Membership fees
Membership fees have risen sky high at the last convention. Many people were told that the cost of insurance was the reason and some even related the 9/11 situation as part of its cause. Let’s examine what’s really going on here.
If you recall, ½ of the cost of membership is insurance. This insurance is a supplemental health insurance covering costs that may extend beyond the coverage parents have. My total health insurance bill has risen only 20%. This is not the secondary coverage offered by US Diving. Why did these fees increase 100%? USD also has liability insurance. The hardest liability insurance to acquire is the first million dollars. That’s what your fees cover through US Diving. The 9/11 situation affected the re-insurance portion of the industry for those that wanted protection from terrorism. The industry has since backed out of covering terrorism. Re-insurance covers costs that are over a million dollars. US Diving does not have over a million dollar protection on liability so re-insurance coverage does not affect US Diving.
What I’ve tried to show here is that if the insurance costs rose, why did membership fees double? Surely the insurance industry took a financial hit but not much in our economy has risen 100% since that time. In fact many things are cheaper. These increases occurred because US Diving can’t afford to send its athletes to the various contests. You will be paying that cost with the increase in membership fees because of poor financial planning by the leadership. Sponsorship has amounted to almost nothing during the past few years. Losing $1.5 million from '98 to '00 and increased spending by the administration drains an already small budget. The USOC has also cut its funding to USD in half. One coach told me, that if our divers aren’t doing very well internationally, they should stay home and workout harder for a couple of years and maybe then they’ll be ready to compete at that level. This won’t happen because it makes too much sense.
What we are witnessing is a financial debacle caused by poor money management. Office spending rises at an alarming rate. USD's underwritten training sites are in full swing with talk of a fourth in the near future. Rumor has it that the Oklahoma site is not fairing very well and may go under. Membership numbers have dropped and may get even smaller because of this huge fee increase. I mentioned this once that as the membership gets smaller the financial burden to keep things running falls on those who are left. Here you go!
US Diving has stated that its focus over the last 2 years has been the Grass Roots (age group/junior) section of diving. I am here to say that those are only words. Nothing concrete has happened at this level other than the fact that many coaches have been forced out of the organization and that trend may continue. Nothing has been done to address the loss of diving boards and programs that once operated in many swimming pools. Everything they have said seems to be political rhetoric and nothing more. Nothing appears to matter below the top senior level. The focus is and has been the senior and international levels. They are still scrambling from the poor showings in recent meets. What they would really like to do is have 20 to 25 divers and maybe 5 coaches. It’s a great dream but a financial nightmare as you can see. They need the rest of us to pay the bills. I for one can’t justify that. In 1998 I thought the fees ($50) were too high for what I was getting in return. The price has tripled since that time increasing my overhead. One coach told me that this was the cost of doing business. My kids, my program and I can not afford to do business with US Diving.
How does all of this improve diving? It doesn’t. As the sport becomes more expensive and elitist, fewer people will be able to afford to participate. This will be more noticeable once the affect of job losses (9/11) hits the diving arena. Kids at the grass root level will find something less expensive and more fun to do. As I see it, the leadership is killing the sport at all levels. Maybe they only need a little more time to make their ideas work. How much more than 8 to 12 years do they need? Can you afford more of the same?