[plug] PLUG News round-up (long)

[Tim Bowden]

On Mon, 2011-05-16 at 16:43 +0800, James Bromberger wrote:
> On 16/05/2011 3:31 PM, home at oranges.id.au wrote: 
> > On 14 May 2011 14:25, Haydon Knight <nodyah at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > You say that only 44/370 members have coughed up the $10 annual fee.  That's
> > > 12%.  Have you considered an alternative way to doubling revenue would,
> > > rather than doubling the annual fee, be to increase the number of members
> > > coughing up to 88/370 (24% - still a very small percentage)?
> > Agreed. I don't mind a $20 fee in the least, but charging more people
> > a $10 fee is better (:
> We have tried to balance this choice between head count growth and fee
> increase for some time, but in retrospect, the lack of any increase
> for close to 15 years made the $10 look even more ridiculous.  I've
> played with the RBA Inflation calculator on their site, and $10 from
> around '93 would be $15.76 today. Think of the $20 as round of the
> inflation to the nearest $10! ;) Working the other way, the $10 from
> today is only worth about $6 back in 1993.
> 
> PLUG is desperate to double membership - indeed, since January we
> (almost) have! Great news! We only had around 26 financial members
> just before the AGM.  
> 
> Note that most IT/Tech organisations/bodies charge far, far more (by
> orders of magnitude) per year. SAGE-Au: $110/year. ACS: $320.  So does
> one get $20 worth of value out of PLUG? Do you read or contribute to
> messages that help you in your job/study/hobby/enjoyment? Do you come
> to meetings and hear interesting content?
> 
> We've also considered the reaction of some people NOT renewing
> membership from this change; versus the difference PLUG will be able
> to make with it. As I stated at the May meeting, our annual membership
> incoming equates to around $30 per month. We've been investigating
> using community halls if we had to - they are around $50/month for an
> evening of 2+ hours for non-profit groups - not that we're planning on
> doing this, but right now a plan like this is not a sustainable fall
> back should we not find locations to host PLUG events for free.
> 
> PLUG's operational expenses as an incorporated organisation continue
> to be small, but they are index/inflation linked and do increase over
> time.
> 

If $20 is a sticking point for anyone, then you're obviously not getting
much value out of PLUG.  Or you're a student or concession card holder
on a tight budget which means you still only pay $10 (I think?).  I
don't believe the sign up rate will be significantly different between
fees at $10 or $20.

Tim Bowden