[Ansteorra] pay and play

[Cleek, James M.]

When I was heavily involved in an organized waterski team. We had similar
issues in that to recruite people we wanted to get them on the water but you
could not put them on an approved and sanctioned site with out USA WS
membership and the insurance it provided. What they did have though, and
this worked quite well, is daily insurance. You would pay your $5.00 and be
allowed to ski with the team at a sanctioned practice or in a competition
for the event. The best part is that the payments would apply to your
membership so if you came to 7 practices or contests your $35.00 membership
would be paid and you would soon get a membership card and the quarterly
magazine in the mail.
This worked out very well for those who had a tighter budget yet still
wanted to participate. Yes their initial cost per event was higher but if
they enjoyed it and continued to play soon they would be members with all
the rights associated with membership.
Yes it was a bit of a pain to collect the money and send it in and track the
number of payments etc. but our local membership grew because of it and the
national membership grew. Everybody wins.
Iames


-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Wederstrandt [mailto:nweders at mail.utexas.edu]
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 10:00 AM
To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Ansteorra] pay and play


Well, I have to say that the pay and play 3.00 surcharge is not surprising
since it is the easy way out.  The Board doesn't have to stretch it's legs
and go look for an alternative way of getting money.  It's far easier to
tax it's participants than it is to go find grants and awards for groups.

Having taken several classes in grant writing for my mundane job as well as
having a number of friends who work at various schools and museums, I am
astonished at the amount of grants and loans that the SCA could solicit and
perhaps achieve.  But the Board would rather do the "easy" thing and
penalize people who for one reason or another are not members but are often
times some of our hardest workers.

At a time when a weekend event costs 10 to sometimes 15. dollars and having
an additional 3.00 tacked on it might make new people more hesitate about
joining or seeing if they would like the group.  Perhaps the Board is
looking to reduce membership and make a more elitist SCA for people who can
afford it.


Clare who is quite jaded at the SCA at the moment.

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