CrossFit Athletic Group

<-- This here is how we are keeping track of money now. It is very professional and very organized. I'll also put this graphic up in the gym somewhere.

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On Saturday I talked with the group about how we are going to be treating money going forward. The main thing for you to keep in mind for the immediate future is that it's completely up to you if anything changes with the way you pay for the Champions Club. I should note that I'll probably have New Kids be a little more structured with their payments before going into the Church Donation category. But I might not, we'll see.

Either today or sometime this week I am cancelling all AutoPay accounts on PayPal and we'll restart. There will be two ways to pay going forward:

The first is the Donate button under the Money Cup. Click it and enter whatever amount you think is appropriate. It also has an option to make it a recurring monthly payment (ie. same stuff our PayPal people were already on). The specific amount you pay/when you pay will not be visible to anyone else.

The second is to either pay cash or check. We will have two cups at the gym: one for the current month and one for the previous month. The current month cup is where the current month payments go. The previous month's cup can be used as the take-a-penny/leave-a-penny purpose it's been serving since we moved here.

Babies and Double-A needs to stay free.99. That is not negotiable.

If we can get to around $70,000 by the year's end, then we'll be pretty set; the gym's expenses are in the $50,000-$55,000 range and I get to take some for myself as well. I will not know/check/keep track who is paying what. We get to that number as a team.

Again, if you like the way you've been paying, then keep doing it that way. I definitely do not expect anyone to pay more than they are right now. If anything, the opposite. That is what you need to know for the immediate future.

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There is a much bigger point I'd like to emphasize for the distant future, and it is this: there is an opportunity for the Champions Club to use money as a way to build community. We can do this because we're tight enough where everyone trusts each other. A month-to-month, standardized membership format does not allow for this because we are not in a month-to-month relationship with Mr. Kuiper or Zeena, we are in a lifelong relationship with them.

"We don't belong to the Champions Club, the Champions Club belongs to us" - Mr. Gjon

Let's say Mr. Gjon was the only person who worked out at the Champions Club; he would be responsible for 100% of the $70,000 cup to be filled. Paying in total words spoken is not an acceptable form of currency, so he'd be scraping his pockets for every penny he's got to cover it.

Now say Mrs. Lanette joins him; the Champions Club still gets what it needs but both Mrs. Lanette and Mr. Gjon get to pay less than they would if it was just them.

This example can go on and on and on. We had 87 regulars (non Babies/Double-A) on our Summer 2022 roster. If everyone stayed through the year, that would mean everyone could pay like $67ish per month and we'd hit our mark. Of course, we're still going to be as selective as ever when it comes to bringing in new/old people, but hopefully you can see that a format like this gives us a lot of freedom.

Big ups to Saporito, Bubs, Aaron, and Cecilia for helping me brainstorm this for the last few months, and to Mr. Ron for setting up the cup on this site (if you're ready for a loooooong explanation, ask him about it, it's a really cool story), and mostly to everyone in the Champions Club for giving me the confidence to try something like this. It probably wouldn't work with any other group.