ANST - Money needs (was Kingdom membership)

[jonwillowpel at juno.com]

I would like to comment on something. Back when we were becoming a
kingdom a member of the board came down and told us that they were
increasing the cost of membership. Not because we needed more running
money but because the members of the board wanted to be paid. Over and
over again the board has spent the money on themselves. Right now being a
board member is looked at as a free travel card. If we saved a dollar on
insurance it would go into the  benny hole.  The local and kingdom
organizations don't get any benefits from our  national dues. Our money
comes from the donations of the people. People are our wealth. Most of
our chapters support our activates from our site fees. If we make the
site fees less more people can come. If more people come there is a
greater chance that the event will be fun. Young, poor people often have
more energy than richer older people. If we have more fun, more people
come making more money.
Yours Willow

On Thu, 10 Feb 2000 15:40:38 -0600 Michael Tucker <michaelt at neosoft.com>
writes:
> Greetings from Michael Silverhands:
> 
> Keith Hood (Tomonaga) wrote:
> > 
> > A question comes to mind:  does this kingdom or the SCA need to 
> increase
> > paid memberships because its coffers are low and it needs to raise 
> funds for
> > some good reason?  If that's the case, there may be easier ways to 
> raise the
> > money than by pushing membership buying.
> > 
> >       Tomonaga
> > 
> 
> No, I don't think that's it. Costs of various things (especially 
> printing and
> mailing costs for the newsletters) have increased, but I don't think 
> that's the
> point of all this. Paid members contribute towards the cost of 
> newsletters, but
> only paid members receive the benefit. If you look at the published 
> SCA budget,
> the revenues and expenses for these categories are about even (as 
> they should
> be). Both the Society and our Kingdom seem to be financially healthy 
> [although
> there is an ongoing concern of how the Kingdom will pay for 
> recurring expenses
> since it has no substantial recurring income (a lively topic of 
> discussion in
> itself *grin*)].
> 
> But consider this: in 1996 it cost the SCA $58,700 for liability 
> insurance(*).
> This cost was divided among 25,614 paid members of one kind or 
> another. So,
> every paid member contributed a little more than $2 for liability 
> insurance
> coverage for the year (a pretty good deal, if you think about it). 
> But everyone
> who attended an event, paid member or not, received that benefit. 
> What if we
> could double (for example) the number of paid members? I don't think 
> the cost of
> insurance would change significantly, but the *burden* per *paid 
> member* would
> be cut in half. That would free up about $1 per member that could be 
> used
> towards some other purpose, or the cost of membership could be 
> reduced.
> 
> (*) Source: <http://www.sca.org/BOD/reports/1996.budget.html>
> 
> This doesn't even consider other expenses, such as the operational 
> expenses of
> board members, society officers, and society meetings. In 1996, 
> those costs (not
> counting salaries, just expenses) totalled $66,100. It's harder to 
> see the
> connection, but because we have an SCA, Inc., it makes it easier to 
> have, for
> example, combat standards that are recognized among most (if not 
> all) kingdoms.
> You can build your armor and weapons in Ansteorra, and have a fair 
> degree of
> confidence that they will pass inspection by a marshal from Meridies 
> or
> Trimaris. This makes things like Gulf Wars possible. Again, we *all* 
> get the
> benefit, whether we're paid members or not. But only the paid 
> members underwrite
> the cost.
> 
> I could go on, but hopefully you see the point. :-)
> 
> To reiterate my position: I'm perfectly happy with this arrangement. 
> It allows
> folks to sample what we do without having to pony up the fee. With 
> good support
> from friends and households, you can actually play quite a while (a 
> year or
> more) without investing a cent. People will loan you clothes, feast 
> gear, arms
> and armor. You don't have to buy a membership. All you have to do is 
> show up,
> have fun, and contribute to what we do by being there and taking 
> part.
> Eventually, though, somebody has to be responsible for their share 
> of the costs
> of our Society. The more who do that, the lower the burden is on 
> those who are paying.
> 
> Yours,
> Michael
>
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