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Post by blu on Apr 17, 2020 17:28:12 GMT -5
Just an FYI, no word on Academy or ECNL yet. Be interesting to see what all the clubs do...
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GSA Recreational Families, Regrettably, due to the continued suspension of all soccer related activities by our governing bodies (as announced this week) and the responsibility of our community to adhere to stay-at-home shelter orders, we will be terminating the rest of the Spring Recreation Soccer season. We know how disappointing this announcement is to so many players, coaches, parents, and staff! We miss seeing our fields filled with ponytails, orange slices, cheers, and smiles. We miss seeing young children learn valuable life lessons and parents spending Saturdays watching their kids do something they love. We have not made decisions for our Academy/Select program, but foresee making decisions on those programs sometime in the next couple of weeks. As you probably know by now, GSA is a not for profit organization with an extremely tight budget. We rely on our registration fees to operate/maintain all facilities, pay coaches, administrative staff, directors, etc. We average over 4,000 active players each season, so you can imagine just how much work goes into preparing for each season and year. To put it into perspective, we have more players than the largest high school in Gwinnett County has students, and we primarily operate with over 200 volunteers and a skeleton staff of part and full time workers. The majority of our costs are not incurred during the season. In general, we spend a large portion of the registration fees preparing for the season whether it’s overseeding and maintaining the season-specific turf to maintaining/purchasing equipment like lawn mowers and paint machines, sending registration fees to governing bodies, paying utilities, purchasing new goals and nets, and the list goes on and on. Like most athletic associations of any sport, GSA has a no-refund policy. Obviously the times we are in warrant an exception to this policy. After reviewing, in great detail, the financial obligations GSA must meet, a review of our savings, and federal aid that was made available to small businesses, our board is pleased to announce that we will be temporarily modifying the refund policy. Our hope is that many of you will consider, if it is within your means to do so, donating your unused fees back to GSA. The charitable donations would allow us to secure our financial aid program for the 2020-21 season for children who show significant financial need, continue to improve/maintain/repair facilities, and maintain essential staff through the Fall season. Our volunteer Board of Directors has created the following options for all recreation players. Each player needs to fill out the form at the bottom of this email to indicate what they would prefer to do with their unused fees. Again, any family that can, within their means, donate their unused fees to GSA is sincerely appreciated. As a not-for-profit organization, this donation is considered a charitable, tax-deductible contribution. We will provide a letter (by July 1st) with the amount donated and our Federal EIN, so that you can include this in your 2020 tax filing. Due to the sheer volume of players, we will not be able to respond or process requests via email. We have created a simple form that you can fill out for each player in your household. We will accept these requests through May 15th, and requests will be processed within 48 hours. We have been told by credit card companies and our own processing portal that any refund could take up to 14 business days from the time we process the refund. With that said, if you opt for a discount for a future season, that will be applied within the 48 hour window, and will be available for Fall Rec Registration which opens on May 1st. We will continue to offer, at no charge, our At-Home Training Program and online resources at no cost to GSA members and our community at large. We will provide new, FREE access links in the coming days. We hope that you take advantage of something… anything we have put together. We know this pandemic will pass, and when it does, we want players to return to the beautiful game #GSAStronger! COVID-19 Discount, Donation, or Refund Options: Option 1: Max Donation - 85% of your Spring Rec Registration Fees - THANK YOU! Option 2: Max Discount - 85% of your Spring Rec Registration Fees applied to Fall 2020 Rec Registration Option 3: Partial Donation/Refund - 35% Refund & 50% Donation Option 4: Max Refund - 85% of your Spring Rec Registration Fees All requests must be made using the form below for EACH PLAYER in your household. |
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Post by soccerspin on Apr 17, 2020 17:45:30 GMT -5
Roswell was very similar...
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Post by Keeper on Apr 17, 2020 18:46:54 GMT -5
“ The majority of our costs are not incurred during the season. In general, we spend a large portion of the registration fees preparing for the season whether it’s overseeding and maintaining the season-specific turf to maintaining/purchasing equipment like lawn mowers and paint machines, sending registration fees to governing bodies, paying utilities, purchasing new goals and nets, and the list goes on and on.”
Okay seriously? These are Rec players. For most clubs over half the cost of a Rec player goes to pay to the cost of Referee crews and the GaSoccer fees. Gwinnett county also pays for the lawn/grass maintenance, lights and water at Rabbit Hill. Goals, nets, and paint were essentially not used and can used in the fall instead. If that was all true they’d be offering some type of Select refunds too minus coaching fees.
