Dues - keep the team going.

When you have a team, you have costs.  You already know this, because as a parent/gardian, you have already been paying for bikes, and shoes, and shirts, and maintenance...etc.

The dues you pay accomplish two things:

1.  MOTIVATION - Dues give you a skin in the game.  When you pay dues, you are more likely to attend to recoup and capitalize on your investment.

2.  INCEDENTALS - there are things the team wants and needs that don't really fall under a category. Things like flags, or tents, or trash cans or spare tubes, or first aid kids, or extra helmets, or scholarships, or cookies, or extra water, etc, etc, etc.  The list is almost endless, and you can see the demands/needs at all the meets, practices and rides.

We keep our dues MINIMAL!

This is a prime directive for the team, as it's already an expensive sport, and we don't want it devolving into a "rich-kids sport".  We never want Moutain biking to be denied to anyone, or made inaccessible due to cost.  This is why the "scholarship" bullet point under "incidentals" is so important.  We don't want anyone denied.