Dynamic Sport Shooting BC Association (DSSBCA or DSS) is a non-profit society registered in the province of British Columbia.
DSS exists to promote safe and responsible participation in Dynamic Shooting Sports through the Competency and Safety Examination (CASE). DSS also maintains insurance coverages for all sanctioned events including matches and CASE courses.
Membership Fees
Part of the legality of having insurance for an “association” is that you have to be a “member” to be covered by the type of insurance we buy. Our Membership Fee has been set at $30/yr for the last several years.
The membership fee helps to provide working capital before the season begins as many of our financial liabilities such as Insurance are due in full before the shooting season begins (insurance people don’t insure retroactively – only future ?).
Note: As we grow in membership size, number of sporting events and number of CASE courses per year our insurance costs increase. In 2019 we also elected to increase our coverage from $2m to $3m to recognize the increased scope of DSS operations. Our net membership revenue at season opening covers less than ½ of our insurance costs. The rest of the insurance costs and other operational expenses come out of match fees.
Match Fees
Our Match Fees are generally set at $30 for off-season matches, $40 for regular in-season matches and $60-120 for special events (such as the 2-day, 9 stage, 3-gun match of 2018).
Match Fees are composed of facility fees ($20), sanction fees ($10) and supplies ($10 or more, only for in-season events).
Why $20 for the facility fee? Most events at many of the local clubs are $20 cash entry. Speed Steel at TMSA, ATS at AFGC, IDPA at CFGPA and more. DSS along with all 4 participating ranges agreed to the $20 per participant fee for range use in line with current community standards.
Note: To date, we have not offered elective refunds for match fees. It creates an administrative nightmare adding hours of demands for our unpaid volunteers as well as complexity to our record keeping and reporting. Perhaps one day this could change, but not in the currently foreseeable future. To that end, we always pay the host range for every registered participant whether or not they show up. This reflects our desire to support our local clubs and keeps reporting/administration simple. So if you ever get called into work unexpectedly or something, rest assured you are still supporting your local club and DSSBCA in the process!
CASE Course Fees
The DSS CASE course is currently $50 per participant. The course fee is composed of facility fees ($20), sanction fees ($10) and supplies ($20).
As with all DSS activities, the CASE course is non-profit. CASE instructors are not paid. Instead we expected that qualified DSS members from each participating host club work together to provide a few CASE courses per year at their home club to support the shooting community around them.
After the Basics
A few people have noted that after doing the math it appears DSS is cash flow positive and takes in more revenue than it spends on expenses in a year. This is true.
As prudent managers of our community it is wise to have cash on hand before liabilities become due. We aim to have the cash on hand for our insurance before it is due with room to spare if the premiums go up. We also want to have enough cash on hand that if one or more events are unexpectedly cancelled (weather, permits, politics, etc) that we would still have enough cash on hand for DSSBCA to get through an unexpected loss of revenue.
We also aim to keep cash on hand for unexpected incidental costs.
Last but not least, a few of the host clubs we work with have had legal issues in the past. These are often frivolous lawsuits born from politics or “one bad apple in the bunch”. These types of situations are seriously unfortunate (even saddening) and we truly hope we are never in such a situation. But the fact is that as the number of members increases, the number of sporting events increases, the number of host clubs increases, our surface area for potential issues or liability also increases. For that reason DSS has also set aside some cash as a “rainy day fund” for unknown liabilities such as lawyer fees.
However, for an abundance of clarity, all DSSBCA funds are maintained in the appropriate DSSBCA bank account. No person participating in or contributing to DSSBCA in any capacity receives payment for their contributions. Directors, officers, CASE instructors and ROs are all unpaid volunteer positions. Thousands of hours of volunteer time have been poured into DSSBCA in order to enable more clubs to host more dynamic sport shooting events in safe and fun environment (with qualifications and insurance).
Furthermore, any DSSBCA member in good standing is welcome to attend our AGM to scrutinize our financials and/or volunteer to contribute to our operations.
For more information, please email dssbca.admin @ dssbca.com