[IAEP] Membership fees

[Christoph Derndorfer]

Am 05.06.2011 17:04, schrieb Sascha Silbe:
> 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).

I don't know how other organizations handle it (and I'd definitely like
to hear more about that!) but my initial gut reaction is to agree with
Sascha.

As he also mentions the hassle and cost of actually transferring the
money (particularly if it's on a recurring basis) mustn't be
underestimated. It's just amazing just how time-consuming and/or costly
it is in the year 2011 to transfer money between Europe and the United
States, let alone some Latin American countries!

So just from that point of view hackerspaces such as Noisebridge (since
Sameer mentioned that example) with a strong local component are in a
much easier situation here. Plus in some sense it's more obvious what
kind of expenses these organizations occur with their physical spaces,
equipment, etc.

Just my 2 eurocents;-)
Christoph

-- 
Christoph Derndorfer
co-editor, www.olpcnews.com
e-mail: christoph at olpcnews.com