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Grex > Coop11 > #127: Cyberspace Communications finances for September, 1999 |  |
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| Author |
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| 25 new of 90 responses total. |
rcurl
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response 25 of 90:
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Oct 6 07:18 UTC 1999 |
There is talk now and then about seeking memberships somewhat more
ardently, but nothing much ever seems to come of it. How about
appointing a membership committee with the goal of doubling the
membership in a year?
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mary
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response 26 of 90:
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Oct 6 11:02 UTC 1999 |
I think we just got our first volunteer! Maybe even the Chair? ;-)
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danr
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response 27 of 90:
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Oct 6 12:33 UTC 1999 |
Getting someone to do it is always the problem. I point this out because I
volunteered to work on getting more memberships some time ago and think I was
even appointed membership chairperson (or some such title) at a board meeting a
year or so ago. Obviously, I haven't been working at it very hard.
Like any organization--non-profit or for-profit--Grex has to keep its PR
machine humming. You'd think that with all the resources of the Internet at our
disposal, we'd be able to attract more users.
Whatever happened to our ad on Arborweb? Did they finally take it down? How
about the classified ad we had in the Food Co-op newsletter? Maybe we should
put up some posters around campus and downtown again. Any other ideas?
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omni
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response 28 of 90:
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Oct 6 14:38 UTC 1999 |
I used to be the membership chair. I established the membership conference.
I also was removed from being membership chair due to incompetence.
heh, at least I'm honest about my incompetence. More than can be said for
Clinton.
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rcurl
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response 29 of 90:
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Oct 6 15:58 UTC 1999 |
Clinton was membership chair?
I decline, on grounds of already having too many volunteer obligations.
However such things as membership development are precisely the obligation
of the board. Until they can find a volunteer to do the job properly,
they should do it themselves. For starters, how about having the TV
ad on community television say how to *join*, not just how to log in?
All Grex publicity could be aimed at seeking members, not just users.
"Support your local on-line conferencing system - GREX - by becoming a member
now", etc.
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mcnally
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response 30 of 90:
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Oct 6 17:12 UTC 1999 |
re #29: Yes, and he was so bad at the job that nobody even knew
he held the position..
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mary
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response 31 of 90:
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Oct 6 20:12 UTC 1999 |
The Board is not obligated to pick up jobs like this. If
volunteers can't be found then the job doesn't get done.
Insisting the Board do it all is a great way to make certain
the only people who run for the Board are unemployable slugs
who live for television and Grex.
Nice try though. ;-)
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danr
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response 32 of 90:
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Oct 6 22:39 UTC 1999 |
Ultimately, the board is responsible for everything, including membership
development. Unless, of course, the board decides to simply disband. They can
decide not to do anything if they feel there are other priorities, but if a
lack of members is seriously threatening Grex's existence, they should take
some action.
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i
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response 33 of 90:
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Oct 6 23:47 UTC 1999 |
I see no serious threat to grex's existence, nor any purpose in twisting
the boards' arms on the subject of increasing membership.
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mdw
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response 34 of 90:
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Oct 7 02:45 UTC 1999 |
Ultimately, the board is responsible for nothing. The *membership* at
large is responsible. Let's not blame the board for this, or try to
volunteer them into this task.
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rcurl
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response 35 of 90:
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Oct 7 04:25 UTC 1999 |
The board is *legally* responsible for the proper management of the
corporation - it is called fiduciary responsibility. The members have
*no* specific responsibilities except to elect the board.
Your hypothesis has been disproven, Marcus, by the failure of member
volunteers to generate a functional membership program.
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mdw
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response 36 of 90:
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Oct 7 06:22 UTC 1999 |
Not so. The membership *elects* the board -- and indeed, the board
consists of nothing more than select members of the membership at large
who have volunteered time they might spend doing other things instead.
