Re: Non-Member Fees, also paying more to be single

["Glenda R. Snodgrass" <grs@TheNetEffect.com>]

> But now, I have a
> good size family... at this point, only my husband, my daughter and I are
> interested enough in the sport to join... the other 2 kids are gonna have to
> learn to pit crew!!!  But if we had to pay $195 to join, we wouldn't.  Why?  It

Hmmm, so even though I've never met you, and was certainly never involved
in any of your personal life decisions, *I* should subsidize *your*
decision to have children, by paying higher fees for myself, so that you
can pay lower fees for yourself and your family, thus enabling your
husband and children to participate in this sport on my nickel?

> I think all in
> all, it's probably the families who join who perpetuate the sport with their
> children and grandchildren... 

Oh?  You think just because I am single and childless, I won't be bringing
any other individuals into the sport?  I am unable to perpetuate the sport
because I have not given birth to children who may someday ride endurance?
The constant crusading I do at my barn and all around town, and the
efforts I have made to get a friend here interested in endurance, to the
point of dragging him to rides to keep me company while I crew for a
friend, and last weekend driving 800 miles in 2 days to borrow an
endurance horse for him to ride this winter, to give him a taste for it
... these activities of mine don't count as "perpetuating the sport" the
same way that having children would?  Hmmmm, interesting perspective. 

I think a junior discount is a good idea, but discounting fees for adults
because they live in the same house (oooops, I dunno, do you get the
family discount if you are merely cohabitating, or is a marriage
certificate necessary?) is merely a perpetuation of the long-standing
prejudice against single adults.  Some allowance should be made for a
single copy of EN, but still ... there is a serious imbalance in the
existing fee structure.  I am horrified by what I read in an earlier post
about a family discount for attendance at convention workshops.  If true,
that is outrageous and wildly discriminatory.

Glenda & Lakota
Mobile, AL
AERC # M18819 & H27310
SE Region