Thanks all for your feedback. The idea of this, as stated from the outset, was to have a bit of fun and be inclusive for everyones budget. The plan was to have a low cost buy-in from a high number of people. All profits either stayed in the club to go towards re-stocking or a percentage as voted by members would be distributed to a Greyhound Welfare Charity.For example, the individual member case: Mr. A buys membership for 300$ and on the year end a 10 % profit is made from prize-money generated in the club. The profit per member is therefore 30$. Say the member vote is that 75% of that is to be kept in the club to go towards new purchases - so thats 22.5$ extra (to add to yearly membership) to buy new stock. That leaves 7.5$ to go to a Greyhound Welfare Charity. If we were to give that money back to members instead of charity, there would be transaction costs etc so the member wouldnt even get the 7.5$. So when you break it down to the individual case, it made sense to just give a charitable donation instead on behalf of the club. The other benefit of this model was that new members could be welcomed into the Club at any time and their membership would only make the club stronger. If money was going back to members it would not be fair to allow people to just join at anytime, especially if you landed on a good Dog! Yes, we could go down the road of setting up a company and selling shares etc but for the money involved this was just not feasible. This would cost thousands to set up and maintain every year and that is only in professional fees. Please remember that 50 people at 300$ is still only 15,000$. We didnt even have 50 people showing interest in joining the club (in any form), to date it was about 40, so it was something that would have to grow in numbers over the years. Having the buy in so low meant that this initiative was just about having Fun with each-other, sharing the excitement , enjoying Racing Internationally, whilst keeping things simple and transparent, nothing else. Greyhound-Data was providing the service to run the club at no cost to members, so all monies went directly to servicing the cost of Racing and Re-homing the dogs, with any profits going back into the club or to a charity. Based on the level of interest and negativity of this concept, the Greyhound-Data Racing Club at this stage will not get off the ground. So it is with regret that we inform you that we will no longer pursue the idea. We would like to thank you for your interest shown and we appologise that we cannot meet your expectations at this time.
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