Very Important - Corporate Membership

[SteveColes]

We have gotten to the point where I wil finish the By-Laws next week. The most important decision is what constitutes a Corporate Member. despite the fact that I agreed with the marjority when we had our meeting, I have had second and third and forth thoughts.

I am convinced that we will create two classes of users. Those who can afford to be members and those who can't. The economy is very tight.When somone suggest we have dues for the site relied that they would have to give up the site. And some of those very people are ones that should be members. They are here long term, they are active participants, etc. etc. and most important their opinions and visions of the site are those that most of us share.

Anyway, I propose that we have corporate membership based on participation in the affairs or North Carolina Woodworker, Inc.

Here is a strawman for us to consider:

Been a user for at least 9 months
Averaged at least 2 visits a week over the last 180 days
Averaged .25 posts per day

Or

Currently Board, officers or any other staff position. Committee chairmanships will also count.

Please respond quickly, we don't have much time to make a preliminary decision.

 

[TracyP]

I think membership based on participation is a good idea. That way no one is left out due to the inability to pay dues.

 

[gator]

I see nothing wrong with this approach. Especially since we found that we don't need a majority of total membership in any voting matters.

George

 

[DaveO]

I'm mostly fine with that. I would increase the average visits to at least 3 times a week over 180 days or even 4. That would help reduce the numbers of corporate members. The really active and participating members that we would want having a voice on the board have visit frequencies greater than that.
Dave

 

[Bas]

I disagree. I think dues are an important way for people to show they are involved. $10 would be sufficient. That demonstrates you care enough to take the time to make that payment. Would that exclude people? I know this doesn't apply to everyone, but considering the amount spent on lumber, tools, consumables etc even by a modest woodworker $10/ year seems very, very reasonable. If there is a true hardship for someone, we can always work around that.

The other consideration is that if you don't establish dues from the start, it is very, very difficult to introduce them later.

$10 isn't much after you take out the overhead and transaction costs. It's not meant as a major source of income, but as a way to focus the corporate membership.

I agree we also need the "involvement" demonstrated by visits per week/ # posts per day etc. Those numbers look reasonable.

 

[McRabbet]

I've never had any problems with either approach. We should retain our free access to residents of NC and the 3 adjacent states. I know that one other WW forum (SMC) recognizes people that contribute to their website and turn off Ads within threads for those members and show them as Contributor in their on screen display. I've never once seen a post on that site that conveys any negative distinction or inference of "special treatment".

I'm in favor of granting membership for a $10 contribution at least once each six months or if a user meets a 9 month/3 times weekly participation. If we were to implement the "No Ad display within threads" policy for contributors, I would recommend that we retain Ad presence on the Index pages so all users can link through the Ads to vendors to help insure we gain any revenue through them. I do not favor the 0.2 posts per day criterion, since we have plenty of lurkers that may not meet that level (that is 1 post every five days).

 

[sapwood]

I've mulled this over since the board meeting and haven't come up with a good solution. :BangHead: I want NCWWer corporate membership based on involvement/commitment, but find it hard to define. Examples mentioned include: financial contribution, visits/posts on website, and "volunteerism" such as staff or committee participation. All are important and I wouldn't want anyone to feel omitted because they met one criteria, but not the others.

Guess I need to ponder some more and see what others have to say :help:

Roger

 

[DaveO]

A Corporate Member is different than a Registered User. The site will remain free for use to all Registered Users. A Corporate Member has voting privileges in decisions being made by the BOD and in the make-up of the BOD.
Folks that don't participate in the site by posting and regular visitation should not have a say in how the site operates.
Originally the Corp. Member fee was being used as a way to limit the numbers of voting members to make it easier to have a voting session and achieve the required majority for voting.
As George has said we don't need to limit the numbers like originally thought as the majority is, of those that are present for the vote.

Dave

 

[Douglas Robinson]

Sorry to take so long to reply. Very complicated. I agree with DaveO that corporate membership will not prohibit those who do not pay from access to the site.

Bas's point is good: $10/year is very little.

If we go to a contribution basis then .25/day is weird. How about 2/week?

"When somone suggested we have dues for the site replied that they would have to give up the site." This person does not understand the point in my first statement.

Rob: I disagree with this "I've never had any problems with either approach. We should retain our free access to residents of NC and the 3 adjacent states. I know that one other WW forum (SMC) recognizes people that contribute to their website and turn off Ads within threads for those members and show them as Contributor in their on screen display. I've never once seen a post on that site that conveys any negative distinction or inference of "special treatment"." I for one found this offensive and know of others who feel the same. In fact an entire website has grown out the displeasure of these individuals, some of whom were major contributors.

Ultimately, I think a small annual dues is best, and the BOD can waive the dues on individual basis. Similar to what is done for far away applicants now.

 

[ScottM]

I also support a token fee for membership with a clause that the fee can be waived for individuals by the board. I would also suggest the idea of life membership not based on ability to pay but based on significant contributions to the organization and/or WW in NC.

 

[MikeH]

Sorry to take so long to reply. Very complicated. I agree with DaveO that corporate membership will not prohibit those who do not pay from access to the site.

