Non-member fees

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

OK, I'll try to wrap up my part in this discussion.

Maybe I'm just more sensitive about fairness issues involving money, I
don't know.  A few months ago I refinanced my house.  You know how
everybody has their hand out on one of those ... well, one of the fees
I had to pay at closing was $25 for a letter from my homeowner's
association, certifying that my dues were current.  I flipped!  I'm on
the Board of Directors of my association, so I brought it up at the
next meeting.  I asked how we could justify charging that much for
something that cost us virtually nothing.  The replies were "That's
what the other associations charge" and "It makes us a lot of money."
Nobody else on the Board cared that there was no correlation between
the cost to us of faxing the letter, and what we charged our members
for it.

<sigh>

I think that's similar to how the $10 was arrived at here.  There was
no determination of the actual cost to the AERC of servicing each
rider at a ride ... instead, it was "We have to raise X dollars to
balance the budget, how much non-member fee will do that?"
(paraphrasing loosely)  And, worse, no real effort to determine what
the impact would be on ridership, new converts, and the budgets of
small rides.  There was just the assumption that "Oh, a few
malcontents may complain but everybody will still show up."

Well, I'm probably fighting a losing fight.  So I'm willing to let
this be my last word.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
http://www.mti.net     Business
http://www.rnbw.com    Personal