QuidditchUK President Will Now Be a Paid Role
Yes, you read that correctly.
We are incredibly excited to announce that from May 2022, the role of QuidditchUK President will no longer be a volunteer role.
After consulting with financial and legal professionals, and making careful considerations of our own financial position, the Executive Management Team has unanimously decided that the next President will be a part-time paid position at a gross rate of £5,000.00 per annum.
Position and Role Details
QuidditchUK has recognised that the role of President is no longer viable as a volunteer position, and the requirements of the role demand that of an experienced professional who can dedicate regular time and attention to it. In order for QuidditchUK to continue to grow it requires leadership who can give it the time commitment that it needs, we have allocated this fund to ensure dedicated resource and attention to the future of this sport.
In addition to their Executive Management responsibilities, the President will be expected to -
- Chair weekly meetings with QuidditchUK leadership.
- Seek out, develop, and maintain key partnerships with external vendors.
- Set and execute both short and long term plans and goals for the sport.
- Develop new income streams for the organisation outside membership and event revenues.
- Develop new programmes and projects for QuidditchUK to encourage and stimulate growth at all levels.
- Recruit high level department directors to manage specific aspects of QuidditchUK.
- Manage project based departments such as Youth and National Teams.
- Represent QuidditchUK to national and international parties external to the sport.
- Attend International Quidditch Association, and Quidditch Europe; representing the interests of QuidditchUK globally.
- Maintain the legal, financial, and logistical commitments of QuidditchUK Limited, including tax and submitting company statements.
The President will be paid £5,000 (gross) per year, in monthly instalments, based on an expected schedule of 10-12 hours per week.
Rather than being a regular employee of QuidditchUK, the President will instead be paid as a company director of the organisation. The main difference being related to the tax, pension, and national insurance elements. This will be explained and discussed through with prospective applicants.
The President will continue to operate as the head of the organisation, and still be held accountable by the Executive Management Team and member club Captains via the QuidditchUK Constitution. The consititution and company articles will also be updated to reflect and reinforce this change.
Applications for the President will remain open until Sunday, March 6th.
Decisions, Reasoning, and Questions
Why have you decided to pay the President?
As QuidditchUK and quidditch continues to grow, so do the responsibilities and requirements of the organisation, and so do the roles and requirements of the President. The role is no longer suitable to a younger student or graduate fitting the jobs around their existing commitments.
While searching for a success in the President, Matt and Abby have found capable or willing people who simply do not have the time. But by introducing this financial element, it does give incentive and space for someone to make room for the role instead of fitting it around existing commitments.
While the offered amount isn't nearly enough for someone to take on the role full time, it does give realistic flexibility for an experienced professional to commit 10-15 hours a week purely to QuidditchUK. Paying the President also allows them to focus on jobs outside of managing the sport, such as forming new partnerships, developing programmes, or directly traveling and outreaching to new or struggling clubs across the UK.
How are you able to afford to pay the President?
QuidditchUK have calculated the required costs, including any relevant tax and pension factors, associated with paying the role and built our 2022/2023 budget based on this being a fixed feature of the budget. We are are treating this the same way we treat any of our other fixed costs; such as our monthly insurance, storage, or digital retainer fees.
It is important to us that we were able to afford this based on the existing financial figures situation of QuidditchUK, rather than prospective income streams. Therefore the figures used to reach this conclusion are based on a robust review of our exisiting membership and event income streams, and not prospective growth figures. We do not intend to change the format of our events or competitions to make this a reality, and QuidditchUK are confident based on this season that we can comfortably afford to do this next season based on the data.
Are my fees increasing to pay the President?
Clubs and individuals may see a slight (<£3) increase in their membership fees for next season but we are currently finalising the budget before committing to any increases. We are acutely aware clubs are still suffering post-covid, and we want to avoid introducing further financial barriers to members joining our sport if we can.
We do not intend to increase our tournament fees at all, but we are still finalising this aspect of our budget.
I think that £5,000 is too much/too little to pay the President
£5,000 is what we believe to be a fair figure for the time commitments we would expect the President to undertake, while being affordable to QuidditchUK and our members.
Based on a 10-12 hour work week it sets the rate at the current UK living wage (£9.50 p/h) while giving enough scope in terms of time to commit real attention to QuidditchUK.
To pay less than this would deincentivise potential applicants to the role, as it does not supplement their existing income enough.
To pay more than this, or to pay an additional person, would obviously grow the sport further - but we do not have the revenue streams at this stage to afford this, and we would have to significantly increase fees which we do not want to do.
Is QuidditchUK reducing programmes or funding to pay for this?
Not at all!
On the contrary, calculating the budgets towards paying the President has also allowed to us to allocate exact amounts towards expansion programmes, volunteer reimbursements, new projects, and emergency funding.
Members and volunteers shouldn't see any reduction in resource availability and more specifics surrounding this will be announced shortly once budgets have been finalised.
Isn't the current President already being paid?
Matt (current President) is not being paid for his time, nor has any other President or executive leadership member of QuidditchUK.
The employment aspect of the role will come into place with the new President from May 2022.
