[Ravensfort] Free Site Fee for Newcomers

[Aedh Finn Mac Cormaic]

For some reason, I did not get digest #174.  Luckily, the letters it contained
were in the archives.

My attendance at populace was erratic for personal reasons, and I missed the
announcement about the cards.  It took me a while to talk to some of those who
had been paying attention, and I specifically asked what reasons had been given.
Since they could not recall any being given, only an announcement that the
change was being made, I came to the wrong conclusion, and I apologize.

Being able to keep contact with a potential new member is an admirable reason to
institute the change, and I hope it works out.  Now, if we can just keep from
loosing the cards ...  ;>

>This move is a procedure change that instead of having a list that no one
>seemed to know where it was or if the newcomer was placed on it or even if
>the "get in free list" got made.
>
>This way the newcomer has a tangible item (the ticket) that they can
>present at the gate.
>
>I have had a number of requests for the tickets and those requesting (and
>others) have stated they believe this is a good idea.
>
>This also has a side benefit that we can correlate the newcomer with their
>sponsor and have the sponsor (if they are willing) to follow up on asking
>the newcomer back to future activities. If the sponsor does not wish to do
>that for whatever reason. The hospitaler has a name that we can work from
>and hopefully gain a member.
>
>This process works much like a free guest pass at a trade show that a
>vendor or exhibitor has given out.
>
>The small loss of site fees from this is potential offset by possibly
>gaining new members. Research has found that most newcomers eat feast, thus
>we make some funding from that to offset the site fee loss.

My fault for the confusion.  I mistakenly thought that this was to get more
newcomers to pay gate fees by making it more difficult to get in free.  Again, I
apologize.

Finn