[plug] Plug membership drive?

[skribe]

At Harry's suggestion I've moved this thread to the plug list:

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In the last episode....

Daniel started by saying:

I know Tony put something on the list recently about membership, however
I discussed plug membership with someone else who is on the list today and 
I found out they didn't even know how much it cost.

Then skribe chimed in by saying:

IMHO a PLUG membership lack benefits.  Sure you get access to the library and 
you get a spark account, but if you don't need these then apart from being 
philantropic there is little reason to pay up.  The mailing list is free.  
The web site support is free.  I think both should stay that way.  But if 
we're after a membership drive (ie. money) we need to value add.

The first place I would start is introducing a membership card.  Then we 
could hopefully arrange discounts at shops/services.

To which Leon replied:

You might be able to do stuff like get movie houses to offer a small discount 
on sighting the card, there are many people who would give you a discount if 
you simply asked for it, but most people won't. OTOH, if you sell them a card 
and list people who'll offer discounts on sighting the card, there are a 
class of people who will go around making sure they get every discount, thus 
``saving'' heaps of money - scratch, scratch, never quite been able to figure 
that one out. That's how shop-a-docket works.

And skribe reminisced:

We introduced a CIA (Curtin Imagination Association) card mid-way through 
1988 (not sure if they still do it).  We got 10% discounts at all the sf 
bookstores and gaming shops (there were more back then).  For a struggling 
student with a horrendous gaming habit the membership cost ($5) usually paid 
for itself with the first purchase.  The shops benefited too. We were able to 
direct new members to those shops.  In fact there were many people that 
didn't know a specialised sf bookstore even existed.  As a result, the books 
got added custom and loads of goodwill.

Our membership for '88 was around 60 members, most of which signed up on 
O-day and we never saw again.  Active membership was around 20 (up from 4 for 
1987 =). Membership for '89 was around 300 with about 100 active.  A 
significant part of the increase was as a direct result of being able to 
demonstrate a benefit to joining the CIA (card = discounts).  That's what we 
need for PLUG.

Then Harry suggested:

I'm going to drop my alternative view on ppl and suggest that you've all 
fallen for the nineties  mememememe marketing hype.

It's ten bucks, folks, to _support_ all of that stuff that is free.

Why not simply ask people to show their support for PLUG by being financial 
members ?

For all the reasons already talked about; including Daniel's discussion 
about the club having credibility because of it's large formal membership.

Honestly, that's why I walked up to Tony a little while ago and said 
"Here's my $10, about time I joined since I get a lot out of PLUG". That 
should be promoted at the standard way of becoming involved.

My thoughts are for a simple solution:

1. Ask ppl to support PLUG by becoming financial.
2. When you tell (new) ppl about PLUG tell them things are free but that 
there is a financial membership status that helps to support the goals and 
community that is PLUG. For $deity 's sake, _don't_emphasise_ that there is 
not many _additional_ benefits. John Singleton would be showing us the door 
on our first day :-)

And I don't mean that it is a con. The financial support will allow us to 
grow and do other things; including most importantly, the resources to 
commence conf2003 preparation when we are successful.

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And now for today's exciting adventure.....ok, well maybe not.

Perhaps it is the level of my cynicism or a demonstration of my lack of 
maturity, but I believe just asking won't boost fee-paying member numbers by 
much.  Also I don't believe that suggesting that we introduce a membership 
card is catering to the mememememe mentality.  If anything it would help 
better develop the PLUG community.  Once we finalise a logo I'd also like to 
see t-shirts.  Sure, it will bring in some dosh to the club, but it will also 
mean I have something that says, "PLUGger and proud of it." YMMV.

skribe

PS: I hope the attributions and quotes are understandable.
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