I am the finance chair and our Relay is trying to decide whether or not to charge registration fees. We had stopped years ago because some had complained about using a credit card online.
What is the main purpose of the fee? I imagine one reason is to at least make sure the shirt is paid for.
How do you sell the idea? I know that most Relays call them commitment fees.
Do you have a Team commitment fee as well as a Participant fee? And how much?
We have a $150 per team registration. Some team captains pay the registration for their team. Some ask their team members to each chip in $10. I haven't heard any complaints at all.
It is indeed a commitment fee. According to ACS NHO legal, it's fully tax deductible since the value of the t-shirt given to registered participants is considered de minimis - of inconsequential value. The fee is simply a way to ensure that the minor admin expenses of organizing, equiping, training, administering teams and team members are acknowleged by folks who want to Relay and that the effort does not come directly from fundraising efforts but from a nominal commitment fee.
Policies and procedures vary by Division, but if individuals balk at paying $10 online, a Team Captain - or team member - can remit the registration fees for the entire team, e.g., charge $150 for a 15 person team. If they still balk, don't let them get away...collect the commitment fee "offline" and have the Relay Online Chair credit the team via Event Manager, the Relay Online admin facility.
We tell our teams that they should get a team sponsor for $150 then the whole team is taken care of. Many of our teams set out to that and then end up with several sponsors. We also tell them the same thing about the T-shirts. "This is basically to cover the cost of the shirts and other fees related to relay." We also encourage our teams to pay the commitment fee when they turn in their shirt size form. We have started a form for each captain to turn in that lists what sizes they need. This has made it MUCH easier for our shirt person to just have one sheet per team. Less issues with us marking the wrong size down etc.
Joined: 2007-10-22