Amazon. 

Florida Orienteering already has a small on-line sales operation going. How are they doing? I don’t know but I could ask. I know they are currently sold out of e-sticks.

How much money would an idea like the Orienteering Shopping Mall generate for O-USA? At this point I don’t know. But I do know that if the idea is not tried it will generate no money.

All the best,

Gord Hunter

Suncoast Orienteering

[Ruth Bromer]

Rick,

Four dollars isn't much but for a 3 day event, that's $12 off the membership.  In three 3-day events, that's $36 and the membership is only $35.  $35 is not much and it's been that way for years.

Yes, the real problem is very few people see the benefit of joining OUSA.  I'd say that BOK has about one out of 6 people joining OUSA.  They don't care that the club pays per entry for insurance.  That's a benefit to the club.  Individuals don't see that.  To them it's a non-issue.  So until OUSA can make itself useful to the general public, we won't increase membership.  And since we have much better maps all around, the desire to go to national events is even less than years ago.

Ruth

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[Mike Minium]

Problem: OUSA needs more revenue.  The solution is NOT to raise membership fees.  Let me explain and offer another suggestion. 

 

Let’s suppose we raise fees (individual $35 to 40, a 14% increase; family $45 to $55, a 22% increase).   In the past, whenever we have raised membership fees, over the next year we’ve seen a significant drop in membership renewals, roughly offsetting the amount that would be gained by the increase if member numbers stayed constant.  Guess what, a 15-20% drop in membership numbers completely wipes out any gain in revenue from the increased fees.  Without greatly increasing the perceived value of membership, we will lose a significant number of members.  With families already feeling the pressure of inflation, and looking for places to cut discretionary spending, this is absolutely the worst possible time to consider increasing the cost of membership.

 

Instead of raising fees, what if we could increase the number of members paying the current price by 15 or 20 percent?  That would be far more valuable to the organization than charging a higher fee for fewer members, not just in income, but in the number of people reached by our newsletters, our annual donation appeals, calls for volunteers to serve on the board and committees, and more.   So how can we go about a membership campaign that will pull in that many new members?  Here are ideas:

 

Most OUSA clubs have far more club members than OUSA members (or regular participants for those clubs that don't have a membership structure).  What if OUSA could do a targeted campaign to all those club members?   How many OUSA clubs would be willing to share their member list with OUSA to allow OUSA to do a one-time promotional mailing to all of those members (exactly 1 email plus 1 snail mail)?   My club certainly would participate, and I hope that most others would be willing.  Even without any extra perks, that would certainly bring in a few new members.

 

Then, let’s look at what other membership organizations do to recruit.  Perks, perks, perks!  Renew your membership, and you can give a one year gift membership for half price.   Renew or join and get a free gift (OUSA whistle, OUSA buff, OUSA t-shirt, OUSA bumper sticker or car magnet are examples).   “Free” stuff is always popular.

 

Also, maybe offer different levels of premium memberships like Gord suggested.  Platinum, gold, silver, bronze, perhaps, or maybe some cool orienteering specific names.  While it is possible that some people buying premium memberships would correspondingly reduce their contributions to the annual fund or other donations, the net effect of even a few extra premium members would be positive.

Any promotion needs to emphasize the value of services to members: regular E-newsletter, annual publication, discount NRE fees, inclusion in national rankings (do we still send ranking patches?), anything else?   We can of course also emphasize the philanthropic value of supporting OUSA: what OUSA does to support clubs and promote orienteering: insurance and club services, helping new clubs get started, support to national teams and youth programs, mapping for schools, Event Reg system, National champion medals, ...).

 

In my opinion, a serious attempt at outreach to increase the number of members, rather than raising rates per member is the way to go.  Doing this right after the beautiful annual publication comes out (that clubs can “show and tell” to prospective members) would be a perfect time for a concerted membership campaign.

 

Mike Minium

(life member, so rate increase does not affect me personally)

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[Andrea Schneider]

Just wondering out loud about some numbers:

- what is the percentage of individual life memberships in relation to individual memberships; same for family memberships?

- what is the percentage of life memberships that are well beyond the annual individual membership break-even point (20 years)?

- have life membership registrations been distributed evenly throughout the years, or primarily tied to certain membership drives?

- would 3 or 5 or the like membership packages make sense?

- does ~1,400 represent "unique ‘member ID" numbers?

- what was the 2022 per "unique" member rate for all ID's in family memberships (yes, it might be more expensive for families, nevertheless families also get the combined greatest discount)

- I am pretty sure families who's kids love orienteering and will travel for that will become members so the kids can participate in the ranking portion of the competitions.  

- Having an US ranking should be an OUSA benefit, is that the case? I know it includes members of O-Canada for North American ranking benefits, but IMO should not include non-members.

- IMO athletes applying to the National Team and and intending to compete at international level should have a voting type membership, so at least "Student"

Andrea Schneider,

MNOC and BGR Family memberships

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[Jon Torrance]

I think before worrying about cultivating a sense of obligation towards national level orienteering we'd need to first make some progress on cultivating an interest in participating in national level orienteering among the currently uninterested. Which is a hard enough problem - I don't recall ever seeing hard numbers but it seems the initiative roughly a decade ago offering discounted entry fees for one's first national event didn't make much of a dent in the indifferent majority.

Jon Torrance

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[Mike Minium]

To answer some of Andrea's questions.  I pored through the 2022 AGM voting lists and came up with the following numbers:

   439 Family memberships (annual)

   652 Individual memberships (annual)

     53 Family LIFE

   121 Individual LIFE

   106 Student

           The above total 1371, so that is the approximately 1400 membership UNITS (not a count of individuals).  If a typical family was 2 point something, that probably gets to around 2000 individuals.  Each individual has a unique member number.

   ??? Junior (since they are not listed on the voting roles, that is a question for Shawn).

A couple notes: I know that there are a few life members (at least one for sure) for whom we have no contact information... whether they have moved, some might even be deceased.

