May 11, 2012: New Competition Fee Explained - There have been questions regarding the $5.00 competitor fee and so an explanation is necessary.   The $5.00 fee per competitor per show entered arose from a recommendation from the Finance Committee to the ADS Board of Directors.  Its purpose was to raise revenue but more specifically raise the revenue from our members who are competing. The reason for this focus was the fact that fees paid to the ADS from organizers for events do not even cover ADS Insurance costs  Some background.   The Finance Committee has for some years been grappling with an overall shortfall of revenue to expenses and has been looking for solutions to the problem.  The most recent review was done during the preparation of the budget for 2012.  Since we take very seriously any changes that affect costs to our members we began with a detailed review of the expense side of our operations.  Our conclusion was that without negatively affecting member services there was very little that we could do on the expense side to bring revenue and costs in line.  This led to the conclusion the problem we faced was revenue and not expenses.   Next we turned to the income side and considered various options.  These options included but were not limited to our dues structure, fees charged to show organizers, licenses officials fees and costs for both members and Board members to attend meetings.  We ruled out raising fees to show organizers or licensed officials as they already work hard to support us.  For similar reasons we did not want to increase dues or make it more expensive for members or Board members to attend meetings.  Again, these are the people that work to support us.   This led to discussions regarding the percent of our membership that actually attend competitions compared with our recreational drivers or those who continue to support us simply for the love of the sport.  (Those in this last category have my gratitude.)  By a review of ADS records, the answer was 37% of members compete. This led to the conclusion that to some extent our non-competing members subsidize the competitors among us.   The recommended solution.   The opinion of the Finance Committee was that no increase in cost can be considered a good thing but for various reasons the per show competitor fee seemed like the way to go.  To simply increase fees to show organizers has many downsides.  Some shows may be on the fence of running a recognized or non-recognized show.  Nancy, my wife and I have run an event for several years, and we know full well that you can't break even without sponsorships.  Also we did not wish to force organizers to increase their fees to competitors.   Secondly we felt that the $5.00 cost to the competitor was an insignificant increase to the cost of attending an event.  It is also small when compared with a host of fees charged by a variety of equine organizations.  It did concern us, however, that opening the door to this type of fee could bring a reaction.   As a committee we concluded and recommended that the fee should be clearly labeled for what is. It is a fee assessed by and to be passed along to the ADS.  The recommendation in the form of a motion was made at the January Board of Directors meeting. During the discussion the wording was modified to make it optional for show organizers to assess the fee to competitors or to pay it from other funds.  While the final wording may have contributed to confusion as to the origin of the charge I hope that this explanation will help to clarify it.   Bill Lawson ADS Treasurer