THCCFinancialPolicy

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THCC Members Handbook Bullet.gif Communication Bullet.gif Club Night Bullet.gif Trips and Events Bullet.gif Equipment Bullet.gif Health and Safety Bullet.gif Financial Bullet.gif Club Constitution

The following rules apply to the financial affairs of the Club:

Club Treasurer

  • The Club Treasurer collects and pays all Club moneys, and balances are retained in the Club’s bank account held with Barclays Bank.

Membership fees and subscriptions

  • Waged members will pay an annual subscription of £50. Unwaged members pay an annual subscription of £30. These rate may be varied at a Club Annual General Meeting.
  • In addition, members (waged and unwaged) will pay an annual charge of £50 to cover their paddling. This rate may be varied at a Club Annual General Meeting. Note that members who use their own equipment at weekly meetings are nevertheless required to pay their dues as part of these dues are used to pay for our affiliation fees to Shadwell Basin, without which the Club would cease to have suitable premises.
  • Non-members will pay a daily subscription charge of £10 for using Club equipment at weekly meetings or on trips. As above, non-members will pay this rate even if they use their own equipment. Visitors are limited to 3 try-out meetings per year otherwise the Club loses its exemption from registration with various regulatory authorities.

Training Reimbursement Scheme

The Club operates a training reimbursement scheme whereby members to undertake BCU coach training (including certain prerequisites therefore) can claim reimbursement of their course fees. Reimbursement usually happens in 3 equal instalments commencing on the date of the course / assessment, with another instalment 12 months later and a third a further 12 months later; however, for the 2022/2023 financial year an accelerated scheme operates where repayment happens in 2 equal instalments commencing on the date of the course / assessment, with another instalment 12 months later. In each case, payment of these instalments is conditional on the member a) remaining a member of the Club and b) the member contributing a reasonable number of hours of coaching to the Club. The definition of 'reasonable' is at the discretion of the Club committee.

The following expenses are considered in scope for reimbursement:

  • course fees payable to outside training organisations for completing Levels 1 - 5 of the BCU coaching syllabus
  • assessment fees for the above courses
  • BCU coach registration fees necessary for the course
  • fees for courses which are prerequisites to the above Levels 1 - 5 coaching courses, including:
    • first aid course and assessment fees
    • safety and rescue course and assessment fees
    • CRB fees

The following expenses are not in scope:

  • travel and subsistence costs for attending a course or assessment
  • ordinary BCU membership registration fees
  • any equipment needed in order to complete a course or assessment

The treasurer can be consulted for a decision on more unusual items but the principle is that legitimate prerequisites are included.

Coaching Credit Scheme

The Club operates a coaching credit scheme whereby coaches can earn a discount off their £50 annual paddling charge by coaching groups on Tuesday nights. The discount is tiered based on the number of Tuesday evenings that a coach has helped out with, as follows: There are 3 tiers depending on how many actual Tuesdays you have done, up to a maximum of £50 credit. The 3 tiers are: "Helped out a little on Tuesdays": you get 1/3 of the £50 credited (£16.67) "Done quite a bit of Tuesday coaching but honestly not every month": you get 2/3 of the £50 credited (£33.33) or "Been there nearly every Tuesday": you get the full £50 credited. The system is honesty-based with coaches making a self declaration at the end of the year.

The subsidy is available only to those who are formally coaches - that is, have passed or are in training for an L1-5 award. It is not for ordinary members who help out on a Tuesday; the Club is very grateful for this but it is assumed all members will do that from time to time.

For the purpose of the Coaching Credit, a year is counted as the Club's financial year being 1 April - 31 March.

Going on trips with unpaid earlier debts

In order to prevent members accumulating large balances owed to the Club (usually from trips but also membership renewals or other sources), the Committee has instituted a maximum unpaid account balance in relation to trips. The maximum account balance means that members whose debt to the Club is more than the limit need to first repay a substantive portion of the debt before they can join another Club trip. This limit is currently set at £300.

Club trips

Many members go on Club trips during the course of their membership. Often these are organised by 1 or 2 members who incur various expenses on behalf of their fellow participants, such as for accommodation, paying coaches, shared food or driving to and from the location. These expenses need to be recovered from the remaining participants in a fair and equitable manner. The Club is happy to act as the central 'clearing house' for these trip expenses, preferably submitted via BoatTrippy. Normally this is a straightforward matter of dividing the expense between the participants, but there are some special cases like how to deal with transport costs and where certain activities - like coached sessions - only apply to some trip members but not others. The general principle however is to divide costs equally among those who incur them, and as far as possible to equalise among participants. For example, if 2 coaches are hired and one is more expensive than another, the total cost of coaching would be divided equally among all students to make it indifferent as to which coach the student happens to have been allocated to on the day.

