[IAEP] Membership fees (was: Re: Next slobs meeting?)

[Sameer Verma]

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 8:04 AM, Sascha Silbe
<sascha-ml-reply-to-2011-3 at silbe.org> wrote:
> Excerpts from Bernie Innocenti's message of Sun Jun 05 06:33:40 +0200 2011:
>
>> > >  * Membership fees
>> >
>> > Could you elaborate what you have in mind here? :-)
>>
>> It's a prototype idea, not yet discussed anywhere yet. I'd like to know
>> what the board members would think about asking a yearly fee from
>> members and, in case there's interest, how it could be implemented.
>
> Whatever you choose to do, please do not *require* membership fees.
> Their existence alone is enough to make it impossible for a lot of
> people to join. They might even be able to afford the actual membership
> fee, but not necessarily the associated costs of transferring the money
> to Sugar Labs - given that's possible at all.
>
> I wouldn't mind *optional* membership "fees", i.e. yearly donations.
> But it should be the decision of the member. Don't require proof of
> being too poor to pay the fee. It's impossible to do; been there, tried
> that, failed to convince to other party. Besides there's a high
> psychological barrier to admit that you're poor.
>
> Instead just *encourage* people to donate a recurring amount of their
> choosing. Do a direct debit from their bank account, with a minimum
> amount to cover banking costs (they still have the option not to donate
> at all). Publish donations above a certain threshold on the website,
> maybe using several different thresholds and calling them bronze /
> silver / gold sponsors (or some sweet equivalent).
>

Noisebridge in San Francisco does something similar.
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Membership/FAQ From what I
understand, they have a few "Sugar Daddies" (pardon the pun) who do
the heavy $$$ lifting, many starving hacker types, and several
once-in-a-whilers (like me). They do have a strong need for $$$ to pay
for the physical space.

cheers,
Sameer

> Sascha
>
> --
> http://sascha.silbe.org/
> http://www.infra-silbe.de/
>
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