State Association inquiries are now being accepted. 

Trouble On The Horizon

If you are fortunate to be one of the decreasing number of booster clubs whose district or program is NOT facing a shortage of funding then congratulations, because you must be living right!

For the remaining 99% I want to open a dialogue that will hopefully motivate a handful (a few thousand) of you to join with us in helping to make a difference in the continued success of extra-curricular programs.

Each week we receive dozens of emails from coaches, administrators and parents who share of the troubles their music, sports and extra-curricular programs are facing. The tone is always the same. Help!

We have heard horror stories ranging from school districts who have made the decisions to eliminate all sports and music programs throughout their district to school administrators requiring kids to seek financial donations as a form of establishing their classroom grades. The shortfall in funding isn't going to get any better anytime soon so we each need to realize that if we want the trend to turn in our favor that we need to take a more active role in helping to provide alternative solutions.

One of the first steps that must be taken is that booster clubs must position themselves so that the school board, school administration and the community see them as a solution provider and not just a group of disorganized, complaining parents.

Our purpose must become crystal clear - "to insure the continuation of the extra-curricular program" and we must organize ourselves in such a manner that we can be called upon to provide positive comment, support and solution to helping offset needs.

American's like to rally behind a good cause. They understand the value that extra-curricular programs provide and the life building skills that are learned from participation. When passion meets organized commitment the unachievable becomes nothing more than a minor obstacle.

So how are we going to make a difference? One step at at time. By letting your coach, school administrators and school board members know that you are ready, willing and able to help them overcome issues you have set in place the first of many steps that will help turn the tide.

Identify areas where your group can provide offsetting services. Let's say you know that the district is spending $20,000 a year to provide transportation. Contact one of the larger dealers in your area that carries vans. Ask if they would be willing to donate the use of vans to transport your team to out of town games and tournaments. Or lets say that the school district is paying $300 a night after each game to clean the stadium. Your group provides the volunteer support to eliminate this expense. Remember it's one bite at a time that gets the job done.

Now I come to the rally call. Each month this newsletter is read by a group of people who are no longer directly involved with a specific booster club, some are retired coaches and administrators and some are just passionate supporters of local extra-curricular programs. In all this small portion of our readership, a number totaling in the thousands has the power to help make a difference within their communities. I would like to invite each of you to send us an email containing your name, city and state and a short paragraph describing what kind of extra-curricular program you use to play an active role in. We will then help to create a bridge between local clubs in your areas who willingly seek your guidance and support.

Working together with an organized focus we can create an environment of hope and prosperity.

I wish each of you the best of success.
Happy Boostering!

Steve M. Beden
Executive Director

"Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them."

Review your top immediate-term goals daily. Reviewing them first thing in the morning and last thing at night is really effective for keeping the one-pointed focus that is so important for success. Also, review your complete list weekly. Establish a regular time for your weekly review session. Pick a day that gives you the freedom to continually commit time for this purpose. Block it off in your calendar as a critical, unchangeable appointment.

Why become a Club Coordinator?

Because Club Coordinators receive opportunities throughout the year to attend specialized booster training clinics, gain direct support from industry experts, receive special program notices and have access to an unlimited amount of club building resources. Resources that will make your job of supporting your booster club or team much easier and much more enjoyable.

The best part about being a Club Coordinator is not just the wealth of support and resources you will receive it is the ability to gain personal recognition from your peers. Club Coordinators become eligible to earn regional and national awards, attend conferences and to earn commissions for helping bring solutions to your group.

If you would like to become a registered Club Coordinator email us your name, current position, club or group name, city, state and contact number today!

We would like to welcome the following companies to the National Booster Club Association and want to encourage you to patronize each of them. Their products and services are top notch.

HAZER CORPORATION/SPORTS COOLER
Ever thought about having a cooler for drinks and lunch in the shape of a football, basketball, soccer ball, hockey puck or racing tire? Well now you can. These coolers are well made and great for fundraising. Not only that, they are fun to carry and look “cool”. Give them a peek at www.sportscooler.com or call them at 336-456-7464.

SIGNATURE SYSTEMS, LLC
Need a new fence in the outfield or behind the goalpost? Signature Systems has portable fencing panels, chain link fence caps, windscreens, rolled fencing and other athletic fencing products. Take a look at their website (www.signaturefencing.com) or call them at 212-953-1116. Make sure to let them know you read about them in Booster Trends.

CARD EMPORIUM/IMC
When you go to a game, do you like to have your mascot painted on your cheek, or get a noisemaker to rattle or blow when your team scores? How about an LED light flashing your team’s name? This company can supply all of these and much more to you. Their website is www.sportbeads.com.

BALLQUBE, INC.
Your tem, after 30 years, has won the baseball championship. You want to give the members of the team baseballs with this imprinted – but what do you put the ball in? Contact Ballqube and they can help you! They have display boxes of all sizes. These boxes are a great way to keep your memories sage. Contact Ballqube at www.sportsqube.com.

U.S. RECYCLING
If your booster club wants a fundraiser that also helps save the environment, this is a good one. You place boxes in various companies for their empty inkjet and toner cartridges. U.S. Recycling pay for the postage to have them sent back to them and they give you 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these cartridges. This can be done year round and with little effort on the part of the booster club. Check them out at www.usrecycleink.com.

FUNDRAISING.COM
Your booster club is in a dilemma, they need to make some quick cash. Fundraising.com has 35 or more profitable products to do just that. They will be happy to help you with your fundraising needs and explain to you how to best use all of their products. Contact them at www.fundraising.com.

