4. Subscriptions

All officials, coaches and managers give their time on a purely voluntary basis and the club is run as a not-for-profit organisation.

Where possible, we raise income from grants and sponsorship – if you think you may know of a business that might be willing to consider sponsoring a team’s kit, or any other form of sponsorship, please speak to your team manager or the Club Secretary.

Grants and sponsorship are an important source of income as they help keep subscriptions at an affordable level and make playing football as accessible as possible.Nevertheless, subscriptions represent the main source of the club’s income.

Whilst subscriptions are collected monthly, these are instalments of annual membership and subscription fees - which many clubs require to be paid in a lump sum at the start of the season - but we “smooth out” payments to be the same every month to make them more affordable. However, our costs are not “smoothed out” - our biggest expenditure (excluding kit) arises in June (for League and County FA memberships and affiliations, and insurance) and throughout winter (for player registrations, pitch and training venue hire, referees fees etc).

Subscriptions go towards the running cost of the club and its teams, including the purchase of kit and equipment, match and referee fees, training venue costs, Derbyshire County FA registration fees, League registrations fees, insurance, DBS checks, FA courses (e.g. coaching, safeguarding, emergency aid), administration etc. For more details on subscriptions and the rates applicable from 1/9/22 see attached (can only be viewed by members)

We usually build up cash reserves over summer, therefore, when we don’t pay for training venues in particular, to offset the higher expenses over winter, and need to ensure we have sufficient reserves for league membership and entry fees, insurance etc, and to book winter training venues from the start of and through the winter. It is important, therefore, that members pay subscriptions promptly - any member more than two months in arrears will be deemed to have suspended their membership and render themselves unavailable for team selection until such time that payments have been received in full.

Should you experience any difficulties with paying subscriptions, please speak to your team manager in the first instance or contact the Club Secretary.

Match kit of shirt, shorts and rainjacket is provided to players on a loan basis and must be returned when a player leaves the club.

Note:
In the event a player decides not to remain with the Club during or at the end of a season and there are outstanding subscriptions, other payments or the club kit has not been returned, the club will enforce its rights to payment in accordance with the Football Debt Recovery Regulations and the rules of Derbyshire Girls & Ladies League, and failure to pay outstanding amounts or return club assets could delay the player’s registration by another team, until such time as all outstanding liabilities have been fully discharged. We would, of course, prefer to avoid this situation arising, so the prompt return of kit and ensuring all subscriptions etc are paid promptly will be of mutual benefit.