Bas's point is good: $10/year is very little.

If we go to a contribution basis then .25/day is weird. How about 2/week?

"When somone suggested we have dues for the site replied that they would have to give up the site." This person does not understand the point in my first statement.

Rob: I disagree with this "I've never had any problems with either approach. We should retain our free access to residents of NC and the 3 adjacent states. I know that one other WW forum (SMC) recognizes people that contribute to their website and turn off Ads within threads for those members and show them as Contributor in their on screen display. I've never once seen a post on that site that conveys any negative distinction or inference of "special treatment"." I for one found this offensive and know of others who feel the same. In fact an entire website has grown out the displeasure of these individuals, some of whom were major contributors.

Ultimately, I think a small annual dues is best, and the BOD can waive the dues on individual basis. Similar to what is done for far away applicants now.

I don't have a problem with a corporate membership fee. It shows more of a commitment than just visiting the site. The people that are most active in the site will take interest in being a corporate member over the person that occasionally visits.

 

[Bas]

I don't have a problem with a corporate membership fee. It shows more of a commitment than just visiting the site. The people that are most active in the site will take interest in being a corporate member over the person that occasionally visits.

Very well put. I think the $10 fee will prevent a lot of problems from occurring, with people demanding "input" without maybe thinking about the greater good.

I definitely do not want corporate members to receive privileges. We all get to look at the ads.

 

[toolman]

Well my $.02..

1. You must be a member for more than 9 months
2. Must have a averaged at least 3 visits per week.
3. Must post a average of 1 time per week.
3. And pay a $10.00 Corporate Due. per year.

As a Corporate Member you can and / or will:
1. Vote at meetings of NCWWI.
2. Hold a Corporate office. (ie: President, VP's, Treasurer, and Secretary.)
[STRIKE]3. View the Forum Threads without Ads.[/STRIKE]

The web site would not change. it would still be free. We would still have 4 Donation Drives per year, 2 Raffles a year.

Just my $.02

Made change I don't have a problem with the Ad's as well.:rolf:

 

[toolman]

I definitely do not want corporate members to receive privileges. We all get to look at the ads.

This is ok with me as well. The Ad's don't get in my way.

 

[DaveO]

Well my $.02..

1. You must be a member for more than 9 months
2. Must have a averaged at least 3 visits per week.
3. Must post a average of 1 time per week.
3. And pay a $10.00 Corporate Due. per year.

As a Corporate Member you can and / or will:
1. Vote at meetings of NCWWI.
2. Hold a Corporate office. (ie: President, VP's, Treasurer, and Secretary.)
[strike]3. View the Forum Threads without Ads.[/strike]

The web site would not change. it would still be free. We would still have 4 Donation Drives per year, 2 Raffles a year.

Just my $.02

That's a good spin Chad. Except there should be no special privileges for Corp Members other than the right to vote and hold a BOD position. We don't want to make the CM a special class of members. Plus excluding a certain group from viewing ads might be a programing nightmare, and the ads aren't bad at all, I find them helpful at times.


Dave

 

[Jon]

Well my $.02..

1. You must be a member for more than 9 months
2. Must have a averaged at least 3 visits per week.
3. Must post a average of 1 time per week.
3. And pay a $10.00 Corporate Due. per year.

As a Corporate Member you can and / or will:
1. Vote at meetings of NCWWI.
2. Hold a Corporate office. (ie: President, VP's, Treasurer, and Secretary.)
3. View the Forum Threads without Ads.

The web site would not change. it would still be free. We would still have 4 Donation Drives per year, 2 Raffles a year.

Just my $.02

I think this is a good startBut I agree with Dave the ads are ok with me

 

[Douglas Robinson]

BTW: SMC also gives Contributors access to a private forum, only they can respond to or post classified ads, they do not have to see ads and they are the only one who can participate in free drawings.

That is IMHO exactly what we do not want here.

 

[toolman]

BTW: SMC also gives Contributors access to a private forum, only they can respond to or post classified ads, they do not have to see ads and they are the only one who can participate in free drawings.

That is IMHO exactly what we do not want here.

I agree Doug! :icon_thum I do believe we need one Forum for Corp. Members.. It would be for Corp. business Only.

 

[SteveColes]

Let me try another tact. Everyone actually seems to agree generally with what I am proposing. The only real difference is the to have to pay some dues. $10 has been mentioned and seemed to be accepted as a good number.

Well, I don't still don't like it. The $10 number even feels more wrong than $100. The idea was that anyone can afford $10 so it would not be a financial burden. It would just make sure people are committed to the site. Well if anyone can afford it, then it doesn't show much committment to me. And the amount is not going to really help with the budget, so why bother. All it adds is more complexity and alienates a lot of our more important long term users who feel that any financial requirement at this time will alienate many members.

Please remember that it is not that long ago that we bragged about no ads and donations. Now we are going to add dues? I know that becoming a corporate member onlys gives you the right to vote. But I suspect the perception coming at this time will still be that we are charging dues to get full use of the web site.

 

[Jon]

So do you want people to pay more than 10 and be a Corporate member or something else ?