response 37 of 90:

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.

response 39 of 90:

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. 

response 41 of 90:

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!  :)

response 43 of 90:

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.

response 45 of 90:

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.

response 47 of 90:

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?

response 49 of 90:

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.)

response 51 of 90:

Oct 8 16:21 UTC 1999

Remember, you don't have to be a member to donate.  A couple of bucks every now
and then is really appreciated.  You don't get to vote, but you do get a good
feeling from knowing that you've helped.

response 53 of 90:

Oct 8 20:39 UTC 1999

I think depositing a traveller's check is just like depositing a real one,
isn't it?  Someone correct me if I'm wrong.  If it's that easy, there's no
need to wait.

response 55 of 90:

Oct 8 23:10 UTC 1999

I agree with the shpiels about the gift memberships -- Sure, they're welcome,
just not too potent.

re 49, despite the new Picospan slogan, and my phrasing (which I must admit
turned out to be misleading), I wasn't thinking about turning Grex into a
community which lives on advertising, or getting to the point where Mr. CEO
would be ruining Grex. My idea is a single one-to-two line ad in the motd
(running for no longer than like two-three weeks) for something like "Eat at
Gypsi's Shiny Diner (I know there probably isn't a Gypsi's in Michigan; I just
remember a coupla years ago a town in the next county over was trying to fight
the erection of the restaurant.) -- Call 555-8460 for delivery" and charge
like $10-15 for it. A mild annoyance at seeing the motd get even bigger (which
reminds me, someone should redirect motd through a pager for those times when
it exeeds a page) and you don't see it for the remainder of the session.

It should be noted that I'm not trying to advocate this, that I'm just
clarifying my idea, which may not even be neccessary due to Grex's current
budget.

I checked arlo's finger output. So (s)he's Valerie's son/daughter -- how did
this figure in to whenever it was mentioned, and why is his mail being
forwarded to janc and \arlo? What's the \ for anyway?

response 57 of 90:

Oct 8 23:51 UTC 1999

My guess would be that arlo's mail is being forwarded to janc because 
janc is his father.

response 59 of 90:

Oct 9 02:18 UTC 1999

There's a pretty high probability that some members would cease to be
members if grex started accepting advertising...