USA Judo's money.

Underground Train Judo Ground
1

i posted this over on JudoInfo.com... not at all surprising that nobody replied.

It costs $50 to join USA Judo (USJI)

Seeing how so many people want to complain about funding, or the lack of it, I just thought some of you would like to know where some of that money goes. Mind you, i am going to approx these costs, i do have the real figures, but for the sake of simplified math, this will do fine.

out of the $50..
$5 goes to the state organization
leaving $45
$30 goes to insurance.
leaving $15

take that $15 and multiply it by 5000 (the high end of JI membership numbers)
and you have $75,000 to divide between running the national office, sponsoing athletes, referee education, coaching, medical, and everything else.

$50 divided by 12 (months)
is just over $4 a month.

so, for less than what most 12 year olds spend at starbucks you get the amount of money we give the USJI to operate USA Judo. and yet, we somehow think there is room to complain about how the money is spent.

if USA Judo charged $75 a year ($6.25 a month) for membership it would then have an additioanl $125,000 per year to allocate to athletes. yet, i am positive that if they raised the membership fees to $75 so many people would gripe, scream, yell, cuss and throw a hissy-fit that membership would drop.

so, i dont know.. but, personally.. i am more than willing to pay $7 a month to belong to USA Judo and help athletes like Aaron, Ronda, Marti, Ryan, Carrie, Nina, Heidi and all the rest. hell, i think i'd even be willing to pay $10 a month (gasp) !!!!!

i guess the real question is who isnt willing to?

2

I'd pay it too.

3

There is a reason i love this kid. However Josh, there is a kid factor. $50
year for shitty insurance really is pretty bad. We have families that can
barely make payments for a famliy of 4 or 5 kids and to raise rates in that
is just not right. I would think that a discounted memberships would be
allowable for mulitiple family members. That would encourage the
participation of the whole judo family and then we can support even more
juniors as well.

Just my suggestion

David

4

Dave. ive got no problem with discounted memberships for families. first person pays $75, each there after pays $50.

5

Wouldn't it be more productive to increase the membership of USJI in the long-run?

Do black belts in the States pay more money than non-black belts?

6

I invested my judo money in buying memberships, gis, travel/lodging, entry fees, food, time and club dues on kids that had no other means to obtain the funds. The national membership dues were a piss in the ocean in the grand scheme of things to me.

Although the above-stated is no longer an endeavor of mine the return on the investment has been unimaginable intrinsic wealth.

7

I agree totally with the getting the kids in and helping them enjoy our
sport.

David

8

The USJx's should just get out of the insurance game completely. I don't think they make any money off the "insurance" portion anyway.

If they all required AAU membership/insurance for tournaments (AAU's ins is way better than the Jx's) you'd have better coverage. I think, not sure, that AAU membership is about $20/year.

The JI could charge $30/year. $5 still goes to the state org and they'd have $25 left over. Athletes would get better insurance and the JI would have more cash.

9

PD. thats an idea... but i am not sure that the isurance the AAU has is up to USOC standards. that would be interesting to look into.

Sothy. you are right, in the long term the JI is better served in increasing numbers. but, how do you increase numbers when so many are so against it?

10

Regarding the AAU insurance thing, I looked into it a few years ago for the same reasons.

Basically, no way, no how will it work. I spoke to AAU people and USA Judo people. To get AAU insurance, you have to join AAU.

AAU has cheap insurance because they have huge membership and thus their risk pool is much larger than USA Judo alone. So the AAU judo program gets thrown in with ping pong and whatever other lower risk sport you can come up with.

USA judo needs more membership, more people, rates should go down.

I'm not holding my breath.

And yes, I'd pay ten dollars a month to be a member of USA Judo, although I'm sure I'd still bitch about how they spend their money.

Ben

11

Regarding the AAU insurance thing, I looked into it a few years ago for the same reasons.

Basically, no way, no how will it work. I spoke to AAU people and USA Judo people. To get AAU insurance, you have to join AAU.

AAU has cheap insurance because they have huge membership and thus their risk pool is much larger than USA Judo alone. So the AAU judo program gets thrown in with ping pong and whatever other lower risk sport you can come up with.

USA judo needs more membership, more people, rates should go down.

I'm not holding my breath.

And yes, I'd pay ten dollars a month to be a member of USA Judo, although I'm sure I'd still bitch about how they spend their money.

Ben

12

Josh, what do you mean when you say that so many people are against increasing USJIs membership?

I don't mean the cost per membership, I mean the number of people...

13

So what's wrong with joining AAU if you also join USA Judo? A lot of people belong to multiple orgs already.

14

Does anyone have any numbers comparing, say little league football with judo? (I know nothing about LL footbal)

What I'm trying to get at is whether there are any other sports, in a similar setting (contact sport), that have a bigger base than judo, and how they compare in terms of organization, cost to participant, etc.

It seems to me that cost has to be a factor, and although some of us would be willing to pay more for membership, I'm not so sure that little Johnnie's parents would agree.

15

Sothy.
oh, but there are many people who dont want the USJI to get even 1 more member than they already have. there are lots of people who announced that they will not be renewing their USJI membership becuase of the new by-laws--basically they are mad because they were not allowed to hand on to whatever small power they had.

It is more from the USJA side that you find this attitude. im not anti-JA, but this is simply the truth. the JF and JI already do combine memberships and you can join one and then for $15 more be a member of the other. the JA declined to be a part of that a few years ago.

many JI and JF people are skeptical of the JA because many of the things that have gone on in the JA were questionable (selling rank, creating the NJI right across the street from the OTC, and their insurance issues).

anyways.. to answer your question--yes. there are many people out there who are against increasing membership numbers of USA Judo. it would essentially kill their ability to continue having whatever power they currently hold.

16

"anyways.. to answer your question--yes. there are many people out there who are against increasing membership numbers of USA Judo. it would essentially kill their ability to continue having whatever power they currently hold."

That doesn't make any sense. Who wants to hold power in an org with little/no membership?

17

Well there is no need for that power struggle anymore - I love having the
board cut down - now I just need to fly in referee and leave no more
stupid go no where meetings. Yeeeehaaaaaaaa.

David

18

PD, I also don't follow what Ben is getting at...why can't US Judo join the AAU and have them do their insurance and get out of the game?

I guess Ben is saying that if they did that, the cost would be priced appropriately and stay the same?

19

The AAU/Judo split was caused by the amatuer sports of I believe 1978.

David

20

I understand why USJI was created by the sports act. What I don't understand is why the Jx's send the bulk of memberships fees ($30 according to Josh) to an insurance company? The policy has a freaking $5,000 deductible for crying out loud and is secondary to any insurance you already have. That makes it virtually worthless to me (completely worthless since I have a primary and secondary policy already).

There was a time in college when it was the only insurance I had but the deductible meant that it would only pay if I were really seriously injured. I think at that time it was a $2,500 deductible.

Maybe the USOC/IOC requires each governing body to maintain insurance. That would make sense. If not, I don't see why an athlete couldn't buy an AAU card for insurance purposes and pay a reduced fee for USA Judo membership.

If the goal is to get more money to USA Judo (a worthy goal) they should get out of the insurance business if possible. Maybe Markel kicks some money back to the org for selling so many policies but I don't know anything about that.