ANST - 'Support Funds' for Membership

[Timothy Rayburn]

Since the topic of how to increase paid memberships have come up, there
has been a stream of suggestions along the lines of 'can we setup a
fund to help people out?'.

We are already supporting everyone who plays and does not garner a
membership.  We support them through our own membership fees.  We pay
for the insurance which covers them, we support them by either being an
officer, or being prepared to take an office rather than getting one
and quickly sending in our membership fees.  Since we have also been
asked 'What are the benefits of membership' I would ask you, 'What are
the benefits of paying other peoples membership?'.

I've also heard cries of membership discounts being nothing more than
disguised non-member penalties.  Presuming this to be the case, what is
wrong with it?  The game we play, unfortunately, is not one that
everyone can afford.  There is a rather massive investment in armor,
garb, and camping equipment to play within the society.  If $2-5 at the
gate means the difference between you attending 1 event instead of 2, I
am sorry but you are the rare exception.  If it means the difference
between attending 10 instead 12, then why aren't you a member! (You've
already dumped $20-$50 dollars not being one.)

Memberships help support such things as the BlackStar from costing our
Kingdom more than it does already.  If you look at other Kingdom
newsletters, such as The Acorn from Atlantia, they are much more sparse
than our newsletter.  Things such as beautiful graphics in ads,
factoids from Zodiacus Herald, and such are benefits of keeping
memberships high.  And that is just one benefit.

I personally support the idea of doing whatever we can to encourage,
strongly encourage even through their pocket-books, people within the
kingdom to garner memberships.

Timothy of Glastonbury
Forerynel Pursuivant
All-Around-Meany
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