Andrea asked about any past life membership drives or if purchases were evenly distributed.  I know that the last time membership rates were increased, there was a small surge (no idea what number constitutes a surge) in life membership purchases (and regular membership renewals) before the price increase took effect.   I will say that without specific counting, I (anecdotal) noticed that a lot of the life memberships are what I would call old-timers - probably a pretty high percentage of them are 20+ years and bought in when the cost was half of what it is today.  I don't know if there's any record anywhere of when they were purchased, but I can say that anyone who attends a lot of NRE's would recognize a lot of the LIFE names who have been regulars for 20 or 30 years or even haven't been seen in the woods in years.

I noticed a couple glitches as I was going through the membership list, but hopefully there aren't many like this:

      A father and teenage son each listed separately as having a "family membership"

      Another family listed with a family membership and the young teen son listed separately as a student member.

While having a ranking could be a member benefit, I suspect that most ranked people also want to see non-members (any one who competed) in the list for comparison purposes.  So maybe include everybody in the list, but only give recognition awards to members?   Of course, while some of us value patches/medals/recognition, there are also many who don't.

Mike

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[Gale Teschendorf]

How about keeping the rates the same except with a yearly inflation adjustment?

This should be less than $5 extra for members & less than $.20 extra for starts in the first year.

Add more members, by cutting first-year rates in half or recruit a new member, and you both get half off.

Rent the membership email list.

These are just discussion starters, I am not sure that they will work

Best regards,

Gale Teschendorf
1920 Schiller Ave
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-701-4253

"Santa uses quantum physics to deliver to everyone in just one night. Provided no one observes him, he can be in multiple chimneys at the same time."  - Unknown

"You cook bacon, but you bake cookies." - Unknown
*<l{:-o}}

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[maver...@gmail.com]

Adding to the growing list of good ideas to address the need for increased revenues at OUSA…

 

Please consider exploring the idea of mandatory OUSA membership for those who wish to compete in orienteering events, from local to national level.

 

In our club, we have many individuals who choose to participate in our local events without being a member of our club by paying a premium to club members’ entry fees, and those individuals plus many more who are not members of OUSA.  ALL participants are enjoying an OUSA benefit of having an event to take part in, by virtue of the cost-effective liability insurance that OUSA provides.  Why should the burden of resolving the issue of insufficient revenue fall only on the few that are already members of OUSA?

 

The idea could exclude participants on the White and Yellow courses so that orienteering remains welcoming to newcomers and beginners, but to move up to the more advanced courses, an OUSA membership should be required.  There could be tiered levels so that those who aren’t going to compete or are only going to compete at local-level events pay less to be a member than those who will be competing at a regional or national level.

 

Way back in the day I competed in amateur motocross, in events that also required liability insurance (obviously!).  Similar to OUSA, the AMA usually provided the insurance to the hosting club, and participants in the event had to be a member of the AMA to take part.  Other sports that I have participated in, such as bowling, golf, etc. also require participants to be members of their national governing bodies in order to participate at certain levels.  It would be a dramatic change that’s probably going to encounter resistance, but should be considered because it is fair.

 

Mike Avery

NEOOC

 

From: clu...@orienteeringusa.org <clu...@orienteeringusa.org> On Behalf Of Gale Teschendorf
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2022 9:51 PM
To: Ruth Bromer <Ru...@treklite.com>
Cc: Faye Doria <faye....@orienteeringusa.org>; ClubNet <clu...@orienteeringusa.org>
Subject: Re: [OUSA-ClubNet] Proposed Revenue Increases for 2023 and 2024

 

How about keeping the rates the same except with a yearly inflation adjustment?

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[RWorner LKohn]

Faye,

One more thing to analyze to find more funds might be the effect of NREs on OUSA income. While I support helping new clubs host an NRE I am not sure that well established clubs with healthy budgets really should be offered the benefit of reduced sanctioning fees.

Rick Worner

ROC

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[Gord Hunter]

Hasn't everyone heard of Economics' Law of Demand? Did we all not have to sit through the same Economics 100 bewildering lectures?

The Law of Demand is a simple rule. If all other things stay constant and you increase the price fewer people are going to want to buy ... the product...the service... the membership.

Conversely if all other things stay constant and you decrease the price more people will want to buy ... the product...the service... the membership.

That is just what will happen. Therefore if you want to increase the price of the membership make sure you have some sweetener that makes the membership more attractive. Or expect to end up with fewer members but the same amount of revenue on that line.

Someone mentioned the experience in other sports.

My experiences with membership were in Rugby and Triathlon. In Rugby we had to pay a large annual fee to the provincial association or we could not step on the field to practice or play a game. We were told that was for insurance and I'm sure a good part of it was.

Triathlon we could buy a provincial/ national annual membership and that got us into all events in Canada at a standard fee. Without the annual membership all member events were to charge an extra $5 for a day membership . Again we were told these fees and extra fees largely covered insurance.  

Do I have a recommendation out of this? Consider this: Instead of just hiking the fee consider restructuring fees from top to bottom so that likely a club membership cost goes up but includes a national membership and access to the lower regular event fees (and annual passes if the club is really forward thinking) Then everyone else coming to an event pays the higher fee which includes a ''day membership'  to the local club an O-USA. The annual and day memberships are both marketed for their value in buying event insurance for the participant.

(Also OUSA setting up a web store/ slash shopping center would be a good service for members and a good source of revenue for thre federation.)

Gord Hunter

Suncoast Orienteering

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[Alec Richardson]

There are multiple decision points here.

The base decision is whether OUSA needs more money.  Faye made two points in supporting the viewpoint that it does:

1) OUSA needs more money to balance the budget

2) OUSA needs more money to provide more services to clubs.

In terms of #1, I would need to see more info before supporting this as a reason for OUSA needing more money, but that really becomes a moot point if you support her 2nd point which I do.

