At our most recent two board meetings, we discussed in depth the current financial position and prospects for the Club. While the Club is currently solvent, we are projected to lose money for 2023 and future years. We have completed an analysis of our revenues and expenses and would like to share some highlights of these with you now:
- TTC Membership currently costs $45 per year for Canadian members ($25 if under 25 years of age).
- Ragtop costs $55 per year per member to produce and mail in Canada ($13.75 per copy). We considered changing to electronic format but over 80% of our recent survey respondents said they wanted to keep Ragtop in its current paper format so that was a non-starter. We also looked at reducing printing costs (e.g. less colour, less quality paper) however there were only small gains to be made for little benefit.
- Our liability insurance, which benefits and covers every member who volunteers for or participates in a TTC event, is going to cost $10 per member in 2023 (the renewal is coming in July).
- Other costs amount to roughly $15 per member per year (including membership software, website, bank costs, meetings, etc.).
As shown, our current membership fees are not nearly covering our annual costs – we are losing money every year. You may ask what has changed since we last increased our membership fees. Some of our long-time advertisers have moved away from print media, we had no revenue from British Car Day for two consecutive years due to COVID and inflation has, in essence, increased costs for everything. Consequently we need to take action to set the Club on the right path, at least for the near term. As a not-for-profit corporation we are unable to hold excessive profit on our balance sheet. Our activities and events will have to operate on a break-even basis with no subsidy from operating funds. British Car Day generally makes money every year and we use some of these profits to subsidize the Club’s costs. However, we cannot count on British Car Day always making money; the Club needs to generate enough revenue through membership fees to be closer to covering our base costs.
As a result, we are increasing membership fees by $15 to $60 p.a. effectively immediately. Junior membership will be held at $25 p.a. I know this is a large increase in the membership fee but if we want to keep producing, printing and mailing Ragtop – as 80% of you have indicated – we don’t have many options.
We will still be a little short of covering our full costs, but we will earmark roughly 50% of anticipated BCD profits to continue to subsidize the running of the Club. The remaining 50% of BCD profits will be held in our account to allow us to deal with BCD profitability variances and year-over-year. This change will better align fees with costs and protect us if BCD has any off years.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Toronto Triumph Club and hope this will continue for many years. As always please let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Regards; Dave
Dave Sims
President, Toronto Triumph Club
905-331-1496