CARTRIDGE FUNDRAISING.COM
Did you now that every inkjet or laser cartridge that is put in a landfill takes 1000 years to biodegrade? Did you know you could save 3 quarts of oil if you have the cartridge remanufactured? These are just a couple of the facts you can use for recycling cartridges as a fundraiser. See if you can get a large company or law firm in your area to help you recycle!! The website is www.cartridgefundraising.com.

We are excited to have each of these tremendous company's onboard and look forward to the opportunity of helping you become involved in the tremendous products and services each provides.

We encourage you to visit each of them on BoosterWorld and check out the opportunities they provide to support your organizations.

Tammy Craddock, a former schoolteacher and stay-at-home mom, began her
cheesecake career as a home-based baker in Columbus, Mississippi in 1983.

Having been raised on an Illinois farm, she was not only familiar with home baking, but had also developed a special skill for it. While raising her two children in Columbus, she began baking breads and desserts for her friends and then also began to sell them. As the demand overwhelmed her individual ability, a faithful friend encouraged her to seek the advice of Mississippi State University's Food and Fiber Center. After careful consideration of her offerings, Tammy narrowed her focus to the product on which she could best capitalize… cheesecake. Today, her repertoire includes over 50 flavors in a variety of sizes and slicing options. Having moved from her home kitchen into a production plant in 1989, every cheesecake is still made like it was in her kitchen… by hand. The mixers and ovens are bigger, but Tammy has never allowed for mass production to prevent her from continuing to provide the home-made flavor and appearance for which her cheesecakes have always been known. Even after all those years, Tammy continues to manage her business into the 21st century with the same enthusiasm she had in her home's kitchen in 1983.

Why Our Name Is Jubilations

With a dessert as good as our cheesecakes are, we had to have a name that is festive, one that describes how people feel when dessert arrives at the table, and the first luscious bite creates sounds like "MMM…" and "Wow". But our name describes much more than just good cheesecake. Jubilations
describes how we feel about life in general, and how our business fits into it. At Jubilations we believe that life itself is a special occasion, and that we should celebrate each day as a gift from God, about which we should be jubilant. At work, we strive for Jubilations to be a fun place. In fact, we have nicknamed
our plant The Fun Factory. We try to make our decisions in a family context, just like our mothers did, trying to always do what is right with employees, customers, vendors, and other associates. Though we take our business seriously, we aren't serious all the time, because that would take the fun out of it. We think Jubilations is the perfect name.

Why Fund-Raising?

Jubilations doesn't do business everywhere. For example, we choose not to sell to grocery store chains or to other large retailers. Being big has never been one of our goals. Our goals have more to do with being unique and special, as indicated by our name. In fact, we don't think that big companies can duplicate what we offer.

So why fund-raising? We look at it like this: If someone wanted to sell a product to raise money, they would want to use a product that is superior to what can be bought in retail stores, and they would want it to be priced so that people buying the product would consider it a fair price, given the fact that money is being raised. So, at Jubilations we decided that selling to fund-raisers was a good fit for us, because organizations could sell our cheesecakes and not have to worry about whether as good a cheesecake would be available to their supporters in retail stores. They aren't, which means that if your organization chooses to sell our cheesecakes year after year, your supporters will begin to anticipate your fund-raiser because of the uniqueness of the product. Remember Girl Scout cookies 20 years ago? Your organization can build that kind of annual expectation with Jubilations Cheesecakes.

Helping others raise money is a great fit for Jubilations. Most of the fund-raisers we are a part of have noble causes that serve others. We get a great deal of satisfaction knowing that we may be helping organizations serve others. Can you see another reason why our name is Jubilations?

If you’d like to know more about our fund-raising program, please visit us at http://fundraising.jubilations.com or call us at 1-800-530-7808. Just ask for Tammy!

THE ULTIMATE FUN

Dear Booster,
We are a fairly new school (8 years) and are looking to start a booster club. Our funding has dwindled to a point that the school district is looking at cutting back the sports and music programs and as parents we do not want to allow this to happen. What do we need to do to get started and form a booster club?

Mary G.
Vandals HS

Dear Mary,
Your concerns with regards to cutbacks and the possible reduction or elimination of the extra-curricular programs in your district is becoming a sad statistic facing a growing number of schools around the country. A few weeks ago the West Contra Costa School district in California eliminated high school athletics and middle school music programs. This is just one example of many such happenings going on around the country so you are to be commended for taking the initiative to step up and help organize the parents into a booster group, the first step to helping provide opportunities to change this trend.

Forming a booster club is a fairly simple process. Forming a booster club that will produce ongoing results year after year requires a bit more work and just like starting any business the matter in which you go about building that success is largely determined by the experience or lack of from the group that will come together and form the club.

The association is ready to assist your group in building a successful organization. The first step that we ask you take is to complete an online questionnaire form that will help our staff better assist guiding you in forming the club, gaining parent support and then conducting activities that will build a solid foundation. You can find the form located on BoosterWorld or by visiting the following link: http://www.boosterclubs.org/club_questionnaire.shtml

You can submit the form and will receive a comprehensive report that will assist you in taking the correct steps based on your clubs status, needs, goals and current situation. From there you will have direct contacts that will assist you as you continue building and expanding your club.

Send us your Dear Booster.... article and we will select one each month to share with the readers of Booster Trends. To submit your email send to: dearbooster@boosterclubs.org.