As usual Gsa is trying to have someone else pay for their scholarship kids again.
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Post by soccernoleuk on Apr 17, 2020 19:20:29 GMT -5
I could be wrong, but I believe a large portion of the costs at Rabbit Hill are passed to GSA by the county. Also, GSA owns their fields in Lilburn and are responsible for 100% of the maintenance fees there.
Don't get me wrong, I am by no means trying to support GSA, but I do believe there is some truth to their statement.
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Post by blu on Apr 17, 2020 20:30:24 GMT -5
I was interested to see what all the clubs would do, more so for the more expensive academy/ecnl/etc teams. Rec is just $130 or so.
I believe GSA did pay to overseed Rabbit Hill which was the first year they were ever allowed to do so. Grass should be nice come fall haha.
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Post by soccermom667 on Apr 17, 2020 20:59:14 GMT -5
I drove by Rabbit Hill today, and the fields look amazing--first time there is even still anything green out there in April. Sad that we're not getting to enjoy it, but this is such a strange situation for everyone. I will also be curious to hear how they handle refunds for ECNL/SCCL and academy/select teams.
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Post by SoccerMom on Apr 19, 2020 7:33:47 GMT -5
Are all clubs in other leagues not doing virtual trainings with the kids?
Rec is not going to do a virtual training, its a volunteer gig.
I wouldn't expect a refund from any club for other leagues, coaches are still being paid. They are doing a couple of virtual trainings per week along with other things kids have to do on their own time. Its not ideal but not much of a choice in this times. The only thing I would expect refunded would be travel and tournament fees
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Post by soccerspin on Apr 19, 2020 8:18:39 GMT -5
Roswell academy and select programs were offered approx one month credit AND coaches are being paid through the spring season AND coaches are to continue to provide weekly assignments as well as a minimum once a week virtual training session. With the refund offer there is also a request to consider donating that money back in order to help with the overall club account (as it is being used to pay the coaches). Personally I think this is a good middle ground given the circumstances and really appreciate the club making this offer.
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Post by soccerdad64 on Apr 19, 2020 23:11:51 GMT -5
Roswell academy and select programs were offered approx one month credit AND coaches are being paid through the spring season AND coaches are to continue to provide weekly assignments as well as a minimum once a week virtual training session. With the refund offer there is also a request to consider donating that money back in order to help with the overall club account (as it is being used to pay the coaches). Personally I think this is a good middle ground given the circumstances and really appreciate the club making this offer. That’s actually really awesome of them, SSA just laid off all of their no “full time” coaches today. Guess there will be lots of quality coaches looking for clubs come fall. Could be big for CF TH and UFA |
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Post by slickdaddy96 on Apr 20, 2020 11:06:37 GMT -5
Roswell academy and select programs were offered approx one month credit AND coaches are being paid through the spring season AND coaches are to continue to provide weekly assignments as well as a minimum once a week virtual training session. With the refund offer there is also a request to consider donating that money back in order to help with the overall club account (as it is being used to pay the coaches). Personally I think this is a good middle ground given the circumstances and really appreciate the club making this offer. That’s actually really awesome of them, SSA just laid off all of their no “full time” coaches today. Guess there will be lots of quality coaches looking for clubs come fall. Could be big for CF TH and UFA I'm not sure you really understand what SSA did. SSA furloughed these 1099 part time coaches. They didn't lay them off. They did this to help those coaches out because the stimulus law that passed allows contract employees to file for unemployment as well and get the extra $600 along with it. So it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and I don't believe many coaches will be looking for new clubs except the ones SSA doe not invite back for the fall. So I don't think it is going to be this big boost you think it will be or that big of a mass exodus from SSA coaching wise either. As far as recreation fees go, considering my daughter that plays recreation soccer didn't play one game and only had one practice (due to rain), I'm not sure an 85% refund is going to work for me. My daughter cost them almost absolutely nothing money wise because they never played a game and the coach is a volunteer. I expect a 100% refund of my daughter's fees for spring, or I expect for them to at least roll it over to Fall at 100%. Doesn't matter to me one way or the other. Now my son is on a select team and I don't expect much if anything to be refunded there, but since they did furlough his coach, and they still had money that was going to go out to pay him that won't go out now, I would appreciate a discount for next season say 20% or so, and honestly it probably should be more since he only played 4 games and had 8 games left and I'm sure other teams had more than that left, so they didn't pay out 2/3rd of the referee money this season either. We shall see how it goes down. |
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Post by Keeper on Apr 20, 2020 11:26:30 GMT -5
