Will,

USAW increased the cost of competitor cards, sanctions and charters this year. We will be absorbing the additional charter and sanction fees (at least this year), but will be increasing our competitor cards by $5 to $35.

After some significant discussion, both the corporate board and Kids' Executive Committee decided to continue to process cards at the club level rather than going online. One of the concerns was the additional $5 fee charged for online registrations, particularly since we were already increasing the competitors' cards by an equal amount. It seems like we are always nickel & diming our members, and this was an effort to hold the line somewhat on these additional fees.

Last year was the first time that we had to deal with the spreadsheets and coaching backgrounds checks; hopefully we've moved a little up the learning curve and this year will go a little smoother. I talked to several other states at this year's state leaders' summit to see how they are handling cards. Florida manages an online registration similar to what you had proposed, but they emphasized that it was not as easily done as might be expected. They found that they needed to employ a full time employee who manages their web site, including the registration page. This is in addition to the additional card processing fee of approximately $1 per card. I don't think that most members would believe that these additional costs would be justified, when the only major benefit would be avoiding the slight delay while you wait for your check to arrive at the state office before the cards are issued.

If you are concerned about the delay while you wait for your check to arrive, you could make an advance payment to the state office. With this credit in place, your cards could be processed immediately upon receipt of the spreadsheet. Card numbers could even be emailed to you, if time were of the essence. This would allow you to receive the card numbers on the same day that you requested them. Just an option …

When I make the financial report at this year's state body meeting I'll try to make sure that I cover the detail that you're requesting.