If the board fails to fulfill its duties, in the absence of fraud or
other gross violations (which I'm sure you will agree is not the issue
here), the fault lies with the voters in not selecting more responsible
board members. The board *does* have certain extra legal
responsibilities -- but they are *NOT* responsible for the ultimate
success or failure of grex, **WE**, as a colective whole, are. If
**WE** here cannot come up with a working functional membership program,
and grex dies because of that, it will *NOT* be the fault of the board
and, for instance, it will not be possible to sue the board for failure
to do their legal duty (they've fulfilled their legal responsibilities
already, by reporting financial reports, such as this, and discussing
long-term membership trends). It will be, plain and simple, *OUR*
collective fault, and it would be just plain rude to blame the board for
our collective failure. It's also just plain pointless; the board would
probably be more than willing to listen to anyone who sounded like they
had a viable plan to increase membership and the interest to follow
through on that plan. There's absolutely no necessity for that person
to be a board member. Finding a skapegoat is an ancient biblical
tradition. It is not, however, a good way to solve real problems. So
let's get out of the "it's their fault" mode, and talk about real
solutions instead, and what *we*, individually or together, are willing
to do to make those solutions happen.
Here is a possible outline for how to solve the problem:
I. identify why we're not getting more members:
A. why are we losing old members?
-- boredom? "grex is doing fine without me"?
"waiting for the credit card thing to be set up"?
-- can we survey ex-members and find out?
B. why aren't we getting new members?
-- poor indians? "I already pay my ISP"? "starving student"?
"grex is too slow"? "i can't run my IRC client here"?
-- can we do research to refine these theories?
-- can we identify a subset of new users who
have the resources and potential to contribute?
II. take steps to raise more money and recruit new members
A. identify past sources of extra money, and milk them.
-- another auction? renovate the grex store?
goto more local swap meets?
B. make it easier to become a member
-- throw a monthly party, like a picofest.
-- organize a travelling "grexmobile" that travels
from state to state and meets grexers.
-- think of other ways to make grex more immediate
and "local" to communities of grex users in other places.
(sub-membership volunteers?)
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danr
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response 37 of 90:
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Oct 7 12:26 UTC 1999 |
re #36: Ideally, the membership as a whole is responsible. In practice, it
hardly ever works that way. Just as you would not expect the membership as a
whole to run down to the Pumpkin to reboot the computer should it crash, you
can't expect the membership as a whole to take some action on membership
levels. If the number of members is a problem--and I'm NOT saying it's a
critical problem--it is up to the board to raise this issue and to initiate
action to correct it.
Having said that, mdw does have some good ideas as to how to increase
membership. I still think the idea of personally contacting non-members who
use Grex a lot, whether it be party, conferencing, or simply for email, might
be even more effective.
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aruba
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response 38 of 90:
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Oct 7 14:12 UTC 1999 |
Thanks, Marcus, for taking the discussion away from finger pointing and
toward brainstorming. I think I could come up with some statistics showing
how many "long term" members we usually have, and how many "short termers",
and we could find out if there's been a significant drop in either one.
I did do a graph of our membership over time, and since July '94 we have
basically stayed between 80 and 100 members, with two dips below 80 (in late
'94 and early '95) and a couple of trips above 100 (in mid '95 and early '97).
We've been down around 80 for the couple of months. I reported 79 in this
report, but the final numbers for the last two months will go up, because
there are a few people who I expect to pay late.
I think if an analysis shows that we've been losing long-term members, writing
to them and askling for reasons is a good idea - I'm willing to do that.
I think Dan's idea of writong to long-time conference users who aren't
members and asking them to think about it is a good one too. (A long time
ago we agreed that we should set up a system whereby users passing their
3-month, 6-month, etc. anniversaries on Grex would get mail inviting them
to become members. Valerie and Jan volunteered to work on that, but that
was pre-Arlo.)
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rcurl
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response 39 of 90:
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Oct 7 18:00 UTC 1999 |
Well...a little finger pointing can do some good, too. It helps getting
people interested and involved.
One thing missing from Marcus' list in #36 is the goal of obtaining
memberships in order to support the purposes and goals of Grex. That is,
to seek support for Grex on the basis of community spirit to support a
community resource. This is, admittedly, somewhat intangible, so we tend
to emphasize "services" and "benefits", but after all, most of the current
members don't join because of extra benefits offered by membership. This
is where leadership is needed to develop and express membership programs
based upon the charitable purposes of the organization.
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don
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response 40 of 90:
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Oct 7 19:16 UTC 1999 |
<set CONTRIBUTION-TO-DISCUSSION=off>
Arlo? What's that?
