[MR] Losing Money

[David W. James]

On Thursday, August 22, 2002, at 09:03 PM, Julia Windsor wrote:
> Let's see if I can explain it in laymens' terms.

> Members pay $20.00/ year for dues (I'm not counting the extra some of 
> us pay as subscribing members for publications). That's a once-a-year 
> payment. A non-member pays $3.00 every time they attend an event. If a 
> non-member attends 10 events/year that's $30.00, a net profit of 
> $10.00. Multiply that by the number of non-members and it adds up to 
> alot of extra income.

> Hope that clarifies it for you,
> Julia

	Oh, it is even better than that.

	If you donate (remember, this is a charity, says so the By-Laws, 
section IV) $20 then paid staff in the office has to process the order, 
enter you in the database, and mail you your card.  At the end of the 
year they have to send you a renewal notice (or two.)  So for your $20 
the office spends something between $4 and $2.50 and the rest is free 
and clear for whatever purpose the corporation wishes.  You get to claim 
a $20 'charitable' deduction when you file you income tax.  (The VP for 
Corporate Operations, not a member herself the last I heard, but a paid 
employee, said at the meeting that the Office *loves* "Associate 
Members" because the cost to income ratio is so low.)

	If you go to 6 events with a $3 surcharge, the corporation gets it 
all.  They don't have to send out any renewal notices, they don't have 
to process the check individually; most of the work is done locally by 
un-paid volunteers.  By the time you have attended your 6th event paying 
a $3 surcharge the corporation is ahead of where it would be if you had 
made a simple $20 donation.  And vastly ahead of where it would be if 
you had sent them $35.

	Really, if you really feel that the SCA should be getting and able 
to spend more of it as the Corporation wishes, resign your membership 
and pay as you go.  You'll be doing the Corporation a huge favor.  At 
least as far as their bottom line is concerned.  If you really want to 
hurt the corporation monitarily you can either stop going to events (at 
least the ones that charge for admission) entirely or renew your 
subscriptions for 3 years at the current rate before Dec. 31.

David/Kwellend-Njal