If you agree with me then the question becomes how does OUSA pay for these additional services to the clubs?  Faye brought up the ideas of either increasing membership fees or increasing start fees.  Mike M. brought up the idea of increasing the number of OUSA members.  Increasing the number of OUSA members is easier said than done, but I definitely think there should be more focus and effort put on that before fees are raised.  Maybe after a year of focusing on a membership drive then we can re-address the idea of increasing fees.

Now how does OUSA go about a membership drive?  What is the best way for OUSA to make contact with orienteers who are not members?  Via the clubs seems like the obvious answer to me. I imagine most of our clubs could do more to help promote OUSA in general.  I am not a big fan though of Mike M.'s idea of clubs sharing our member lists with OUSA. I have privacy concerns with that and anyway I think any messaging about OUSA membership would be more effective coming from us clubs directly vs this faceless national organization which a lot of orienteers probably know nothing about.  I think OUSA should come up with a flyer that clubs could print and post at meets or email out to members.

Alec Richardson

President

Central Va Orienteering Club (CVOC)

www.CenralVaOrienteering.com

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[Tony Pinkham]

I agree with Gord--increasing the price of membership without increasing the value of membership will only drive down membership numbers. The key is to increase the value of membership and to do that to develop the sport, not to raise revenue. Right now, the membership benefit is a mere $4 discount per NRE attended and it seems to me that there are fewer NRE weekends to attend. As I've gotten older, my need for national ranking has diminished to nothingness, so that is not much of a benefit. To get any monetary value for my $35 membership, I need to attend at least nine NREs a year...and that doesn't happen for me and most prospective members. If it were not for my personal drive to actively develop the sport, I'd stop being a member.

The value solution requires both of the following:

• Increase the membership benefit. If the main benefit is a discount for attending NREs, you need to increase that discount. A $35 membership offering a $4 discount per NRE attended is trivial because it would require a member to travel to and attend at least 9 NREs a year. That doesn't happen for me and for nearly all prospective members. If you increase the discount so that the benefit is realized after attending two NREs, you'll see membership growth.
  
  By the way, my club offers a mere $5 discount for members at our local events, which requires very little travel expenditure. A $4 discount to NREs, which require substantial travel, offers next to nothing.
  
  
• Increase the excitement that comes by being a member. For me, that means increasing the number of weekends with NREs and making me (the prospective member) realize that my creative contributions to the sport make a difference. We need members for their creative contributions, not for their money. We get our money from holding more high-value events each year--that's where we increase our revenue. For that to happen, we need the creative contributions of motivated members. When my club realized this, our event offerings began to increase along with our membership. Instead of increasing our membership dues, we have increased the number of local events each year from 7 to 12+ and are looking to finally offer technical NREs and regional events each year for our needed revenue. It's a gamble but just prior to holding our first NRE in 18 years in 2023 we are seeing significant increases in event attendance and excitement as we build our program. My money is on increasing value to increase revenue because that is showing the needed results.
  

Tony Pinkham

Columbia River Orienteering Club

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[Bob Forgrave]

Thanks, everyone, for a timely and well-considered discussion thread. Much to agree with here, but Tony's observations pulled me into this discussion.

Fundamentally, memberships are transactional. You pay $X in fees to receive $Y in benefits. If X isn't less than Y, then you don't renew. Now we're talking about raising X to raise operating funds. Even more awkwardly, the benefits of Y are remote and relevant only to the most dedicated orienteers who travel a lot.

Compare that to another nonprofit--a theater. The transactional plan is called "season tickets".  $X in fees (ticket prices) to receive $Y in benefits (shows). If it's not a good deal or you don't think you'll be seeing that many shows, you don't renew. ***But the theater doesn't run its whole budget off of that. There's an entirely different level of support that's far more important.*** They have Donors, at various levels of recognition. These are folks who care enough about the organization that they give large amounts without a transactional relationship. All they want is to know that what they are doing matters and makes things better for everyone else---to be kept in the loop about progress that they help drive.

Imagine that with orienteering. Yes, there's OUSA membership, for those who travel/compete/rank, but there would also be 3 levels of Navigation Supporters (maybe named after famous navigators) who give annually at the $100, $200, or $300 level to help OUSA grow the sport. Not just grow the number of NREs (which are great for experienced orienteers), but also help local clubs to a better job of bringing in newcomers who are the future of our sport. Nav Supporters would get yearly recognition and opportunities to hear first-hand , probably through Zoom, what's working and what we're changing to move forward each year. Maybe even . . . thinking big here . . . one annual event physically held in a fabulous location that's only open to OUSA Nav Supporters. Get our biggest supporters together in one place, meeting each other, sharing ideas, and totally pumped about what they're able to do together.

Could that sustainably fix our current revenue predicament? 

Bob Forgrave
Cascade Orienteering Club

[pgwo...@gmail.com]

Maybe we should act like many other non-profits and look for plain donations. We could have the $100 level as “compass supporters”, the $250 level as “control supporters” and the $500 level as “Master Orienteers”. (Yeah, the names could be a lot more creative….) Then, after the end of the year, people supporting at these levels would be cited for their donations. It might be said that if I go to a meet on the other side of the country that my costs for flights, rental car, lodging, etc. make is so this kind of donation is actually quite small in comparison.

 

Most people don’t see the value of a membership, those who know the sport and believe in it, can make this kind of donation.

 

Just a thought.

 

Peter Goodwin

 

 

From: clu...@orienteeringusa.org <clu...@orienteeringusa.org> On Behalf Of Bob Forgrave
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2022 4:01 PM
To: ClubNet <clu...@orienteeringusa.org>
Cc: runner...@gmail.com <runner...@gmail.com>; worne...@gmail.com <worne...@gmail.com>; ClubNet <clu...@orienteeringusa.org>; gor...@rogers.com <gor...@rogers.com>
Subject: Re: [OUSA-ClubNet] Proposed Revenue Increases for 2023 and 2024

 

Thanks, everyone, for a timely and well-considered discussion thread. Much to agree with here, but Tony's observations pulled me into this discussion.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/orienteeringusa.org/d/msgid/clubnet/59f1e31b-948f-4c6e-9529-17c370d23421n%40orienteeringusa.org.

