[plug] Plug membership drive?

Ben Jensz jensz at wn.com.au
Thu Jan 10 15:25:15 WST 2002


Talking about PLUG membership, how much does it cost, and how would one go
about joining if they weren't located in Perth?


/ Ben

----- Original Message -----
From: "skribe" <skribe at amber.com.au>
To: <plug at plug.linux.org.au>
Cc: "linux.conf.au" <conf at plug.linux.org.au>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 2:02 PM
Subject: [plug] Plug membership drive?


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

----------------------------------------
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.

--------------------------------------

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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