Club Purchasing Policy

[esdubya]

TDs and club leaders:

Do you have a spelled out policy that guides purchases made by your disc golf club?

For example, when there is an event coming up, and you need to buy stuff, who ultimately makes that decision? Is there a vote? Does your club buy it directly, or does an individual put it on credit and wait until after the event to get reimbursed?

Curious as I'm drafting our club bylaws right now and I want to have something in there about making club purchases.

Spending money is a danger zone for clubs IMO - you have a high potential of a member not liking how club funds are being spent for one reason or another. If there is a clear transparent policy that can sure help to squash these feelings.

I'll share my draft:
Section 8.1: Club Funded Purchases – The League Coordinator or Tournament Director has the authority to use club funds to purchase items (discs or other merchandise) for an event or league. The club president needs to approve of all purchases using club funds, that are above $100.
Section 8.2: Other Purchases – Members may decide to purchase items for the club if necessary. The details of the reimbursement can be worked out on a case-by-case basis.

 

[DavidSauls]

My experience will not apply everywhere, but.....

I served as club treasurer for 8 years, and was a notorious tightwad about club funds. Because, you're right---it's a danger zone clubs, a potential source of division and suspicion. Plus, I was constantly contending that the club needed to maintain its funds for a time when a major need or opportunity might arise---a chance to build a new course, for instance. It wasn't written into our by-laws, but any major expenses were discussed at monthly club meetings, and voted on there; some things that came up on short notice were decided by the board as a whole.

For tournaments, it was a non-issue. We're 90 minutes from Innova, and could stock tournaments on consignment. Someone would drive to Innova and pick up a load of merchandise, then after the tournament return the remainders and only pay for what we sold/gave away.

When we decided to have custom-stamped league merchandise---discs and shirts---is where the squabbles began. That becomes a major outlay of funds, that takes time to replenish as the merch is sold to members, and tournament visitors. Always an issue as to how much to buy (always someone arguing that it needs to be a lot, confident that we'll make money for the club).

My two cents on your draft is that Section 8.1 ought to include that the LC or TD account submit an account of discs sold, in inventory, and cash. It's not the purchase, it's the aftermath, where the real peril lies. So these should be reported to the Treasurer (or whomever), who can then report to the club where every dime of club money is, or has gone to. (The Treasurer should really want this, so he or she never has to worry about accusations that it went to his or her pocket).

 

[kenjiac]

Good books and tracking of funds has kept my club from any members complaints. We have a $50 threshold for approval of the board. All member purchases for projects must be approved prior or risk not getting reimbursed. We are a small club but between the tournaments/clinics we run and projects we have going on helping 15 courses in the capital district right now we do about $20k in business each year. We make sure to have a detailed record of finances and do an year end treasures report at our annual membership meeting.

 

[Muskiebite]

Our league has a 5 member board who make all the purchasing decisions, However our league is pretty small (30 members) and pretty low entry ($30, a season April-Oct, 7 Monthly events and 3 assigned head to head matches each month) and we are all very rec players (average player rating is around 830) so there is very little contention with how our funds are spent

 

[ArgyleG86]

We have a voted in President, Treasurer, and board - chosen by members of the club. The president and treasurer make final decisions after discussing it with board members. We use Google Sheets to track all inventory, purchases, etc.