Why Should I Become a Colonial Athletic Booster (CAB) Member?

What do the Athletic Boosters do? Before you consider becoming a member, you should know what the Athletic Boosters do Put simply, the CAB supplement the Athletic Funding provided by Fairfax County to provide your child with a more rewarding athletic experience at TJ

Supplement County Funds? Huh? The Colonial Athletic Boosters BRIDGE the gap between county funding and the actual cost of participating in a sport!

Supplement How? Fairfax County pays for the Coaches’ salaries, bus transportation, referees and utilities The Colonial Athletic Boosters: – Pay for Uniforms – Pay for specialized equipment, such as wrestling and cheerleading mats, football helmets, field hockey and lacrosse goals, basketballs, baseballs, and all equipment in the weight room and more. – Subsidize bus trips for teams to invitational events in cross country, track and for other sports as required – Fund many other smaller ticket items, such as the CAB website, awards and scholarships, coaching clinics, etc – Pay for field care and maintenance (seeding, cutting, putting lines on the field, etc.)

My child plays football, how does the CAB help the football team? Field maintenance!! Equipment and uniforms Provide concessions and ticket volunteers Publish the Fall Sports Program, highlighting the football team So...compare the costs of CAB membership with a typical football youth league... This is taken from the McLean Mustangs registration page: “Registration Fee is $225; Optional equipment packages are available at either $75 or $90, depending on the weight class. Late Fees of $50 are applied to registrations received after August 9 - the first day of practice.”.....You get a bargain at TJ!

How do the Athletic Boosters pay for all of those things? The CAB has an annual operating budget of around $140K per year The CAB brings in money in the following ways: – Membership (this is almost all profit that goes straight to the CAB, more than $40,000 per year) – Concessions (we make about $1 profit for every dollar we spend – so if you don’t want to become a member eat a lot while you are at the games!) – Merchandise (this is a highly variable source of income, once we purchase items we have to sell them or they become a sunk cost; it’s a delicate balance between having enough in inventory and having too much in inventory) – The Penultimate Track Meet (more than 25 teams participate in this annual spring meet, which brings in anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 after expenses. Although this is a track event, the money goes into the general CAB operating funds.) – Sports Physicals (another source of $5,000 to $10,000 dollars all from volunteer labor! We may lose this as a source of funds in the future, it may go straight to the Athletic Trainer’s budget. The final resolution is still to be determined) – A variety of other income sources are employed. In the coming year we are going to try to improve fundraising and sponsorships. Being at TJ presents a BIG challenge since we don’t have a local community base to align ourselves with. It’s much harder to get sponsors and donors than at a geographically based school!

But my family may have to pay an athletic participation fee next year! That is true. The proposed participation fee is required to make up for Fairfax County school system shortfalls. However, these fees will not cover the expenses that the CAB funds, we still need family and friends to become members and provide support!

Convince me some more.... A couple of things to consider: – Depending on the level of your membership, you receive passes for all athletic events at TJ. Think about it, at $5 per game, attending 5 fall sports games, 7 or 8 winter sports games, and 7 or 8 spring sports games can cost you from $95 to $105 per year! You get the biggest bang for your buck by JOINING IN THE FALL! – Travel sports and club memberships cost a lot. CAB membership is a small cost in comparison. Take a look at your cable bill or think about how much you spent eating out at Outback the last time you went! In previous years nearly half of the student body has participated in at least one sport at TJ. Nearly 1,000 students. If ¾ of those parents join at the $100 membership level, the CAB would bring in $75,000 in memberships alone!

I MIGHT be interested – how do I join? Go to colonialathletics.org Click on the Boosters tab Click on the Membership tab and choose the method that works best for you