Funding vision of the Paragliding Association

Dear members of the Paragliding Association,

we are contacting you in this form because the chairmanship of the Paragliding Association LAA ČR (hereinafter referred to as the Association or the PG Association) would like to open the issue of securing the financing of the Association's operation in the current conditions at this year's general meeting. Below we will try to explain the issue of financing the Union from all sides and we will be happy for your comments and suggestions.

Resources of the Union PG

The Paragliding Association basically has two sources of funds:

  1. Member contributions
    Membership fees (the union part of them) are part of the contribution to the LAA CR and currently consist of a 200 CZK union contribution and a 100 CZK representation contribution. The amount of these contributions is decided by the LAA CR Conference on the basis of a proposal by the Executive council. For the year 2023, an increase in the union contribution from CZK 100 to CZK 200 was approved, given that the amount of the contribution has not been valued since the beginning of the millennium and the real value of one hundred crowns has changed significantly in more than 20 years. NSA subsidy (National Sports Agency)
  1. The NSA subsidy (and in the past the Ministry of Education and Culture) is a form of state support for sports. The subsidy is divided into three parts, which express the allocation of funds:
    1. Subsidy for representation
      serves to prepare the national team and ensure its participation in competitions.
    2. Subsidy Sports
      the goal of the subsidy is to support union activity and sports at all levels
    3. Subsidy TM
      supports the education of talented youth

    In addition to these subsidies, there are also investment subsidies, but for the sake of simplicity, we will not consider them in this analysis.

Impacts of prioritizing NSA sports

In 2023, the NSA announced a sports prioritization program with the aim of focusing support on LA 30 highest-ranked sports in the evaluation of success according to the NSA parameters. Unfortunately, these parameters significantly favor Olympic sports. And even though we are a European country, it does not take into account sports achievements at the European Championships, but only at the World Championships and the Olympics. The consequences of prioritization have already hit us this year and manifested themselves in a significant reduction in the subsidy for representation. And that precisely in the year when we ensured the participation of our athletes in four FAI category 1 competitions (World Cup and European Championship). It can be assumed that this trend will continue. In this situation, we would have to significantly limit the support for the activities of the union, the representation and the support of the talented youth program

Funding of the Union in the years 2010-2024

The following graphs show the ratio of the Union's resources in individual years.

Chart No. 1, Funds of the PG Association for activities and sports

Graph No. 2, Funds of the Union PG for representation

Graph No. 3, Funds of the PG Association for the talented youth program

 

Skirt Subsidy
repre
Subsidy
Sports
Subsidy
TM
ČP
representation
Membership
contribution
2010 788 900 - 579 500 188 262 166 415
2011 707 300 100 000 222 100 184 064 166 105
2012 765 850 582 150 222 100 172 028 163 967
2013 865 600 620 769 199 750 171 304 166 574
2014 993 500 886 645 199 750 194 151 176 540
2015 1 030 500 876 216 199 750 195 458 187 394
2016 1 016 800 974 421 200 450 192 472 190 385
2017 1 210 560 1 589 173 520 500 198 789 194 820
2018 1 166 859 2 227 300 619 500 207 703 200 520
2019 2 158 069 1 755 559 619 500 268 227 205 867
2020 1 519 050 1 400 338 557 550 245 510 209 113
2021 2 028 108 1 444 666 396 164 254 824 213 336
2022 1 562 815 2 354 085 475 397 264 644 223 868
2023 1 713 500 1 765 082 356 548 266 735 438 270
2024 981 560 1 676 828 223 290 262 566 396 674

Table No. 1, Sources of funds of the Union PG since 2010, divided according to sources

What can be read from the graphs?

  1. The Union's income from subsidies peaked around 2019, since then there has been an obvious decrease in subsidies in all three programs (representation, sports, talented youth).
  2. Due to the sports prioritization program of the NSA agency (see https://nsa.gov.cz/rada-nsa-schvalila-dilci-zmeny-v-hodnoceni-prioritizace/) it is clear that the trend will be stagnation or a reduction in subsidy funds in the following years as well.
  3. Our financing shows an unhealthy ratio of subsidy money and own funds. Without the subsidy, or with its further reduction, we will have to fundamentally limit support in all areas.

Why we don't want to limit support

  1. We think that the support provided by the PG Association is bearing fruit. Here are some examples:
    1. The association supports events with repacking of spare parachutes for its members.
    2. Runway operators have the opportunity to receive a contribution to support the operation of runways or the creation of a new runway, which is conditional on a discount on the entry fee for union members
    3. Towing operators have the option of receiving a contribution, which is given as a discount to union members
    4. The current team of European champions in landing accuracy is, with three exceptions, composed of members of the talented youth program, and at all international events this program is the envy of foreigners.
    5. It is similar in overflights, where young pilots put pressure on deserving members of the national team.
    6. With the support of the union, we have managed to raise the level of league competitions so that in the case of XC they are practically always fully occupied and in the case of landing accuracy they are also frequently visited by foreign pilots.
  2. The Union PG is active not only within the LAA CR, but also in international organizations such as FAI or EHPU.
  3. Support of the national team brings sporting success at the highest level competitions.
  4. We support the organization of training, educational and other events that contribute to increasing safety.

Complete information on what Union PG supports can be found in this article.

Solution design

The Ultralight Flying Association (in the past also the MPG Association) collects its own association fee in addition to the fee for basic membership in LAA ČR. They can use these funds for events at their discretion, so they are not bound by the strict conditions of the grant titles. By introducing our association fee, we would adjust the ratio of subsidy funds and own funds, and the financing of the association would thus become less dependent on subsidies, which will most likely be lower than in previous years. During the last adjustment of the amount of membership fees, we also proposed an adjustment of the contribution for representation from CZK 100 to CZK 200, but unfortunately the LAA Council did not approve this proposal, so the real value of the contribution for representation continues to decrease.

If we collected a union fee of 600 CZK, the annual income of the union would be about 1,4 million crowns. These are already the means with which the Union could maintain the current support even with the decreasing amount of subsidy funds. With a contribution of CZK 800, the union would receive more than 1,8 million crowns, and with this amount, support could be expanded or a future decrease in subsidies could be compensated. The model with the amount of the union fee of 600 CZK is shown in the following graph.

Chart No. 4, Estimate of funds of the PG Association for activities and sports, representation and TM after the introduction of the association fee of CZK 600

 

Skirt Subsidy rep Subsidy sports Subsidy TM Subsidies in total Member contributions Share of own funds
2023 1 713 500 1 765 082 356 548 3 835 130 705 005 16%
2024 981 560 1 676 828 223 290 2 881 678 659 240 19%
2025 981 560 1 676 828 223 290 2 881 678 2 077 096 42%

Tab. No. 2, Comparison of union funds for the last two years and the year 2025, including the union fee of CZK 600

Skirt Subsidy rep Subsidy sports Subsidy TM Subsidies in total Member contributions Share of own funds
2023 1 713 500 1 765 082    356 548 3 835 130    705 005 16%
2024    981 560 1 676 828    223 290 2 881 678    659 240 19%
2025 981 560 1 676 828 223 290 2 881 678 2 077 096 42%

Tab. No. 3, Comparison of union funds for the last two years and the year 2025, including the union fee of CZK 800

Come and discuss (not only) this topic at General meeting of the Paragliding Association, which will take place on November 2, 2024 from 10 a.m. at SSPŠ Resslova in Prague in Smíchov.

 

For the presidency of the Union PG

Kamil Konecny