That’s actually really awesome of them, SSA just laid off all of their no “full time” coaches today. Guess there will be lots of quality coaches looking for clubs come fall. Could be big for CF TH and UFA I'm not sure you really understand what SSA did. SSA furloughed these 1099 part time coaches. They didn't lay them off. They did this to help those coaches out because the stimulus law that passed allows contract employees to file for unemployment as well and get the extra $600 along with it. So it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and I don't believe many coaches will be looking for new clubs except the ones SSA doe not invite back for the fall. So I don't think it is going to be this big boost you think it will be or that big of a mass exodus from SSA coaching wise either. As far as recreation fees go, considering my daughter that plays recreation soccer didn't play one game and only had one practice (due to rain), I'm not sure an 85% refund is going to work for me. My daughter cost them almost absolutely nothing money wise because they never played a game and the coach is a volunteer. I expect a 100% refund of my daughter's fees for spring, or I expect for them to at least roll it over to Fall at 100%. Doesn't matter to me one way or the other. Now my son is on a select team and I don't expect much if anything to be refunded there, but since they did furlough his coach, and they still had money that was going to go out to pay him that won't go out now, I would appreciate a discount for next season say 20% or so, and honestly it probably should be more since he only played 4 games and had 8 games left and I'm sure other teams had more than that left, so they didn't pay out 2/3rd of the referee money this season either. We shall see how it goes down. I didn’t know that about contract employees, I’ll have to look into that so thanks. The reason it’s 85% is the registration fees with Ga Soccer. Those are roughly $15 per player and Ga Soccer is not refunding that back to clubs. Though I think they should or be prepared with some type of club financial assistance to help with refunds/credits. Plus they did get about 15% of the season in. Depending on the club they got two to three games in, and a couple weeks of practice. |
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Post by soccerdad64 on Apr 20, 2020 11:43:14 GMT -5
That’s actually really awesome of them, SSA just laid off all of their no “full time” coaches today. Guess there will be lots of quality coaches looking for clubs come fall. Could be big for CF TH and UFA I'm not sure you really understand what SSA did. SSA furloughed these 1099 part time coaches. They didn't lay them off. They did this to help those coaches out because the stimulus law that passed allows contract employees to file for unemployment as well and get the extra $600 along with it. So it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and I don't believe many coaches will be looking for new clubs except the ones SSA doe not invite back for the fall. So I don't think it is going to be this big boost you think it will be or that big of a mass exodus from SSA coaching wise either. As far as recreation fees go, considering my daughter that plays recreation soccer didn't play one game and only had one practice (due to rain), I'm not sure an 85% refund is going to work for me. My daughter cost them almost absolutely nothing money wise because they never played a game and the coach is a volunteer. I expect a 100% refund of my daughter's fees for spring, or I expect for them to at least roll it over to Fall at 100%. Doesn't matter to me one way or the other. Now my son is on a select team and I don't expect much if anything to be refunded there, but since they did furlough his coach, and they still had money that was going to go out to pay him that won't go out now, I would appreciate a discount for next season say 20% or so, and honestly it probably should be more since he only played 4 games and had 8 games left and I'm sure other teams had more than that left, so they didn't pay out 2/3rd of the referee money this season either. We shall see how it goes down. Ehh... I'm not sure you're following what they just did. The vast majority of their coaches are 1099 outside of maybe 20 directors and support staff. Of that group of 1099's most of them work other full time jobs or are in school. Considering the fact that they are on a 9 or 12 month pay plan many coaches of older teams have performed their duties in the Fall and won't be paid the remainder of their contract on top of not qualifying for unemployment. |
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Post by slickdaddy96 on Apr 20, 2020 13:49:53 GMT -5
Ehh... I'm not sure you're following what they just did. The vast majority of their coaches are 1099 outside of maybe 20 directors and support staff. Of that group of 1099's most of them work other full time jobs or are in school. Considering the fact that they are on a 9 or 12 month pay plan many coaches of older teams have performed their duties in the Fall and won't be paid the remainder of their contract on top of not qualifying for unemployment. I'm just going by conversations with my son's coach and the email that went out to them. He doesn't do anything else to my knowledge as I think he is retired so I think he will be eligible to get some money. I realize the younger coaches that have other jobs are just S.O.L. I assume most treat it as secondary income and probably don't necessarily have any bad feelings for SSA given most aren't having to coach a spring season and there are so few upper age fall season coaches that don't also have a younger team that plays full year most would probably still have had to work this spring and are not now. |
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