Each trip will cost a different amount in total, however after many years of running them there are some pretty good estimates available for members who are unsure of what to expect when going on a trip. Please consult the Club Treasurer or the relevant section rep for more information.

Trip expense policy

Following a survey conducted in September 2003, the Club Committee at the time formulated a transport policy. The data used for that survey, being running cost reports compiled by the AA, were revisited in 2018 and the conclusions remained the same as they were 15 years earlier.

The results of the survey indicated that members appreciated that the true cost of running a car far exceeds the cost of fuel. An initial proposal was to base the trip cost on a fixed rate per mile for fuel plus a fixed rate per mile for wear & tear for each car. This method, while being transparent and able to capture an average true running cost comparatively well, was not adopted because it can result in an overrecovery of costs for certain drivers whose cars are extremely cheap to run, and it also delinks the actual costs incurred on the trip with the amount reimbursed, which may have an implication for the validity of some insurance policies members may have on their cars. It was therefore not suitable.

Instead, wishing to retain the effect of allowing drivers a compensation for wear and tear, the Committee decided to adopt the following policy in respect of the costs when travelling in members' cars for Club trips (A Club trip is any trip on which club equipment is used by members away from the Basin.):

  • The following general principle should be applied: Driver supplies the car, passengers supply the fuel.
  • In practice, this means that the driver will calculate the total cost of fuel for the trip, and this cost is divided equally among the passengers. The driver pays £1 into the pool; by this he/she receives an effective contribution towards incurred wear & tear which they will need to pay out of their own pocket later on when the car is serviced, insured, etc.
  • When more than one car is used on a trip, the total fuel costs should be pooled and shared equally among all passengers. This ensures that passengers who happen to be allocated to fuel-inefficient cars do not suffer at the expense of those in fuel-efficient cars, and also if certain cars transport boats and others transport people, the total cost of fuel is covered equally by all passengers.
  • Each driver receives his actual incurred fuel expense from the pool. The process of aggregating and collecting payments is most easily handled by the Club Treasurer.
  • If one or more vehicles on a trip are free (for example, because they are sponsored by an outside party, or because the driver insists on not being reimbursed), then the cost of all remaining cars' fuel is pooled and divided among *all* passengers (including the passengers in the free car). This ensures that those passengers who happen to be allocated to the free car do not enjoy an unfair benefit at the expense of those who happen to be allocated to a chargeable car, and therefore all passengers on the trip benefit equally from having a free car. Those drivers claiming a reimbursement receive their actual incurred fuel expenses from the pool.
  • If some passengers are special passengers (typically family members or friends of the driver) they share in the arrangement like Club member passengers. However, since the driver of their car will receive a reimbursement of his/her fuel costs from the pool, the driver can then repay an appropriate amount from this back to the special passenger such that the special passenger ends up paying whatever was agreed with the driver upfront (i.e., in many instances, pays nothing). Again, the Club Treasurer can take these factors into account when doing the fuel calculations.
  • If the special passenger also travels in a free car, and therefore the driver would not receive anything from the pool with which to repay the special passenger, then the special passenger should be excluded from the calculation.
  • Members who use alternative transport to get to a venue (e.g. the train) but who have their boat transported by one of the cars should be considered as half-passengers for the purposes of the calculation, and contribute an appropriate share to the total fuel pool.

Coaching or leading by Club members on Club trips

From time to time senior Club members may lead or coach more junior members on a Club trip. While no compensation is paid to these leaders/coaches, it is customary for the beneficiaries of this - the junior members or students - to pay for the leader's/coach's travel and accommodation expenses on the trip. Unless otherwise instructed the Treasurer will allocate these a portion of these expenses to the junior members or students as relevant.

Other Club functions

(including communal meals on Club trips)

  • Members or non-members who purchase consumables or equipment for use at Club functions are entitled to a reimbursement of these expenses. The rate of reimbursement is the total cost incurred on behalf of the Club. The Club will pay the amount to the purchaser (on production of a suitable receipt or other evidence of expense) and reclaim an appropriate amount from the beneficiaries. Where it is unclear if expenses may be reclaimed or not, the Club Treasurer will adjudicate. Beneficiaries in the meal etc. should not attempt to settle directly with the purchaser.

In all matters of finance which are not clear, the Club Treasurer should be approached for guidance.