Dear Race Parents:
In the next days you will receive in the mail the Telemark fall newsletter and registration form to enroll your children in the cross country race program. You will see that the race team annual fees have increased slightly for Junior Development (JD) and significantly for Telemark Racers (TR).
Race team fees are determined by the parents’ committee. The Telemark club and Telemark executive implement whatever fee recommendations are presented by the parents’ committee. The following is a summary of the parents’ meeting discussions pertaining to the fee change:
- The Telemark race program costs in excess of $50,000 to operate – coach’s salary, equipment, wax, team travel costs, insurance, etc.
- In order to access the government grants, we must maintain a minimum “level of professionalism” in our race program. In plain language, we are required to have a full-time coach and properly compensate that coach based on his training and experience. The alternative is to switch to a part-time coach and forego any grants. The parents at the meetings agreed unanimously that we did not want to go back to a part-time coach.
- Through the hard work of several people, we were able to secure $35,000 of the $50,000 from external funding sources — government grants (Cross Country Canada and Cross Country BC), corporate sponsors, and the generous support of the Telemark club.
- The new annual registration fee is expected to make up the remaining $15,000. The new fees were calculated based on the expected registration in the JD and TR program for the coming season, and the relative amount of coaching time and resources these groups each consume.
- According to Cross Country Canada, the typical annual fees paid by the parents for comparable programs across Canada are approximately$1,000. Even with this year’s fee increase, we are still well below the national average.
- A policy decision was adopted at the last parents meeting that no parent will be asked to pay fees for more than 2 children. And there remains in place an “ability to pay” policy to ensure no athletes are excluded due to extenuating financial circumstances.
We hope that we have your support as we continue to move down the path to grow a world-class race program at Telemark and, perhaps more important, provide the chance for the kids to have a blast, make good friends, stay healthy, and learn a lifelong skill. The results on the “world class” objective are clear – 2 athletes graduating to National Training Centers this spring, a gold medal at Nationals, top placings at every race last year! And I see the results on the “have fun and make friends” objective every time I pick up my daughter after a practice.
We look forward to seeing you at the next race parents meeting in late October. (If you have a child in the JD or TR race program, you are encouraged to attend!) If you have questions, please call Barry at 250-575-6163 or email barry@teamtelemark.ca.
Best regards.
Barry, proud parent of race team member Dana.
