Making a Case for One Overall School Booster Club

A major purpose of a booster club is to raise additional, ancillary funds for the athletic program. In some cases, these supportive organizations may also help with sportsmanship efforts, programs to honor student-athletes and coaches, and marketing initiatives. But overall, fund raising is the central, primary purpose.

In some high schools, individual sports may have their own booster club or parent support group. Often the reason for this approach is that, “This is the way it has always been done, and this is the way we like it.” Just because separate booster clubs have been the norm does not mean that this is necessarily the best approach. Like all aspects of athletic management, administrators should always be open to better operational procedures.

With respect to booster clubs, the following considerations should make the case for one overall organization to support the entire athletic program.

• A singular, encompassing club represents an easier and better way to ensure Title IX compliance. A well-meaning booster club for a male sport, such as baseball, could raise money to make improvements to its field. This might include adding a scoreboard, lights or dugouts. In order to find money, however, to make comparable updates to the girls softball venue, a school district may make adjustments to its operational budget to overcome this potential problem. With one booster club, the athletic administrator can provide oversight and guidance to avoid situations with compliance.

• Beyond Title IX compliance, an athletic administrator also needs to provide oversight for all financial disbursements of booster clubs, to ensure that they follow all district policies and procedures, and properly schedule and use all school facilities. In addition, all booster clubs use the school’s name and facilities, and represent the school or district. This means that all publications, activities and businesses must reflect a positive image, and this supervisory responsibility belongs to the athletic administrator.

• In order to properly provide oversight, this necessitates that an athletic administrator needs to attend monthly meetings. With game management responsibilities, attending one booster club meeting that represents the entire athletic program is much easier and more effective than having to attend eight to ten individual ones – or whatever number a school has.

• When fund-raising initiatives involve school facilities such as for a spaghetti dinner, a craft or flea market, a book fair and sale, or other similar efforts, it is necessary for the athletic administrator to provide assistance and supervision. Just like monthly meetings, helping with the events and activities of one overall club is substantially easier than doing so for multiple ones.

• Often, businesses in the community are approached by booster clubs for program advertising, signage at venues, sponsorships and donations. Whether these companies are franchises or the mom-and-pop variety, all have a monetary limit to devote to advertising, marketing and promotional efforts for their fiscal year. This means that fall sports, particularly those that are large and have a media presence, have a distinct advantage. It becomes much more difficult for booster clubs for spring and possibly even winter sports to “cash in” on these opportunities. The reality of dealing with advertising limits of local businesses again highlights the importance of one overall booster club. It is much more effective to target these businesses one time during the year for the benefit of the entire program as opposed to individual clubs approaching them throughout the year. The athletic administrator can then consider all expense requests to ensure that all sports have access to these money sources, and that all sports are treated fairly.

• Most booster clubs rely on parent volunteers to lead and conduct their various fund-raising efforts. For families with more than one child or if an offspring plays more than one sport, it is common for volunteer fatigue to develop. “Hey, I already helped in the fall.” With one overall club, it is easier to spread the responsibilities out, avoid repeatedly asking the same individuals to help, and to better utilize parents in a season in which their child is not participating.

While the benefits of an overall, inclusive booster club far outweigh the use of individual booster clubs, this does not mean that established separate clubs will eagerly embrace the idea of consolidating into one all-encompassing booster club. Probably not, because they would have to give up their individual, long-time identity with perhaps their own vested agendas, rather than to do something for the betterment of the overall program. This may not be popular. But it is always the responsibility of an athletic administrator to make decisions that are in the best interest of the school’s entire athletic program.

To ensure that all sports have an equal voice in how the fund-raising money is distributed, you can use a board of directors, a council of representatives, or whatever term that you prefer in your setting. With this approach, each sport is allowed one representative, and they all have an equal vote with regard to what projects will be scheduled and how funds will be awarded. In the event that a sport’s representative cannot attend a meeting, it would be wise to have identified backups. Of course, as the school’s liaison to the club, the athletic administrator has the final and ultimate say in order to ensure total compliance with Title IX, state laws and district policies and procedures.

Part of the oversight responsibilities of an athletic administrator is to periodically guide the officers of the club to review and revise the constitution and bylaws of the organization. This should be done to cover any loopholes, and to stay updated with any developments regarding state laws and school district policies. The duties of the officers and all operating procedures also need to be clearly addressed, and this should ideally be done by an athletic administrator prior to the start of the school year.

After considering all of these factors, one overall booster club should be the answer to a more efficient and effective way to support the entire athletic program.