During the January meeting Jason presented a budget for 2014 with an estimate for outflows of roughly $1330. This figure represents an increase of $250 over previous years because the cost to insure each site has increased by $50 per year. Insurance is the single largest recurring expenditure for the club, accounting for $1090 of the total. For reference, because the landholders in question require it, SAHGA insures the following sites: Mt. Lemmon, Box Canyon, Miller Canyon, Whetstones, and A-Mountain.

The remainder of the annual budget includes the following items:
USFS road easement for Miller Canyon: $74
USFS Coronado National Forest use permit for all sites: $74
Corporation Commission: $10
PO box rental: $78

At the end of 2013 we had 31 paying members in club, which includes a good number of people who never fly our sites but graciously support our club anyway. I'd like to offer my personal thanks to these folks for their continued generosity.

Those present at January’s meeting were in general agreement that the club should avoid running a deficit budget, choosing instead to support its ongoing operations with annual dues collected from the members. Given the significant increase in our insurance costs, selecting the right figure is challenging.

The number of pilots who paid for a SAHGA membership in 2013 and can be expected to fly our sites in 2014 is perhaps 25. At the moment we have 22 full-paying members paid through 2014. Representative dues figures for three different membership sizes are shown below:
20: $66
30: $44
40: $33

It seems that up to now, we have managed to keep the dues artificially depressed, likely because we typically run one or more fundraisers during the year, using the proceeds to subsidize the general expenses for the club. This is a practice we should probably avoid to ensure that we have sufficient capital for projects, such as badly needed repairs on the Miller Canyon access road.

We suspect that a substantial increase in dues is unlikely to affect the number of active pilots, as it's a relatively small price to pay when amortized over an entire year of flying. But, we wondered what to do about all our non-flying supporters, as expecting these generous folks to double their subsidy of our activities seems a bit presumptuous.

One approach discussed is the creation of a non-flying membership class with a lower membership fee, perhaps half that of the regular fee.

Rest assured that we do not have a fiscal emergency on our hands for 2014. Given our current reserves, we can continue operations as usual through the year without increasing the dues. But, doing so would nearly deplete our reserves, and this is something those present at the January meeting all agreed should be avoided.

Please post your thoughts on this topic here, or contact me at j_r_wolfe@msn.com or 520-742-3920 if you prefer not to post on the forum.