Should Grex join the PFC Extended Member Discount program?

Apr 7 23:58 UTC 1996

The People's Food Co-op has a program called the Extended Member Discount
Network.  The co-op keeps a list of local businesses, not necessarily
co-ops, who offer a discount to people who show them a People's Food Co-op
membership card.  They keep a list of these businesses in the store, and
periodically they publish the list in their newsletter.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea for Grex to join this list, maybe
offering a $5 discount off a year's membership.

It doesn't cost us anything to get onto this list.  It could potentially
bring in $5 less from some people's annual memberships, but I'd be surprised
if even 3 of our current members took advantage of this when they renewed.
It could bring in some new $55 memberships we wouldn't have otherwise gotten.
But, the real win is that this would get our name mentioned repeatedly as
a member of the Ann Arbor community.  It would raise people's awareness
of Grex.  It would encourage people to see Grex as yet another part of Ann
Arbor.

If you're one of the people who believes that Grex should be cooperatively
run (but let's not get into that debate again), this follows the principle
of co-ops offering reciprocal benefits to each other's members.  If you're
not into the co-op concept, this is still good business sense.

What do other people think.  Interested?

response 2 of 43:

Apr 8 00:39 UTC 1996

Sounds good to me.  I've been mulling over joining PFC anyway.

response 4 of 43:

Apr 8 01:41 UTC 1996

I like the idea of an affiliation with PFC but have a slight
concern about offering discounted memberships.  $6 is not a 
lot of money and it should be thought of as a donation.  Maybe
if we instead offered Misti's help booklet?  

There is just this concern that if we start offering discounted 
memberships to one group of people the line will form for others,
like students, and seniors, and soon membership at full price
will seem like having to pay full fare while others get in for 
less.  And I don't think that's a feeling we want to endorse.

I really like the policy of having all members pay the same
(very reasonable) dues.

response 6 of 43:

Apr 8 07:17 UTC 1996

I agree with Mary too, but I like the idea of cooperation between
non-profits (among which are coops, although they are not charitable
like Grex). Are the other firms that participate in this with PFC
all for-profit businesses, or are there non-profits among them? I
can see non-profits participating if they are already marketing something
(T-shirts, mugs, books, etc). However we are not marketing memberships,
so I'd like some examples of other non-profit participation to see
what they do.

response 8 of 43:

Apr 8 14:58 UTC 1996

Let's see, how can this be worded: joining PFC will have with it
the *donation* by Grex of a 1/12 year membership, if the new PFC
donates the other 11/12 to Grex. How's that? Its a donation premium.

response 10 of 43:

Apr 8 17:35 UTC 1996

I'm equally lost.

response 12 of 43:

Apr 8 21:11 UTC 1996

C'mon now, Jan - it is the *essence* of not only magic, but law and
politics, and a large part of human behavior. When Public Radio offers
a premium for your donation, it is giving you something of value to 
encourage your donation. While I would prefer that we, to use the same
gimmick, give some breakfast food or something like that, we could
authorize PFC to say that they are giving 1 months worth of membership
in Grex if the PFC member donates the other 11/12 (but we pick up the
difference as a gift to PFC - or maybe they would give us some Wheaties?).
Non-profits are always aiding one another (something I have been encouraging
Grex to do more of). 

response 14 of 43:

Apr 9 06:09 UTC 1996

I'd go along with giving the handbook. What's one cost us to produce?

response 16 of 43:

Apr 9 15:57 UTC 1996

Re 14: I think the handbooks cost Grex about $1.

Re 13: All we need to do is  1) Figure out what we want to offer,
and 2) Have someone tell the PFC about it.

response 18 of 43:

Apr 9 17:26 UTC 1996

That's a good challenge to print in each of our, Grex and PFC, newsletters
 - presuming that they each have one. Is there a PFC item in a conference
here?

response 20 of 43:

Apr 10 09:05 UTC 1996

There isn't really a PFC-sponsored item here, at least not yet.  But they do
have an account, called "pfc", which you can send mail to.

response 22 of 43:

Apr 28 23:30 UTC 1996

   Kentucky FTP Conferences.  Get yours today!

 <STeve also runs>

response 24 of 43:

Apr 29 03:35 UTC 1996

(oh -- append a :)  to that last response)