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flem
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response 41 of 90:
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Oct 7 20:17 UTC 1999 |
A, uh, special project, of sorts. :)
re resp:35 It could be argued that volunteers have, in fact, created a
functional membership program -- the one in place now. The conjecture
that it will not continue to be functional in the future is still a
matter of opinion.
I think one reason why more regular users don't become members is
because of a lack of a sense of urgency. There doesn't seem to be any
overwhelming reason to become a member *now*, as opposed to, oh, say,
next time I'm paying my bills and I happen to think of it. I know I've
been meaning to get around to sending in a check for at least three
years, but it has never quite happened, for one reason or another. And
yet Grex continues to exist, without significant financial difficulty
and with qualified leadership.
I'll try to find that checkbook one of these days! :)
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cmcgee
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response 42 of 90:
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Oct 7 22:52 UTC 1999 |
Arlo is a wet-ware programming project that will never be finished.
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aaron
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response 43 of 90:
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Oct 7 22:57 UTC 1999 |
It could be worse.
----------
M-Net General Conference
Item 51. Thanks for your suppport
Todd Plesco (tod) on Wed, Oct 6, 1999 (21:54).
Arbornet is broke.
Anyone have any ideas?
Feel free to send money to the treasurer if you are willing to support
M-Net. Throw a fundraiser if you want. Do whatever.
Arbornet is tapped and honestly, there isn't enough in the bank to
pay for M-Net's resources. Don't be surprised if your
next telnet or dialup is greeted with a busy signal or missing site.
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scg
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response 44 of 90:
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Oct 7 23:57 UTC 1999 |
Arlo is Grex's youngest staff member, or at least, the only person who has
been to every Grex staff meeting that has happened in his lifetime.
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mdw
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response 45 of 90:
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Oct 8 00:10 UTC 1999 |
Arlo has a bad habbit of sleeping through staff meetings, or
alternatively, yelling inarticulately. He's also got no real financial
resources of his own, and isn't in a position to increase grex's
membership or revenue (at least, not yet).
There are plenty of small things all of us members could do that can
help bring in more money and members. For instance, we can try to get
potential members to go on grex walks, meet aruba (if he's there), or
consider actually becoming a member. If we're feeling generous, we can
buy a membership for a friend. We can contribute extra money for
projects we care about, or just for the general good of grex. The most
important things we can do, though, are to think of this as our problem,
not their problem, and not to go about blaming people, because blaming
people is just a wonderful way to turn everyone else off on the idea of
actually doing any work on whatever-it-is.
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don
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response 46 of 90:
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Oct 8 02:05 UTC 1999 |
Gift memberships aren't gonna work, due to the lack of a noticable, active
difference in available perks. If Jane Member bought Joe Grexer a membership,
he might vote or use ftp a coupla times, but once the gift period ran out,
he'd probably not feel like renewing. This is especially true for
out-of-towners (such as myself) and people with ISP's already (such as
myself).
Anyone ever consider a corporate sponsorship of some kind (PicoSpan: Just Do
It), or some sort of advertising (the motd would be a good place for a
two-line Eat at Joe's ad)?
Then again, the problem right now isn't money; it's about the potential loss
of members which (potentially) could lead to the (potential) loss of money.
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orinoco
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response 47 of 90:
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Oct 8 03:03 UTC 1999 |
Interesting point. All of the ideas so far have been about getting new
members. What about keeping member loyalty high?
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scg
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response 48 of 90:
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Oct 8 06:05 UTC 1999 |
Several people I know have been recipients of gift memberships in the past.
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aruba
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response 49 of 90:
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Oct 8 14:43 UTC 1999 |
Don is correct that gift memberships don't usually result in long-term members
who renew later. But that doesn't mean gift memberships aren't welcome - as
Steve said, we've seen a number of them.
There is a fair-sized pool of people who are long-time active Grexers but
not members. Those are the people I'd most like to see join, because they
already have an interest in keeping Grex alive.
As to the question of accepting advertising: that's a whole can of worms
that I'm proud we've never opened here. Grex is owned by its members, and
has no loyalty to anyone but them. No one can tell Grex what to do except
its members, and I like it that way. So unless we get desperate (which we
won't anytime soon), I think we should stick to getting funding from our
users.
(Oh, and Don - you can finger arlo to find out about him.)
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