New Permit / new expenses
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 7:41 amThe Fellow Feathers of Fort Funston Hang Gliding Club now has a new 5 year Special Use Permit!
I spent the last few months working with our GGNRA liaison Jessica Carter to write a new Special Use Permit (SUP) for the Fellow Feathers. Jessica is very supportive of our activities and was great to work with. In fact, she took the incentive to get hang gliding officially included in the GGNRA Master Plan. Many thanks to Ms. Carter for all her help and dedication!
We reviewed a number of different permits in order to best serve our needs and decided to keep the same general format that we have had in the past, with one major difference: by having our permit issued by the business department, we could get a five year agreement! I believe our non-profit corporate status allowed for this improvement.
While another serious incident involving the Law Enforcement Division could still cost us our permit and shut down hang gliding at Fort Funston, notwithstanding any more blunders, we are much more established and now considered a Park Partner.
More upside:
We included the Dan Murphy Memorial BBQ / Funston Air Races event into the SUP, so now we don’t have to apply for a separate permit or pay additional fees each year.
Another benefit of our new SUP is that we are not being charged an annual permit fee as we have in the past. The usual permit fees go to the GGNRA general fund and provide little direct benefit to Fort Funston. Rather than the permit fee, our SUP specifies that the Fellow Feathers can fund improvements to Fort Funston. These improvements would have to be approved by the GGNRA, but would benefit us directly!
For instance; we can make proposals to paint the clubhouse, or move the drinking fountain to get dog walkers farther away from our set up area, or repair the berm of the parking lot to divert rain water away from the chip area.
The downside:
Because the GGNRA does not receive enough funding from the Federal government to cover all their expenses, rather than shut down parks or limit services, beginning in 2010 they are implementing a Service District Charge (SDC) to generate income. The SDC is based on the square footage of any building occupied by a permit holder and is being applied throughout the entire GGNRA.
The Fellow Feathers occupy 1,064 sq. ft. of space in the clubhouse, so based on the SDC of $2.57 per square foot, our annual charge is $2,735.00. This was not a negotiable clause of our Permit.
We did qualify for a four year phase-in of the SDC which would allow us to increase our dues gradually over a four year period. We could pay 1/4 of the SDC the first year, 1/2 the second, 3/4 the third, and 100% the fourth year. This would require that the membership vote each year to change dues and also require the Execs to revise membership forms and web site each year as well.
Our new SUP also requires us to provide building and fire insurance for the clubhouse. (this was not negotiable either) I received bids from different insurance providers and the least expensive was $754- per year.
These combined obligations increase our annual expense by $3,491.00 per year and we need a way of increasing our income to match.
The simplest way of making up for this debt is by increasing our membership dues. If we raise the dues for Voting Membership to sixty five dollars we would generate an income of 6,500.00. This amount, plus non-voting membership should cover our current budgets plus the SDC.
If, rather than using the phase-in plan, we increase our dues all the way up the first year, we can use the surplus for making site improvements, thus benefiting the club while satisfying our agreement and scoring major points with the park department.
The Fellow Feathers Executive Board is recommending a Voting Member dues increase to $65.00 beginning with the year 2010. The club is not allowed to charge for hang gliding, so Non-Voting membership would remain on a sliding scale from zero to $64.99.
Please attend the next club meeting to vote on this important decision!
I spent the last few months working with our GGNRA liaison Jessica Carter to write a new Special Use Permit (SUP) for the Fellow Feathers. Jessica is very supportive of our activities and was great to work with. In fact, she took the incentive to get hang gliding officially included in the GGNRA Master Plan. Many thanks to Ms. Carter for all her help and dedication!
We reviewed a number of different permits in order to best serve our needs and decided to keep the same general format that we have had in the past, with one major difference: by having our permit issued by the business department, we could get a five year agreement! I believe our non-profit corporate status allowed for this improvement.
While another serious incident involving the Law Enforcement Division could still cost us our permit and shut down hang gliding at Fort Funston, notwithstanding any more blunders, we are much more established and now considered a Park Partner.
More upside:
We included the Dan Murphy Memorial BBQ / Funston Air Races event into the SUP, so now we don’t have to apply for a separate permit or pay additional fees each year.
Another benefit of our new SUP is that we are not being charged an annual permit fee as we have in the past. The usual permit fees go to the GGNRA general fund and provide little direct benefit to Fort Funston. Rather than the permit fee, our SUP specifies that the Fellow Feathers can fund improvements to Fort Funston. These improvements would have to be approved by the GGNRA, but would benefit us directly!
For instance; we can make proposals to paint the clubhouse, or move the drinking fountain to get dog walkers farther away from our set up area, or repair the berm of the parking lot to divert rain water away from the chip area.
The downside:
Because the GGNRA does not receive enough funding from the Federal government to cover all their expenses, rather than shut down parks or limit services, beginning in 2010 they are implementing a Service District Charge (SDC) to generate income. The SDC is based on the square footage of any building occupied by a permit holder and is being applied throughout the entire GGNRA.
The Fellow Feathers occupy 1,064 sq. ft. of space in the clubhouse, so based on the SDC of $2.57 per square foot, our annual charge is $2,735.00. This was not a negotiable clause of our Permit.
We did qualify for a four year phase-in of the SDC which would allow us to increase our dues gradually over a four year period. We could pay 1/4 of the SDC the first year, 1/2 the second, 3/4 the third, and 100% the fourth year. This would require that the membership vote each year to change dues and also require the Execs to revise membership forms and web site each year as well.
Our new SUP also requires us to provide building and fire insurance for the clubhouse. (this was not negotiable either) I received bids from different insurance providers and the least expensive was $754- per year.
These combined obligations increase our annual expense by $3,491.00 per year and we need a way of increasing our income to match.
The simplest way of making up for this debt is by increasing our membership dues. If we raise the dues for Voting Membership to sixty five dollars we would generate an income of 6,500.00. This amount, plus non-voting membership should cover our current budgets plus the SDC.
If, rather than using the phase-in plan, we increase our dues all the way up the first year, we can use the surplus for making site improvements, thus benefiting the club while satisfying our agreement and scoring major points with the park department.
The Fellow Feathers Executive Board is recommending a Voting Member dues increase to $65.00 beginning with the year 2010. The club is not allowed to charge for hang gliding, so Non-Voting membership would remain on a sliding scale from zero to $64.99.
Please attend the next club meeting to vote on this important decision!