[Joseph Huberman]

How about if OUSA produced some news or informational articles once or twice a month that would be distributed to the clubs to use as they wished.  Maybe include it on their website or in a newsletter.  As an example, the Jr. Team coach could write an article to encourage youth participation.  If some clubs published the article it would reach a different group than those that already subscribe to OUSA newsletter.  This would give OUSA a presence at the local level, boosting awareness and possibly membership.

Joseph

===========================

Joseph Huberman

OUSA BOD, VP Club Services

m. 919-610-1788

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/orienteeringusa.org/d/msgid/clubnet/09ff01d8f937%2456df1e50%24049d5af0%24%40gmail.com.

[Tori Campbell]

Please note, however - we don't have a Junior Team Coach.  Not something OUSA can fund at current levels, except for during events such as JWOC. 

I really appreciate the high-quality photos and the excellent event write-ups Clinton has produced for NREs and major international competitions. I've seen a few comments about those who miss ONA, but I wonder if they attend national events and have seen Clinton's work, which is more extensive than anything OUSA  produced in print for individual events. In today's digital world, it's also something that is easy to share with anyone who has an email address or a social media account. In his role as our lead for communication, Clinton is a valuable asset for getting the word out about OUSA news.

I would also like to share that OUSA members have free access to education resources that were previously available only through in-person clinics, and discounted rates for the Level 1 Coaching Course - we've announced this before, but word is still getting out (I should probably write up an announcement for Clinton to put out). Find out more and use your OUSA login to get a registration key here: https://education.orienteeringusa.org/

Thank you for this conversation. Definitely food for thought as we move into budget season.

-Tori Campbell

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/orienteeringusa.org/d/msgid/clubnet/CAO60M%3Djc_c1n4TO02iqtmHPZLvWfkQOJiEXVEjeivMaptf6%2BgA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Barb Bryant]

Many sports require membership in the national organization for participation in events, especially sanctioned events.

A random selection:

• Tennis: "Becoming a USTA Member gives you access to USTA sanctioned leagues and tournaments, an opportunity to qualify for a national rating and ranking, and a chance to compete in local and national championships. There are so many ways to play for members of all ages and abilities."
• Archery
• pickleball
• table tennis
• US ski & snowboard membership is required not only for athletes participating in sanctioned events, but also coaches, officials and volunteers and anyone in a position of authority over or in regular contact with athletes (in order to trigger background screening and SafeSport training). Not sure if we've mentioned SafeSport in this thread, but it's an important benefit for clubs who otherwise could be exposed to liability
• USARA (adventure racing) membership gives discounts to gear/clothing. If you don't have an annual membership, USARA requires you to purchase an single-event membership for each race.
• USATF

It looks like adult memberships in national sports federations typically cost $25 and up, Benefits that are typically touted include event participation eligilibity, ranking, accident/medical insurance, merchandise savings, volunteering, coaching, education (coaching, officials certification), newsletters, access/discounts to virtual offerings (webinars eg), knowing you are supporting athletes. voting privileges, community tools (online forums, etc).

[RWorner LKohn]

This thread  got started discussing ways that we could get the sport of Orienteering growing again in the U.S. Lots of great ideas have emerged. One thing seems clear. If in fact the membership in OUSA has been stagnant at around 1400 for a decade we need to try and do something about it. Status quo is not a goal. The OUSA BOD needs to take the lead and to set a goal  for some percentage of growth each year going into the future (10%?). The clubs need to be enlisted in this effort since they are in regular contact with orienteers throughout the country. The OUSA BOD could adopt some of the suggested ways to enhance the OUSA membership and the clubs could be encouraged to sell it to their members. Once upon a time it was a badge of honor to have a high percentage of your membership also belong to OUSA and to have a large number of votes at the annual meeting. Maybe OUSA could  spark a competition for clubs to have the highest percentage of their members also belong to OUSA.  Seems like a win/win situation.

Again, status quo is not a goal.  Lets get growing !!!

Rick Worner

ROC

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[Alec Richardson]

Rick, that is a great summary.  I totally agree with everything you said.  

One thing I would like to add is I think increasing OUSA membership should be a means to an end vs the end goal.  OUSA's main goal should be to increase participation in orienteering in the US.  We should not implement any policy to increase OUSA membership which could decrease participation at local clubs.  Requiring OUSA membership to participate in a local event would add an additional cost to participants unless either the club and/or OUSA subsidized the cost.

Alec Richardson

President

Central Va Orienteering Club (CVOC)

www.CenralVaOrienteering.com

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/orienteeringusa.org/d/msgid/clubnet/CAGTzKr6GH0jMu_Yb6ynRUhzWxgV4qrXb6h_%2B%3DKbEH-9f_VnJGw%40mail.gmail.com.

[RWorner LKohn]

Thanks Alec.

WHAT ARE SOME WAYS THAT WE COULD SUGGEST TO OUSA TO ENHANCE THE MEMBERSHIP THAT WE COULD SELL IT TO OUR CLUB MEMBERS ?

 A 20% discount on meet fees at local and national meets. (new)

A monthly digital newsletter with links and articles highlighting the services to individual members available on the website i.e coaching skills development etc. (mostly existing now)

An OUSA or Orienteering  decal to display on their car bumpers. (may exist already?)

A 20% discount for members to purchase Orienteering gear from approved and participating vendors or from some sort of OUSA marketplace. (new)

Just a few off the top of my head.  I am sure there are many more.

Status quo is not a goal.  Let's get growing !!!

