Re: Benefits of Paid Membership

[Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>]

Poster: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>

Greetings from Tibor.

I wrote:
  > Membership dues do not pay for newsletters.  Those cost extra, and 
  > the money spent on them is NOT tax deductible. 
  
Miriam Rachael replied:
  That depends on the level of membership, but it's true the cost of them is not 
  tax-deductible.

Perhaps it is just how you look at it.  I *pay* for magazine subscriptions.  I
*pay* for books.  I *pay* for lots of things.  I *pay* for the kingdom
newsletter and even for my local newsletter.  There is no "membership benefit"
here.  In fact, the SCA Incorporated makes a hefty profit on those
newsletters, which its volunteers produce at no cost to it.

If you go to Walmart, or Costco, and "buy" a membership, do you count the
groceries as a "benefit"?  I suspect you do not.  You pay for those items.
Well, we pay for kingdom newsletters too.  I pay for my local newsletter:
corporate has nothing to do with it.

I (Tibor):
  > It would be relatively easy to set up an alternate method of 
  > distribution of the newsletter.  But the SCA Incorporated knows to 
  > keep control of the carrot. 
  
Miriam:
  With respect, I don't think it would be as easy as all that.  Besides, if you 
  live in one kingdom, but go to college in another, it's really easy to get 
  both newsletters if you want to.  

It wouldn't have to be that hard for it to happen without the SCA Incorporated
acting as go between.  I think it could be made FAR easier.

If nothing else, I believe that we ought to stop tieing the newsletters to
membership, at once.  I believe that we would sell more memberships that way,
that the Corporation would continue running in the black (as it does now) and
that we would have a FAR better informed Society.

  > You are presuming that things MUST remain as they are.  This is an 
  > error. 
  
  What would be your solution to the problem as you perceive it?

Yikes.  That is a large tun you broach, and it is under considerable pressure.
(:-)

Let's just say that you can read the minutes of the Grand Council for a bit of
a view.  I believe, mostly, that we could close down 90% of the Corporate
office, and have a far better organization than we do now.  I hope that is not
TOO provocative a summary.

I'd note that local newsletters work just fine, as do most principality
newsletters, and they do so without Corporate support.

	Tibor
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