[MR] NonMember Charges

[David W. James]

On Wednesday, August 21, 2002, at 05:27 PM, Logan wrote:
> if it were a "surcharge" the kingdom would receive the money.  as it is 
> not
> a charge of any kind and is merely a discount the kingdom does not 
> require
> that any monies be sent to it.  therefore it is a discount.

> regards
> logan

The problem with this reasoning, your Majesty, was explained to me many 
years ago when I still lived in the East.  At that time a grassroots 
effort virtually wiped out the misnamed 'membership discount' from the 
calendar.

There is an old joke that goes, How many legs does a dog have if you 
call its tail a leg?  Four.  Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one.

The fee for an event is calculated based on the costs of the event 
divided by the expected number of people attending.  If your site costs 
$2000, and you plan on spending $500 on a light lunch and such (the 
feast, being optional, is calculated and charged separately), and you 
expect, based on last years turn-out, 250 people, then you set your 
charge at the gate at $10 (plus or minus some depending on the current 
state of the local group's bank account.)  If Atlantia's law required a 
true discount, then the groups would be losing money if they budgeted 
this way and didn't get more people than they expected.

So, in fact, the autocrat has to budget as if all attendee's will be 
members, then add $3 to the published price, if they are being fiscally 
responsible.  And so the discount isn't.

Calling this a discount doesn't make it one either.  But it is more 
socially acceptable.

David/Kwellend-Njal