Rick Worner

ROC

[Jim Wolfe]

This thread began with a posting about the need to increase revenue for
OUSA.  At least two recent contributions have made suggestions that
would affect the revenue of local clubs: discounting and requiring local
members to be national members.  I would like to sound a note of caution
about such ideas.  Although local clubs probably have somewhat similar
ways in which they manage to remain afloat financially, the notion of
imposing some monolithic financial measure from the national level is
likely to create havoc at the local level for at least some clubs. 
There are currently no standards for how clubs charge fees (for
participation or membership or anything else) and I, for one, don't
think there ought to be any such standards.

Jim Wolfe

[Gale Teschendorf]

Alec,

Increasing revenue will most likely "add an additional cost to participants", because non-participants are unlikely to donate to OUSA.
OUSA needs to raise revenue or it will cease to exist or will have to cut back, let alone expand services.

If the above is correct, the question is how best to raise revenue from participants so as to minimize the effect on clubs.
I do not run a club, so anything I suggest should be discounted somewhat.

The simplest way would be to raise start fees. There has been at least one smaller club that said that a $2.20 start fee would hurt their club. Would bigger clubs be willing to pay a higher start fee than small clubs?

Making every runner pay $35 per year for membership would undoubtedly be a quick way to destroy OUSA. Of course, if everyone was a member we would not need $35 per year. 
A new $5 per year OUSA limited mandatory membership might balance the budget, but would make work for the local clubs & reduce the number of new local members.
A 20% charge on everything I sell would put a big dent in the deficit, but I would have to pass on the cost to participants or go out of business. I make less than the local minimum wage selling O-gear as it is.

What do clubs think is the best way to raise OUSA revenue?

Best regards,

Gale Teschendorf

On Wed, Nov 16, 2022 at 9:53 AM Alec Richardson <hok...@gmail.com> wrote:

Rick, that is a great summary.  I totally agree with everything you said.  

One thing I would like to add is I think increasing OUSA membership should be a means to an end vs the end goal.  OUSA's main goal should be to increase participation in orienteering in the US.  We should not implement any policy to increase OUSA membership which could decrease participation at local clubs.  Requiring OUSA membership to participate in a local event would add an additional cost to participants unless either the club and/or OUSA subsidized the cost.

Alec Richardson

President

Central Va Orienteering Club (CVOC)

www.CenralVaOrienteering.comit https://groups.google.com/a/orienteeringusa.org/d/msgid/clubnet/CAB5BRuAqLJw-q2vpU6p6JEg9xERE%2BJEtgt%3DdEoT%2BwgFq80Gd9g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jody Landers]

I apologize for coming into this discussion so late, but I have been following, with great interest, the comments that were elicited by the posting from Faye Doria on OUSA Club-net under the subject line “Proposed Revenue Increases for 2023 and 2024.”  I do think that a number of the revenue raising ideas that have been proposed have a lot of merit and perhaps should be pursued.  But I also detect in some of the comments a subliminal tension or conflict between what is good for the local club’s vs what is good for the national organization, as if the two entities had competing interests. 

 

Please understand that the following comments are just my observations and opinions and they may be completely off the mark because I have not been very been active at the national level, but I have been a member and contributor for many years.   From my perspective, what I find lacking from the discussion is a clearly articulated strategic vision of what the national organization wants to be and should be.  Before drilling down further into this observation about the lack of a vision, let me share a bit of my history with the sport, so you can understand the context in which my comments are being offered.  I hope you will forgive me for the length of this message, but the point I am trying to make requires some background and context.

 

I first got involved with orienteering through the Mountain Club of Maryland 45 years ago.  At that time, we would hold meets using photo copies of sections of USGS 1:24000 scale maps with a minimal amount of field checking.  We hung painted plastic gallon milk jugs as control markers with letters or numbers marked on them along with a pencil that participants used to write down on the corner of their map the letter or number of the controls they had located.    Participants had to hand copy their own course maps from master maps that were posted in the start area, and we basically only had two course levels beginner and advanced. 

 

After a year or so, I joined the Quantico Orienteering Club and was amazed at the improved quality of the maps the club was using and the fact that they had real control markers with pin punches, control sheets and punch cards, and a variety of course lengths and difficulty from which to choose.  At around this same time I also joined what was then USOF to get access to information and training aids and to find out what other clubs were doing.  I have never been active in the organization at the national level, but I appreciated the information about resources and national meets that was sent out via the regular newsletters and from time to time I was able to attend the national meets.  Off and on, I have probably been a member of USOF/OUSA for 30-35 of the past 45 years.

 

While I have not been active at the national level, I have been very involved at the local level through QOC for 20 years or more.  I served as the meet director for a QOC sponsored national A meet in 2009 and regularly serve as a meet director and volunteer for QOC local events. I have been a QOC Board member for the past 7 years and for 5 of those years I served as the club President.   By all measures QOC is a very successful club. It has the largest number of members.  QOC alone accounted for nearly 14% of all starts for the year and nearly 13% of OUSA Club Fees.  I mention these figures not to boast, but to lend credence to my position that the national organization needs to put forth a program and vision that will help the organization and the sport to grow and especially expand the number of successful clubs.  

 

I think everyone will agree that over the past 45 years the sport has made great technological strides.  In addition, several of the local clubs have been very successful in recruiting members, creating maps and staging events.  With increased access to current LIDAR data, the maps are far superior today then the old USGS based maps.  The e-punch technology and tools like route gadget and information sharing through platforms like Attack Point are phenomenal and have helped competitors to hone and develop their orienteering skills.  However, orienteering is still not a widely known or broadly recognized sport and while there are a few strong clubs in some regions there are many areas where there is very little or no activity at all.   

 

Clearly the orienteering community is better off today than it was years ago, but it seems that the national organization has not been able to capitalize on this progress, as evidenced by the constant struggle to adequately fund its operations.  And when revenue proposals are put forth, such as in the current discussion, the tension between what is good for the local clubs vs the national organization surfaces and it becomes difficult to make any real progress.   I would posit that one of the reasons for this tension and the organization’s failure to grow is the lack of a clearly articulated strategic vision, which would merge and serve the interests of both the national organization and the local clubs.  

