Michael Leahy
Well it’s 2009, and I’m sure many resolutions have been made (and broken). Exams are now out of the way, and sport at York is starting to get back into full swing.
The BUCS fixture list may not be as packed as it was last term, but Roses ’09 is just around the corner, and preparation is key if we want to win the Carter-James trophy for the third consecutive year. While York Sport members have been training, playing and performing over the past term, the York Sport Committee has been working to make sport at York more accessible, more visible and more efficient.
As I’m sure you’re aware if you’ve been reading this column, York Sport has undergone some big changes this year, to some very polar opinions. Superficially, at least, these changes seem only to deal with the branding and colours of York Sport, but important decisions need to be made regarding the financial side of sport.
Traditionally, clubs asked for money based on their projected spending for the next academic year, with their income being deducted from this to calculate how much money they’d need to balance their finances.
While fundamentally this is a sound basis for allocating funds, there are flaws – the budgeting process itself is outdated (we only stopped using paper copies in 2006!) and the budget documents themselves are not always handed down from committee to committee.
I won’t bore you with all the gritty details, but we’re aiming to produce a budgeting document that will act as a financial planner for the year, helping clubs become self-aware of their spending and hopefully stop any mishaps before they happen.
This way, next years’ club treasurer can see what money they have to spend on equipment or coaching for the club, for example.
As well as this, a more hands-on approach to the process of budgeting will help treasurers devise better budgets, with a workshop on drawing up a budget planned, and grant allocation meetings taking place later on this year.
This is just one area of innovation from York Sport this year. Besides empowering club treasurers, we’ll be supporting them in the challenge of finding sponsorship. Any profits from these changes will be ploughed back into providing match teas services, training days, entertainment on Wednesday evenings and improving health and safety provisions.
It’s a lot of change to take on board, but ultimately it will make things easier for clubs to run their own finances, and keep things ticking over more smoothly from year to year. Phew!
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