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| BBF BOARD SEEKS FEEDBACK ON HOW THE FEDERATION SHOULD SPEND ITS MONEY |
BBF Treasurer Dan Lally is looking for feedback from BBF members about how the BBF spends its money:
To the members of the BBF:
In my role as BBF Treasurer, I would like to get some feedback from you, prior to the AGM, regarding how the BBF allocates its funds. To start with, here is some background to the BBF’s finances.
Where Does the Money Come From?
The BBF is funded almost exclusively by its member organisations, the youth and adult baseball clubs throughout the country. Given the limited number of clubs, our income is predictably quite small (typically around £15-£17k after taking out insurance costs which are simply passed through from the participants to the insurance company). Correspondingly, expenditure is also limited.
Where Does the Money Go?
The 2008 BBF accounts (available as a download on the BBF and BSUK websites) give detail of how funds are spent, but I will provide a brief overview here.
The national team programme has been allocated a significant portion in recent years. This is primarily funding for the senior team, which has exceeded all performance expectations during this period on the tightest of budgets. There are also usage costs for the Upper Heyford facility which is utilised by national teams (mainly the GB Cadets). The contract to incur expenses related to the senior team has one more year to run. I should point out that the senior team funding mainly covers the travel costs of Head Coach Stephan Rapaglia, but Stephan has also put a lot of the funding back into the programme, including £500 earmarked to support future college costs for a potential GB player.
ABUA-GB typically receives £1,000 each year for umpire development. Approximately £2,500 is spent on the cost of running the National Championships (trophies, umpire fees, accommodation etc). There are costs for the BBF to affiliate to IBAF and CEB (the international baseball federations), and there are also general admin costs: £3k to BSUK for operating the website, managing day-to-day finances etc plus the costs of the AGM and other board meetings, provision for bad debts and so on.
Listening to Members
The BBF Board has an obligation to its members to ensure that funds are allocated according to their preferences. We do this by being as transparent as we can and also by having high-level decisions made according to members’ votes at the AGM.
For example, prior to each AGM, the Board provides the previous year’s accounts and a current-year budget, which are approved by members’ votes. The membership also votes on the current year’s fee structure and usually some other financial items (e.g. the level of equipment grants for new clubs).
Your Preferences
The purpose of this message is to ask our members for some feedback and thoughts, positive and negative, so that we can prepare spending plans for future years, not just 2010.
Please feel free to email me through the Contacts Page on the British Baseball website with any thoughts or suggestions you may have in terms of how the BBF should allocate its income.
Please bear in mind that given our limited budget, we will find it difficult to implement all suggestions. But I can assure you they will all be considered, certainly from 2011 onwards, when we will have more flexibility in our budget.
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