 

As someone on this email chain pointed out, the membership in OUSA has hovered around 1400 for the past 10 years, which is rather sad for a national entity that encompasses clubs that had 35,000 starts last year.  Some club leaders pointed out that only about 20% of their members were also members of OUSA and that is true for QOC as well, which is also a disappointing statistic.  The club rechartering data for 2022 lists 68 affiliated clubs, but of that number 10 clubs had no events at all in 2021.  The data further show that just 8 of the 60 active clubs accounted for 54% of all starts for the year and 51% of the fee revenue.  So what is holding the organization back from exploiting this tremendous opportunity to grow and thrive.

 

If OUSA has a long-term strategic vision for the organization then great, but as a member and contributor it isn’t clear to me.  Does OUSA intend to be an organization that serves individual members or is it an organization that serves and is built on a federation of  clubs or is it both?   Who or what groups are intended to be the primary beneficiaries of OUSA’s programs?  What tangible goals or strategies have been implemented to make the vision a reality?    There have been a number of comments about various revenue ideas and the need to grow but to what end?  What is the vision that the leadership and the organization wish to achieve?    The budget should not be inhibiting or driving the strategic vision of the organization, instead the strategic vision should be the driving force behind the budget.

 

Balancing the budget is not something that inspires members or donors to give more or that generates excitement and commitment.  Creating a compelling vision and set of programmatic goals for the organization can and will inspire existing members and donors to give more and will expand the base.  One of the fundamental axioms of fundraising is to start by asking your existing donors/supporters to contribute to the vision.  The notion that the national organization and the local clubs are competing with each other is counterproductive.  The reality is the local clubs stand to benefit from a strong national organization and vice versa.   First, the leadership and stakeholders must agree on what kind of organization OUSA wants to be and create a compelling dynamic vision that the leadership, the clubs and the members can buy into and then we can figure out how to pay for it. 

 

My personal vision for the organization would include the following elements: 

·       A dynamic program and staffing for Junior development and coaching. 

·       Since the clubs are the primary point of contact and involvement in the sport, there should be an initiative that focuses on seeding new clubs in areas that are underrepresented.

·       Provide technical, resource, recruitment and governance assistance to clubs that are on the decline.

·       Providing funding and technical help to clubs to update existing maps and map new areas.

·       Holding periodic (maybe bi-annually) intensive mapping clinics for club volunteers aimed at increasing the capacity of clubs to update local maps and expand the inventory of mapped areas and venue types.

·       Offering course setting clinics at various locations around the country to expand the course setting capacity of local clubs

 

I am sure many on this email thread could greatly expand on this list.

 

As you can see, my emphasis is on strengthening and building on the network of clubs that exist at the present time and to expand into areas that are not represented, because that is where I see the greatest potential for growth in numbers and in revenue.   The fact that just 8 of the existing clubs are generating more than 50% of the starts and fee revenue nationally, is an indication that there is tremendous room for improvement and growth.  But, it is not going to happen without creating and selling a compelling strategic vision for the national organization.   

 

I believe it was Yogi Berra who said,” If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”  Where is OUSA going?  Thanks to everyone who spent the time to get this far in my long winded commentary.   BTW, the views expressed here are my own and may not reflect the opinions of the current QOC leadership team.     

 

Jody Landers

 

"Do right and you will be conspicuous"   Mark Twain

On Sat, Nov 12, 2022 at 2:55 PM Faye Doria <faye....@orienteeringusa.org> wrote:

For the past two years I have been on the OUSA Board watching the financial situation.  OUSA is about to enter its third year with a budget in the red.  

I am trained as an accountant, and spent 35 years in personal financial planning helping families improve their financial situations.  My personal opinion is that OUSA needs to increase revenue.  OUSA funds necessary activities (website, database, accounting, member support, insurance) at a bare-bones level.  Other important activities (team travel and uniforms, skills development for individuals and teams, championships) are often self-funded though club support.  OUSA is not able to expand on most of the good ideas we have due to a lack of funding and/or people willing to volunteer their time to see them through.    

I have proposed two ways to increase revenue - increase individual member dues and look to clubs for increased revenue.  The OUSA Board wants to be sure members have some idea that these discussions are on the table as we prepare a 2023 budget.

Our revenue from individual member (plus family, student, and junior) dues has not shown much change over the years.  It hovers around 20% of total revenue.  Ideally, we would be growing the membership base, which would increase revenue.  But we have hovered around 1,400 members for the last 10 years. Without an increase in members, it is getting harder to provide the support for championship events, annual reports, newsletters, website, and insurance that members find important.

I have proposed we increase individual membership in OUSA from $35 to $40 sometime in the first half of 2023.  Family memberships (which include up to 2 adults and 2 members under age 25) would increase from $45 to $55 at the same time.  Student memberships (under age 25) would continue at $20.  Junior memberships (who cannot vote and don't receive the annual report) would continue at $10.  I can't believe OUSA members don't think it is worth another $5 a year to support a sport they love.

Clubs made it clear they prefer we only consider start fees when they recharter and asked us to make any change revenue neutral.  At the 2022 rechartering, the statistics show about 35,000 starts generating about $70,000 of income  That makes it clear a neutral start fee payment to OUSA should be $2 for 2024 rechartering.  Club dues make up about 40% of annual revenue.

Personally, I would recommend that we go to $2.20 for start fees to OUSA in 2024 to provide a 10% revenue increase.  Other than insurance and some general support, we are not able to offer much to our clubs.  Increasing revenue would allow us to explore ways to extend OUSA technology to clubs, to offer ways to broaden services (mapping, outreach to scouts or JROTC, how-to clinics), and to offer other technical and marketing support.  Having more revenue lets us pay people to spend the time necessary to improve OUSA services.

I am curious if clubs would consider a 2-tier start fee.  I know many clubs offer a lower entry fee for white/yellow courses since these are generally run by newcomers or youth.  Since we want to encourage beginners and youth, a lower payment to OUSA for white/yellow starts could be considered.

