Emily Scott – York Sport President
We’re into week five of term and the York Sport budget has been under scrutiny from the campus press for five weeks. However, it’s been something I have been working on since coming into office in July.
It’s no secret the whole budget has been cut, but now’s not the time to moan and ask why this happened. Instead, we need to accept things are tighter this year and attempt to work efficiently to ensure the money goes as far as possible.
Non-essential things may need to be cut back on across the York Sport board and there is little doubt that this year will contain complications. However, it is hugely important for all of the clubs to work together and to appreciate the bigger picture. Although we may be in an age of austerity, we will pull through and the York Sport committee is there to offer as much advice and support to the clubs as possible.
An emphasis has been placed on training and increased communication from the York Sport committee to the clubs, and vice versa. With presidents’ and treasurers’ training held in week zero, as well as an extra financial training session held by Ernst & Young in week three, the clubs are well aware of the realities of the frugality that is needed this year, as well as the importance of record keeping and communicating problems with the York Sport committee as soon as they envisage them arising. We do not intend to let any club ‘go under’.
The cuts to the York Sport budget as a whole have unfortunately had to be partially reflected in the amount of money available to distribute to the clubs in their annual grants. However, the proportion of the decrease in the overall club grant pot is less than the reduction to the entire budget.
The method used to discern the grant allocation was the same for each club; it used figures provided by the clubs for expected expenditure and income, not including entrepreneurial income such as sponsorship or fundraising.
Despite having a few teething problems, we envisage using a similar system next year to try to increase equality between the clubs. Grant allocations will also be worked out earlier in the year to try and ensure problems can be ironed out before the summer holidays.
This year, more than ever, it is important to think holistically and remember that each club is one of fifty-nine, each facing different issues and finding different ways of resolving these.
I personally wish to understand each club better and, in a bid to do so, I intend to go to a training session with each club to try my hand at their sport and thus better understand each clubs’ concerns, both financial and otherwise. I will be blogging my progress at www.yusu.org/sport.
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