Salem, Oregon's
Running & Walking Club Site
Home of
Willamette Valley Road Runners (WVRR)
www.WVRoadrunners.org.

Money Matters
By Rick Segal

One of the big concerns of the 2003 WVRR board was what is our budget? How do we continue to keep our club successful and promote our mission in the community? Well looking back at our old financial records was a daunting task; the merger of the two clubs, records in many locations and the overlap of expenses and profits from races that overlapped from one year to the next contributed to these difficulties. Sue Schmidt, treasurer during 2002 and 2003 and Ron Hartwig, board member 2003 made gallant efforts to give us an idea of how the budget should look. I knew that with good record keeping in 2003 that we could compile data to prepare us for a successful 2004.  Sue and I worked together to compile an Annual Budget for 2003 and now that it is completed I would like to let you know what I have learned from it.

I am happy to say, that even with our board's primitive understanding of our cash flow, we broke even in 2003! Some might say this should be our goal for a non-profit organization and as last year's board president; I believe this may have been my initial goal. Don't panic, we have a running balance in our account that allows us to put up the bucks, so we can put on our events. During the year 2003, we as board member's were asked to donate money to a variety of causes, and came to decisions based more on "Runner's Zen Intuition" than on any hard financial data. In retrospect, I am amazed and thrilled that all of our financial decisions balanced out so well. This year's board will have a clearer understanding of where our money comes from and where it should go.

The most important information that I gained from compiling this data is that we are achieving our goal to support and promote running in our community. During 2003, the WVRR donated almost $6000 to a variety of charitable causes. Yes, we should all pat ourselves on our backs! Our benefactors included Cascade High School Cross Country and Track, Salem Track Club, Team Excellence, Peak Performance Athletics, Silverton High School Cross Country, and the Kelsy Oldham Scholarship Fund. We also donated money to keep the Porta-Potties open during the winter.

The second salient point that I gleaned was it takes about 25% of our profits to keep the backbone of our club going. This includes our wonderful newsletter and web site, postage, printing, corporate fees, tax preparation, Road Runners Club of America membership, club socials and other miscellaneous costs. I have proposed to the 2004 WVRR Board that a minimum of 25% of any profit should be earmarked to keep us afloat.

The third and very important lesson learned is that it is very important that we continue to support, promote, volunteer, and put on our running races. We should make it our priority to do whatever we can to keep the Cascade ½ Marathon, Zena Road Run, Great Arbor Day Race, Bush Park Runs and The Dream of Roses successful. It is also important that we support the other races in our community; all of these events will lead to more participants in our own events.  This is where the money comes from that allows us to support and promote running in our community

This leads to an important decision that the 2004 WVRR Board and the club will face this year. Our race clock and timing equipment (How can I put it gently?) are on their "last" running legs, have seen better days, or are ready to tic their last tock. Since the races are important to our viability and good races require good timing systems, we need to come up with the money to replace our old systems. Should we deplete our account, withhold a greater percentage of our profits and or decrease our donations to achieve this goal? I'm optimistic that our Board's "Runner's Zen Intuition" as well as a sound financial understanding of our budget will allow us to solve this issue!