ep0k
Regular Member
What we discovered with our initial membership model is that it was simply out of most people's price range and it didn't look like there would really be recurring benefits for people who wanted to renew after a year (how many t-shirts do you really need, after all...?)
My thinking on the topic is that we should model it after a few other organizations I'm a member of, which more or less follow this format:
Basic membership that gets you the newsletter and discounts with any affiliates should be free. I really think this is the most important thing to preserve.
As far as paid membership, a lot of organizations start at $10 with the option to donate more as you choose. This would be the basic level where you get a membership card and probably some other products like a pocket-size legal information and police-stop cheat sheet. We run this operation on a shoestring budget so if ten interested people sign up for a basic membership we've just covered our web hosting cost for the year, etc.
Merchandise like t-shirts, hats, buttons, bumper stickers etc would all just be sold separately on the website.
All proceeds would stay internal to the organization and be used exclusively in compliance with our mission statement.
This is all just my personal thinking on the topic and I'd love to hear suggestions for ways to improve from here, but generally speaking I think this is a well-rounded model to work from and it seems pretty successful with the groups I've seen use it. Shane and I might be the most publicly visible members but its the rest of you that make this work and we don't want to alienate anyone due to financial constraints.
My thinking on the topic is that we should model it after a few other organizations I'm a member of, which more or less follow this format:
Basic membership that gets you the newsletter and discounts with any affiliates should be free. I really think this is the most important thing to preserve.
As far as paid membership, a lot of organizations start at $10 with the option to donate more as you choose. This would be the basic level where you get a membership card and probably some other products like a pocket-size legal information and police-stop cheat sheet. We run this operation on a shoestring budget so if ten interested people sign up for a basic membership we've just covered our web hosting cost for the year, etc.
Merchandise like t-shirts, hats, buttons, bumper stickers etc would all just be sold separately on the website.
All proceeds would stay internal to the organization and be used exclusively in compliance with our mission statement.
This is all just my personal thinking on the topic and I'd love to hear suggestions for ways to improve from here, but generally speaking I think this is a well-rounded model to work from and it seems pretty successful with the groups I've seen use it. Shane and I might be the most publicly visible members but its the rest of you that make this work and we don't want to alienate anyone due to financial constraints.