Re: emembership and other.
iris@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: emembership and other.
  • From: R* P* <r*@embarqmail.com>
  • Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:05:46 -0400 (EDT)
Linda' I really agree with what you say, more so than I can admit at present (I hope to have a gift for everyone this fall, but until I get board approval it will have to be a surprise. Your ideas are well-founded and thoughtful.  I wish it were as easy as one would think to follow some of the suggestions that have been made by everyone, but there are two constraints that are difficult to overcome. 

One is that the bylaws are very precise, perhaps too much so, and do not allow things to be changed just by a board vote. the bylaws are very definite in the description of types of membership that MUST be provided and HOW.

Secondly we can not print money and therefore everything must have a way of paying for itself. We have quite a few Life members, if there were only a few than we could probably eat the expense of providing them with everything. And perhaps we still should. 

I am a life member and because I know the costs and balance sheet I feel guilty. Because interest rates are so low it is impossible to cover the cost of my printed bulletin out of the reserves that are invested. When interest rates were higher over 10% and when I purchased my life membership perhaps 15% I did not feel guilty. I wanted AIS to prosper and I did not want the hassle of having to renew. But I never thought I would see interest rates as low as 1%. It feels very comfortable to spend the $15 on a service my membership did not fund, so that I do not feel like a drain on AIS resources.

It has been suggested that it is bad marketing not to listen to ones audience. I agree. But I believe there are only about 70 AIS members on this forum. I am on the phone and answering e-mails for too much each day keeping me from other work. I talk to many members who do not speak out on these forums, and they feel the forums often do not represent their views. I try very hard to get a cross-section of opinions from many venues. Most members prefer not to participate in controversy. We have done polls in the past to make sure these people are heard. Perhaps the ultimate poll was the vote to pass the e-membership bylaw. I do not remember the exact numbers but it was roughly 700 people for to 80 against. 

Each person's views are important, but we have to be willing to accept there are sometimes many people that do not share our opinions and are not anxious to say so. 

----- Original Message -----
Maybe it would be less confusing to have just one type of membership. 
Pay extra if you want a print copy of the bulletin.

Basically, that's what it is now, so saying that might be less 
confusing.  (Except for lifetime memberships - seems like those should 
get electronic bulletin free).

Professional societies I used to belong to charged for membership, then 
extra for each journal subscription.  Newsletter was free.

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