Grex Member Conference

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Grex Member Item 3: Membership fees, discounts, and premiums
Entered by ajax on Tue Oct 1 16:53:59 UTC 1996:

  Jim suggested some alternative membership fee ideas in the previous
item, and I'm entering this item to further discuss the topic.  Here's
an excerpt from his response:
 
>  I would rather see a fee structure that people could live with, and
>  then see if we need to issue subtle reminders.
>
>  I would also like to offer some PBS style premiums, like buy 2 months
>  of Grex and get a t-shirt free. Cost $20. Buy a mug for $12 and get a
>  month of Grex free. Does anyone see this working?

8 responses total.

#1 of 8 by ajax on Tue Oct 1 16:55:31 1996:

  I think the fee structure is good as it is.  I seem to recall a poll of
board candidates showed firm support for leaving it at the current level.
Membership is currently $6 per month or $60 per year.
 
  One argument against lowering the membership fee is that if $6 per month
is too much for a person, they can become a member every other month, or
every third month, making their contribution effectively $3 or $2 a month.
The main purpose of membership is to help Grex, and people can do that at
whatever level they're able.  Many people purchase a month's membership
from time to time.
 
  Short-term sales on membership fees have also been discussed a lot in
the past, and most people haven't supported the idea.  There is a concern
that people will then wait until the next sale to become members, the way
people wait for sales at Sears before buying stuff there, so that Sears
has to have sales every couple weeks to maintain a steady supply of
customers.  With the majority of our income coming from membership
renewals, rather than new membership sales, keeping membership sales
steady is important.
 
  The premiums certainly could work - in fact I have no doubt that they
would work for some people.  However, many people want the money they
spend on membership to be spent on Grex, not on a premium that comes back
to them.  If some people want a T-shirt or mug, and some don't, it makes
sense to me to charge the same membership fee, and let the people who
want T-shirts or mugs buy them separately.
 
  A while back, Misti donated a free Grex manual to each new member, for
a period of a couple months (they cost $1 to produce, and we sell them at
cost).  If someone wants to sponsor premiums in this way, so they're
effectively donating T-shirts to be given to the next dozen members or
whatever, I'd wholeheartedly support such a system.  I don't think Grex
itself should be spending money on this, however.

#2 of 8 by snafu on Wed Oct 2 00:33:11 1996:

sounds good...

#3 of 8 by ajax on Fri Oct 4 04:05:55 1996:

  Another approach to discounts is to single out groups of people for
discounts.  On M-Net, they offer a student discount, and used to offer
a discount for members of the same household.  They've also discussed
discounts for people with low income, but the idea was rejected, partly
because it's hard to verify people's income.  I think too many different
payment levels confuses things (M-Net has a 5x5 grid of fees, or something
like that), so I'm not too in favor lots of different fees.  I'd favor
lower fees based on ability to pay if the memberships emphasized services
for the fees, as with M-Net, but Grex's memberships are more about 
charitably supporting Grex, not about obtaining benefits for the fees.

#4 of 8 by danr on Fri Oct 4 16:07:17 1996:

Also consider the amount of work involved with this.  Someone has to collect
the funds and ensure that the person has paid the right fee and provided the
proper identifications and /or proof of income.  With a complicated fee
structrue, that would be a tough job for the treasurer.

#5 of 8 by mta on Sun Oct 6 20:58:41 1996:

I think the response was definitely good to the "free manual with membershiop"
drive and would encourage anyone who has the resources to make a similar
offer.

I agree, though, that GREx shouldn't use membership fees to pay for premiums.
That kind of flies in the face of what the membership are for.  (Rob said it
so much better than I' able to right now -- just re-read #1.)  :)

Anyway, yes, donating something to be used for a premium does work.

#6 of 8 by ezzaroo on Thu Apr 23 17:09:12 1998:

As a new user to Grex i feel very privileged to be able to use your services,
as a student here in England fees for the use of a Unix system are
astronomical, after reading some of the responses i could not believe people

#7 of 8 by ezzaroo on Thu Apr 23 17:13:53 1998:

Well lost half of my text, finding Unix to be a real challenge seeing as i
have been a Windows baby i decided to join the real world, anyway as i was
saying , it is a privilege and i have no trouble in agreeing to a $60
donation, please E mail me giving me instructions, as i still have not figured
out this system

#8 of 8 by gibson on Tue Apr 28 03:47:30 1998:

        Welcome, Anthony, and thanks for the pledge. For info, at the ok! type

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