Millcreek Rifle Club

2024 Budget Performance and Proposed 2025 Budget

MCRC 2024 Financial Performance and Proposed 2025 Budget

By Brad Thomas
Mill Creek Rifle Club Treasurer

I would first like to thank the club for the opportunity to serve as treasurer, which I began doing in June of last year. Fiscal 2024 was an eventful year for the club from a financial standpoint. Behind the scenes, we reinforced the financial operations of the club by the following actions:

• The majority of the club’s routine bills are now being paid by electronic format, rather than by check. This speeds up payment of our obligations and is vastly more secure than mailing paper checks.
• Members can now pay their annual dues payments by credit card, similarly speeding up the transaction process and ensuring members are less at risk from a mailed check being stolen and used illicitly. Payment from our contracted law enforcement agencies that rent range space and competitors paying match fees will soon be handled similarly.
• The return on investment for the club’s cash reserves the board holds in stock for normal operations and emergencies has been enhanced significantly. Those funds are now earning interest rather than simply being parked.
• Bookkeeping assistance has been hired, to provide stability to club financial operations through treasurer changeovers in the future

2024 Annual Financial Performance

The club had a successful year financially. Total cash reserves were $302,208 at the end of 2024, an increase of more than $28,000 from the end of the prior year. Of that, $35,000 is earmarked for payment to complete the new canopy for MP-4, which was one of the capital expenditures approved by the membership in 2024 and is pending installation.

Revenue growth was strong, primarily due to growth in income from contracted law-enforcement agencies, non-member competition fees, and investment income. These non-member revenue sources increased by $11,659 (up 26.8 percent compared to the previous year), while member revenue increased by $7,075 (up 2.7 percent). As many of you may know, as a not-for-profit organization, Mill Creek is limited by Internal Revenue Service regulations regarding how much of our total annual revenue can come from non-member sources as opposed to direct member sources. I believe the board has done a good job maximizing the non-member revenue sources without jeopardizing our not-for-profit status (and associated tax break!)  

Offsetting this revenue growth was a greater increase in club operating expenses. Total expenses for 2024 increased by $66,217 (up 24.6 percent compared to 2023). While the club experienced inflationary pressures on many of its regular expenses, most of this expense increase was due to the following:

1. A purposeful, strategic focus on increasing the quality of overall range maintenance
2. Executing approved range improvement projects. Major projects successfully completed during 2024 included:

• Emergency repair of the northeastern section of the protective berm between the Bench Rest Range and the High Power Range ($36,000)
• Acquisition of additional range maintenance equipment
• Installation of a canopy for the LE-3 Range
• A major upgrade to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system for the Clubhouse
• Contracting for the firing line canopy for the MP-4 Range (pending final payment and installation).

These initiatives and the increased expenses associated with them resulted in the club posting an operating loss of -$11,680. For comparative purposes, the 2024 approved budget expected the club to post an operating loss of -$39,600 after major projects (+$55,400 in pre-project surplus, combined with -$95,000 in approved project expenses).

An additional expense the board added to the financial statement for the first time in 2024 is a charge for the depreciation of the equipment we own and use for range maintenance. Accounting rules require that this line item be included as it ensures the club accurately captures and accounts for the normal decline in value of these equipment assets as we “use them up” over their normal lifetime. This is a non-cash expense and does not reduce our cash reserves. Because this depreciation expense was not being recorded in prior years, the board added a catch-up charge of -$38,744 needed to be taken as we closed 2024.

Proposed 2025 Budget for Member Consideration

For 2025, the board voted to propose a detailed budget for the membership to consider and vote on at the upcoming annual membership meeting, on March 4. The budget can be summarized as follows:

• $375,000 in total revenue, up $52,000 from 2024
  • Includes a $10 increase in annual member dues, a $200 increase in initiation fees, and a $25 increase in contracted law-enforcement agency fees
• $291,000 in operating expenses and a project pool of $45,000, an increase of $1,000 from 2024
  • Includes a continued focus on high-level range maintenance and a commitment to fund the completion of the construction and amenities on MultiPurpose Range 4
• This will result in an operating surplus of $39,000 before depreciation expense.

I and the other board members will be available during the March 4 meeting to explain the financial performance and this proposed 2025 budget in more detail and to answer your questions. I hope to see you there, and that you all enjoy the facilities and fellowship provided by the club this year.