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RANGERS

ACADEMY

RANGERS ACADEMY

News Detail

17

Apr, 2020

Spring 2020 Refund Request




Fellow Rangers,

Hello!  We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

If you have a player on a 2019-20 travel team this email contains important information regarding the team fees you have paid and requires a response from you using a Google Form (see link below).

We understand this is a difficult time for many families and the Rangers Board wanted to be as generous as possible to our families and coaches.  In these trying times we on the Board have spent a tremendous amount of time discussing and analyzing our finances to make sure all the families and coaches are treated fairly, while still ensuring we maintain the funds to have this fantastic Club to come back to in the fall.

It will be helpful to understand our relationship and financial responsibilities with the YMCA and the use of their fields.  We have summarized the costs we are responsible for as a Club below.

First of all we are a non-profit organization, the coaches are paid as independent contractors and we have one additional person that is paid who helps on a limited part time basis with administrative tasks.  The entire Board volunteers all of their time and we have numerous individuals outside the Board who also volunteer their time to make this Club run.

We are responsible for maintaining the YMCA fields where we practice and play.  Again we have many volunteers who help with the work, however there are still significant costs incurred every day whether we are playing soccer or not.  These costs include the electric bill (much higher than you would ever expect due to a demand charge), fertilizer, gas for mowing, lawnmower maintenance, porta-potties (which we have cut back to 1 with limited use), winterization of sprinklers, recharging the sprinklers, pond maintenance and one of the biggest expenses is funding for the artificial turf replacement.  When looking at all of these expenses as a portion of your fees it ranges between 25-35%.

Other than 1-2% for other annual expenses, the remaining portion of your fees goes toward ISL league fees (for this Spring we only received a 50% refund from the State with the remainder to help cover their overhead and admin fees), officials, player cards, tournaments, indoor field/gym rental and coaches pay.  Our year is basically broken into 3 segments for U11-U14 players and two segments for U15-U18 players.  The 3 segments are Fall Season, Winter training and Spring Season.  When comparing the hours of instruction which includes practices and games, each segment is very equal to each other.  The winter session is the longest of the 3 segments and includes speed and agility training, academy training and team practices.

When taking into consideration the fixed costs and the different segments of the year, the U11-U14 player should receive back a credit of 25% of annual fees.  However as a show of good faith, the Board has decided to credit back 35%.

For the U15-U18 player, when taking everything into consideration the percentage a player should get back is 33%.  However as a show of good faith, the Board has decided to credit back 50%.

Please note the percentage of credit is based on the cash/check discounted fee.  With the other methods of payment, the majority of the extra amount goes towards credit card processing fees.

The next step is the most important.  We need you to fill out the Google Form (see link below) so we know how to process your refund / credit. 

There will be four options to process your credit:
1) You can receive a refund by check in the mail. 
2) You can receive a credit towards next year’s fees (If you choose this option we will credit an additional 5% toward your fees next year, so if your credit amounts to $500 we would apply a credit of $525)                                                                                  
3) You can donate a portion of your refund to the Club (Note that for any amount donated we will credit 10% of the donated amount toward your fees next year.  So if you donate $500 we will still credit your account $50).

4) If you would like to know the amount of your credit / refund before deciding, select this option and we will contact you

    
In summary for any amount credited towards next year we will add an additional 5% and for any amount donated we will still credit your account 10% of the donation towards next year.

We know some have asked how they can help out the Club, so we have included Option 3. Just like this unique time has affected many businesses, it will affect us as well and we are expecting a big loss that we will need to make up in future years.

If you are requesting a refund please understand this will most likely take 2-4 weeks, however it may take longer depending on the number of requests so we are asking you to please be patient as we will have to go through each individual account one by one.

We know this is a lot of information.  We tried to be detailed enough so you can understand our thought process, without writing a book.  If you have any questions at all please let us know and we would be glad to answer.

We wish everyone a safe and healthy spring and we look forward to the day where we can all be on the soccer field again!

Sincerely,
Rangers Board of Directors

Link to Google Form