Since we have no statistics on how many starts are on each course, I made a wild guess that 20% to 25% of starts are white/yellow.  In that case, a 2-tier system could charge the current $1.50 for white/yellow starts and $2.25 for all other starts (which would be largely revenue neutral).  That would require more records on the part of each club.  I'm not sure the benefits of lower start fees justify the extra recordkeeping.  Some club feedback would be helpful.

For those who are curious, donations make up about 20% of revenue, 10% comes from the OUSA Endowment Fund, and the other 10% comes from programs (largely sanctioning fees for championships, some from the Youth Mapping Program, and small amounts from EventReg, book royalties, and book sales).

I have included my personal email in case you would prefer to reply to me directly rather than to the entire group.  You are also welcome to reply to any OUSA Board member or your club officials.  The OUSA Board is concerned about raising revenue without the membership having any input on the decision.  Our next Board meeting is December 5, 2022, so feedback should be given before that date.

Thank you all for whatever you do to support orienteering,

Faye Doria

faye....@orienteeringUSA.org

--

Faye Doria

VP of Finance

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[Steven Tylock]

Hey all,

I guess I have to call myself a reasonably long time lurker, and I've been happy to see that several of the things I have wanted to share were represented already. I'd like to push two ideas that I have not seen that bear on the issue of costs / funding / membership.

The first is that we are currently sitting in the most unusual position of data in the past 30 years. It would not seem to be a time to say that what has happened in the last 3 years is in any way representative of the sport, the local climate, or the world. Everyone threw away their regular lives and fashioned a new way of getting around in a global pandemic. It was exceptional.

And so one should not refer to this recent past as a prediction to the way it will be again or that the history leading up to it is gone. It was a blip in some ways no less significant than that in the Marvel universe...

Some clubs found new participants - we should look for those examples.  Clubs reset operations - we should examine those. Costs rose - we should consider those.  We should not necessarily come to great conclusions that these are representative of the world of 2023. (but use them if at all helpful)

I found myself in a leadership position for the Rochester club and said at the beginning of the year - let's try to have a local set of events as best we can. And now with data from this past year we can see what is working and what might be adjusted. (But the recent pandemic history is right there alongside the discussion and we'll need to temper any path with growing out of this odd period in time)

The second is that the sport has been built by individuals that recognized that they could run in the forest almost anywhere for free.  And if they were running the event, they could ensure that every aspect was relatively modestly provisioned and fees could be set to cover costs. And so they have - woo hoo.

You know what is also free? Running down the road. And yet the supply of events where one can run down the road with others is huge - and they charge a lot more.

Yes, individuals will chafe at the idea that to participate in the sport they need to fund a national organization that gets half of all revenue (that's just a fraction pulled out of the air, but it seems like we'd think that is high amount to share).  But at the same time, if the national organization enables all the local clubs to function and marshals resources to both start and grow clubs - it needs funding. (I'd throw in a paid director at the national level, but I know that's just crazy talk! (wry humor intended))

It seems to me the organizational leadership reset several years before covid, then we had covid, and now we need to take a look at what's in the best interest of the sport, post covid.

I'd encourage the gathering and mapping of data to a significant degree before pronouncement of solutions. I don't think we collectively know enough to get to conclusions yet.

steve

---

Steve Tylock

[Jim Wolfe]

Faye Doria gave a rough breakdown of where OUSA revenue comes from in
terms of percentages:  club dues 40%, membership 20%, donations 20%,
endowment 10%, programs 10%.  Can she provide a similar percentage
breakdown for expenditures using the activities she listed (see below). 
It seems to me that the principal benefit from club dues for a local
club is insurance coverage.  If 40% of the revenue is from club dues,
does that at least cover the cost of insurance?  A breakdown of the
expenditures would help to answer that question.  It might also help to
identify which area(s) of revenue it is most appropriate to try to
increase.

Jim Wolfe

[RWorner LKohn]

It is nice to see a lively discussion with many good points.  It might be good to see someone post a brief history of USOF/OUSA so people could see what has been tried in the past.

A brief synopsis would be that for many years the organization had a series of executive directors who received a small stipend to keep an office running and then through a generous outside grant hired a professional ED who spent a few years in the role. He was responsible for improving the governance, finance and branding of the organization. While in many ways he succeeded in these tasks he was never able to stimulate the membership growth of the organization despite having a long-term plan and promoting the sport at conventions of other organizations throughout the country. He produced many promotional videos and posters for the use of the clubs. When the grant expired and the growth did not materialize he left the organization. Since then I believe that we have reverted back to being solely a volunteer organization. A few positions like communications might still receive some compensation. Clinton Morse does an astounding job producing the monthly newsletter and the annual magazine. I don't really know about others. So that is a brief and probably inaccurate short history.  I have been involved in US orienteering at all levels for the past forty years so have lived through many of these changes. In the early days it was an "All for one, and one for all" group of competitive orienteers that were the core of the organization. We hosted the World Championships, World Cups and the World Masters Championships in hope that greater visibility would benefit the growth of the sport. Today the sport seems to be focused more on local clubs and less on national growth. I hope that there is room for the growth of both segments. Status quo seems like a dangerous position for a sport that we all love. 

Rick Worner

ROC

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[Faye Doria]

First, thank you all for your constructive and positive discussion.  There have been many good ideas and lots of thought-provoking questions.  I have definitely appreciated your input.

I want to clarify that all life membership money goes directly to the OrienteeringUSA Endowment.  This separate charitable entity sends 4% of its prior year balance to OUSA each year.  We use that money to offset administrative expenses.  All donations to the endowment also go through the OUSA books so you see offsetting donations and expenses on our books.

I have started to put financial information in a new publically accessible folder in the OUSA Library.  The link to that is HERE.

