Hi

I thought you became a "member" by just subing to this list. I have only attended three meeting in the last 2 years. One was good, the other two were poor (at one I was the only attendee!).

I would like to be a paid up member and get a T-Shirt too! I shall attend any meetings from now on (I used to have lectures on a Monday night).

Wayne

> skribe <skribe@amber.com.au> plug@plug.linux.org.auDate: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 14:02:08 +0800
>Cc: "linux.conf.au" <conf@plug.linux.org.au>
> [plug] Plug membership drive?Reply-To: plug@plug.linux.org.au
>
>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.
>-- 
>Public key information available at:
>http://www.amber.com.au/~skribe/publickey.html
>Key fingerprint = A855 9CA3 953B 5195 C518  12F2 0E05 DCCD 5A88 E8A4 
>
>If voting could change the system, it would be illegal.  If not voting
>could change the system, it would be illegal.




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