AUGD: to pay or not to pay for UG membership
AUGD: to pay or not to pay for UG membership
- Subject: AUGD: to pay or not to pay for UG membership
- From: "Kathryn Cecelia Whitacre" <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:11:36 -0800
As it has been said before... it depends upon your group. But I am writing to tell you that I have been a UG member for decades. Our group has had high membership with no money and now lower membership with higher dues. We are a much happier group WITH money. I think that is true for everyone in life. It is not fun to try to develop a program and always struggle with money.
We use our money to keep up on technology. We have, in the last six years, begun to keep up with the technology changes in the hardware. We just purchased a nice powerbook with Jaguar for our group. We have a nice projector. We sell at auction to our members the older equipment. We set minimum bids and take sealed bids. High bid gets it. We review books and software, and members who do so present at meetings and then can keep the reviewed item.
We have two socials a year. Our picnic in the summer has been out-of-doors and combines a digital photo contest with small prizes in about four or five catagories: best close up; best animal; best person; best action; etc. The food is wonderful and is pot luck with drinks, plates, plasticware, cups, and paper products supplied by the club.
The second social is our holiday party. We usually allocate $200 for "gifts". We have canned air, jewel cases, DVD's and CD's, thumb drives, printing speciality papers, etc. That everyone gets to choose one. We usually add a bit of "spice" to it by allowing items to be "taken" and it becomes very lively. Again the food is pot luck, all the accessories are provided by the club, and we generally share our systems and have an open show and tell. Fun for all while holiday music is supplied via iTunes.
Now we don't get our treasury up and hopping with just dues. We have a raffle. The idea came to us through a member of a fraternal organization that used it for years. We have also been using it for years and it really helps the coffers. Here's how it works. You need a roll of double tickets. When members arrive they may purchase a ticket for a dollar or 6/$5. At the break we draw. The winner is then given the opportunity to reach inside a heavy money sack that has 12 white poker chips and one red one. If they draw the white one they win $3. If they draw the red chip they win the pot‡. The pot accumulates. We have had it go twice all the way to the red chip being the only one left. As each week passes the odds get better, the money gets higher and the participation gets higher.
‡ The pot is half of all the money taken in, less the $3 paid out to folks who don't get the red chip. So if it goes all the way, you'd pay out 12 x $3 = $36. But the money that comes in more than pays for that. The half that the UG keeps adds to our bank account each month. It is fun and it helps us.
We have a very active group of volunteers who help folks with their systems and software. There is no charge, but donations for our group are always welcomed. Often the recipient of our goodwill joins... at least for the year. Then they feel good about the "free" help and at least half stay longer than one year, which helps our treasury, too.
We take donations of older software and we sell it for low sums of money, which also helps our group. So if you have older software, books, etc. you may donate them; we sell them for $1-$20 depending on what it is. That sits on a table and is available at break time for a look.
We also burn a "disk of the month". It has software on it that is reviewed and saves the member the hassle of downloading. This cd is $5. We haven't done any recently, as most of our members are now using cable or high speed connections, but if your members still use dial up it can be most helpful to them. We will actually take orders and then burn that many.
This is what our group is doing now. I have not been the best Ambassador. I've had a difficult time logging in; finding out info, etc. So I am moving on and our soon-to-be- ex president will return to this job. I know I'd really enjoy it, but I am challenged to find the info I need when I am looking. So now I am no longer looking and Peter can take it over and figure out the classes and tests. I would have liked that, but perhaps this is for the best for now.
Ambassador Kathryn Whitacre for NW Apple Pickers in Tacoma, WA
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