I was asked to provide a breakdown of expenses by category.  I only started to keep these categories in 2022 so the history is very recent.  As others have pointed out, it is hard to find a "normal" year to compare to so I won't pretend these categories have any historical value.  They reflect actual 2022 expenses and the 2023 budgeted amounts.

15% is in the Individual Member category.  That includes a portion of the monthly stipends paid to our adminstrator and our communcations director, part of the cost of maintaining the website, most of the printed annual report, cost of awards for championship events, and about 15% of the insurance cost which is the premium to cover individual injuries.

20% is in the Clubs category.  That includes a portion of the monthly stipends paid to our adminstrator and our communcations director, part of the cost of maintaining the website, a small part of the printed annual report which we are offering to clubs this year for publicity purposes, the cost of maintaining EventReg, and about 70% of the insurance cost which is the premium to cover landowners for events happening on their property.

30% is in the Teams category.  This varies somewhat from year-to-year depending on international events.  For example, The World Games and World University Orienteering Championships were in 2022, while the North American Orienteering Championships will happen in 2023.  We cover entry fees, a portion of travel expenses, a minimal amount of coaching around events, and a portion of the dues to the International Orienteering Federation.  A small part of the adminstrator and communications director stipends are included.  Most of the competitors pay the majority of their own travel costs to the events and all of their training expenses.

3% is in the Youth category.  There is a Youth Mapping Program which provides a small stipend to adults to check the maps of the volunteer youth.  And there is a small budget for Youth Development.

30% is in the Adminstrative category.  That includes a portion of the monthly stipends paid to our adminstrator and our communcations director, part of the cost of maintaining the website, accounting and legal fees, SafeSport expenses, credit card charges, the 15% of the insurance that covers board activities (liability, malfeasance, errors and omissions), a portion of the IOF dues, and small amounts for office expenses, postage, and similar expenses.

2% is in the Fundraising category.  That is the mailing and admistrative costs for the annual appeal as well as some outreach to other organizations.

I hope this answers the question.

Faye Doria

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[Gale Teschendorf]

What happened a dozen or so years ago that there was a jump in membership?

[Mike Minium]

@Gale.  My understanding is that the “jump” is a fiction created by incomplete data during the transition to the NEON database.   Any pre-NEON numbers are not reliable.   Possibly some better numbers could be found from other sources such as old AGM minutes or old voting lists.  

Mike

On Nov 19, 2022, at 3:54 PM, Gale Teschendorf <goorien...@gmail.com> wrote:



What happened a dozen or so years ago that there was a jump in membership?

On Fri, Nov 18, 2022, 10:17 AM RWorner LKohn <worne...@gmail.com> wrote:

It is nice to see a lively discussion with many good points.  It might be good to see someone post a brief history of USOF/OUSA so people could see what has been tried in the past.

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[Joseph Huberman]

There has been a lot of discussion on the belief that OUSA doesn't do much for the clubs or recreational orienteers except for insurance.  Tori pointed me to a document from the 2019 strategic planning survey that has a pretty comprehensive list of OUSA benefits.  Notice that most of them are for a subset of orienteers, so while most orienteers may benefit for one or two they don't recognize the rest that benefit others.

Benefits for clubs:

• Insurance to hold events

• Orienteering-specific registration system (EventReg)

• Photos / publicized Event Recap of 2-day NREs and major events

• Admin team to process charters, answer questions

• Website to connect prospective orienteers to local clubs

• Resources / programs / funding to support developing orienteering locally (how-to’s, map grants, youth programs, coach certification, etc)

• Scheduling support for major events

• Sanctioning oversight / support for major events

• Publically-accessible calendar of national events

• Publically-accessible library of orienteering resources, to include minutes from official OUSA meetings

• Maintenance of communication channels (ClubNet, Facebook, OUSA website, official announcements on Attackpoint, etc)

Benefits for individuals:

• Newsletter [currently by email]

• $4 discount per NRE race (adult) / $3.00 for juniors

• Free access to online training resources (Basic Orienteering curriculum, SafeSport)

• Discounted access to Level 1 Coach Certification course

• National ranking with NRE participation

• Eligibility to win championship medals at NREs

• Free access to download individual photos from 2-day NREs and major events

• Annual publication

Other National Sporting Federation roles we perform:

• Represent orienteering in the USA to IOF

• Support national teams to compete for the USA in international competition

• Make policies to guide implementation of the sport in the USA

Orienteering USA’s mission is to

1. Increase participation in the sport

2. Teach map reading and navigation skills

3. Promote enjoyment of, and respect for, the environment

4. Establish world-class competitive excellence within our national team programs

From the 2019 Strategic Planning survey, here’s how respondents valued the various roles the OUSA fulfills:

On Saturday, November 19, 2022 at 7:19:56 PM UTC-5 mikem...@gmail.com wrote:

@Gale.  My understanding is that the “jump” is a fiction created by incomplete data during the transition to the NEON database.   Any pre-NEON numbers are not reliable.   Possibly some better numbers could be found from other sources such as old AGM minutes or old voting lists.  

Mike

On Nov 19, 2022, at 3:54 PM, Gale Teschendorf <goorien...@gmail.com> wrote:



What happened a dozen or so years ago that there was a jump in membership?

On Fri, Nov 18, 2022, 10:17 AM RWorner LKohn <worne...@gmail.com> wrote:

It is nice to see a lively discussion with many good points.  It might be good to see someone post a brief history of USOF/OUSA so people could see what has been tried in the past.

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[RWorner LKohn]

Joseph and Tori,

Thanks for digging these out. Thinking that an increase of discount at national meets and a decal to put on your car might be a couple of enhancements that could help clubs sell more memberships. Maybe a recognition program of some sort to recognize clubs with the highest percentage of OUSA members. Beyond these things clubs could incentivise their own memberships with discounts for OUSA memberships etc. We are all in this together.  Growth at the national level is as important as growth at the local level. We are stronger together. Status quo is not a good option.  Let's grow again at both levels.

Rick Worner

ROC

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