The Benjamins
Joseph White said in his comment that we can’t blame membership dropping on Sal. Aw, why not? The reason people are not renewing is STARFLEET is too expensive and stuff like groceries, rent, and gasoline come first. I am sorry, Joe, but I have to call bullshit.
Scott Akers also touched on this point while I was writing this post. $22 for a family membership breaks down to just over six cents a day. I guarantee that these “poor people” spend more than six cents a day on lottery tickets, cigarettes, beer, condoms, or even M&Ms. I that the money is not the real reason. I am pretty hard up sometimes financially, and I find a way to renew.
The only way it could be the money is if the member percieves no return on the investment. It’s the age old question that members of all chapters face every time they renew. What has STARFLEET done for me lately? The converse is, naturally, You get out of STARFLEET what you put into it. Lower membership dues? No, that would really hurt STARFLEET more than help.
Don’t raise the membership rates to combat costs! Perhaps we should as an organization take steps to cut costs. Here’s some ideas:
Stop printing the CQ. OK, there are a host of arguments here. They range from misguided numbers to the outright absurd. Some misconceptions:
We need to print xx copies to get the USPS discount. Yes and no. We get the discount by volume, but it still is a per-piece cost. If we are printing fewer, we’ll need to mail fewer. Do you know how many “paper chapters” we have out there? Without giving away names, I know one commanding officer that has eight family memberships in his pocket. He gets eight copies of the CQ when it is mailed. Eight. That is seven issues right there that did not need to be printed.
We need to print a certain number to keep our deal with the printers. I’m sorry, have you seen CQ 146 and CQ 147? They were ugly, poor color separation, faded, and by the time they get to your door they look like they’ve been on a subway seat for a week. Apparently quality has not been a factor lately.
It’ll cost more to print a better CQ. Again, yes and no. Per item? Certainly. But if we print fewer, the overall cost will be less. Make the printed CQ a premium item that members must pay extra for.
Not everyone is online. True. But how long are we going to cater to the luddites? We’re not an Amish fan club. We pretend we’re in the 24th Century, it’s high time we live in the 21st!
What about blind, elderly, disabled? Fine. I am sure that with all we save on the printing and distribution of the CQ, we can afford to offer a number of complimentary issues to those with special needs. Isn’t there a Fleet Resource Center office for such things under the Office of the Vice Commander?
Stop mailing and printing membership materials. See above. No more CDs except by special request. If they are disabled, special arrangements can be made. Fleet owns a couple of printers, we can print what we need as needed on a case by case basis. Make everything available for download. They can print the certificate and ID cards themselves. Or if they want a spiffy card, fancy bound manuals, etc, the Quartemaster can sell them a nice one.
Make all the forms in the organization available online. Not just for download. Let them be able to be filled in Adobe Reader, and then emailed, or later printed and mailed by post. Nobody wants to download a form, print it, whip out a pen and fill it out! I am positive some of our volunteers have a full version of Adobe Acrobat. If not, it’s cheap enough and would save the organization money in the long run.
Automate the Academy. Postage costs, certificate printing, can be automated with the right software. Take the test online, download the completion certificate as a PDF, let them print it themselves.
Lower chapter requirements. Drop chapter requirements to 5 members. Eliminate the difference between “correspondence” and “meeting” chapters. When Al Gore invented the Internet, the lines got all blurry. Offer stuff electronically to COs, NX Training chapters, etc. All certificates, manuals, etc.
Reinstate chapter fees. Something low, like $10. In addition, make them annual as well. Chapter COs would get a printed copy of the CQ included. They would also get access to flier templates, brochures, recruiting supplies, business cards either at a discount or as free downloads.
Just a few thoughts. Discuss.
(7 votes, average: 2.86 out of 5)
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August 18th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
“$22 for a family membership breaks down to just over six cents a day. I guarantee that these “poor people” spend more than six cents a day on lottery tickets, cigarettes, beer, condoms, or even M&Ms. I that the money is not the real reason.”
While I think there is more to our renewal losses than finances the reality is, if Joe Member has $40 in his account and the choice is $22 for STARFLEET and $18 for food, or $40 for food - the $40 for food will always win. Unfortunately most of us live paycheck to paycheck and no one has the mental fortitude to save the 6 cents a day to make that argument feasible.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
One idea would be to eliminate dues all together for members. Why pay to be someone’s friend? Members wouldn’t have to show up at meetings to “get their moneys worth”, they just show up because they want to have fun.
What does it take to cover operational costs? Web Hosting? Domain Name renewal? What else? Items for sale (shirts, newsletters, stuff) could cover the basic production costs and provide a little bit of capital for operations. Donations and fundraisers could cover a leaner-meaner organization. A lot of groups have gone with the online sources and then charging a minimal fee for printed material. I know one group that has gone without charging dues for 21+ years.
Limiting the money issue would reduce (if not eliminate) the “what is happening with our money” issues that has plagued many clubs.
Of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
CKS:
I agree with part of this. People should just show up and have fun. But STARFLEET as a corporate entity does have expenses. Stuff like International Conferences. And it does take seed money to buy products for the Quartermaster to sell.
As for web hosting, etc, my understanding is the affiliate program with Dreamhost has actually paid forward the hosting and stuff for SFI.ORG for a few years up now. Anyone that signs up with the promo code gets $50 setup waived and STARFLEET gets a kickback. THIS VERY SITE was created on such an account.
“Pay to be someone’s friend?” Sounds too much like Barbie. If she’s so damned popular, why do we have to buy friends for her?
The stuff the organization provides is not bad I just feel it can be done cheaper. Every few years, we get this argument about raising dues, lowering dues, etc. I think the fact that dues have not changed since the late 90’s even with inflation says a lot. If we simply tighten the belt, avoid waste, and simplify things by doing them online, we can save a lot there.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Dave,
Somebody should get that frozen “Hell” street sign pic over here. I agree with most of your suggestions.
Stop printing the CQ is a quality option and the way to eliminate the “not everyone is online” argument is simple. Just have two membership fees - Online Member or Print Member. The Online Member fee would cover the cost of the Membership Packet only, and the Printed Member would get the Membership Packet and printed CQs.
Automate the Academy - I just took the OTS and it was completely automated. I am told other courses are not online but if they could do that somehow that would be way cool.
Lower Chapter Requirements - I do not the financial benefit.
Reinstate Chapter Fees - I missing that point too.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Well, in my plan, there would really be one membership option. You get all your stuff online, certificate, handbooks, fliers, business cards, ID card, CQ. We could actually offer more stuff than you get now.
Then the Quartermaster can sell printed copies of all the manuals, nice ID cards (made custom, laminated, maybe even a photo.) A subscription to the CQ, which would be carefully calculated to cover each printing and mailing. It could be possible to even print them in house, STARFLEET has purchased printers to do the certificates and stuff. We could, in theory, buy a good quality laser printer that can handle the workload, print them on demand and mail them ourselves. Pass the charges along in the subscription. We could also put out a higher quality document.
I estimate that perhaps only a few hundred people will want the printed CQ. My numbers are not based on anything, it’s just a guess. I admit I could be way off the mark. And they would not go out one per family. This would be individual. I know of at least one case where a family has wanted two copies, yet there is no current method in place to do that.
Automating the academy would simply streamline everything. The certificates would all look pretty much the same. Logos for the schools and stuff would change, but they would all have the same styling. Give SFA a unified look and feel. The software would generate the PDF for download. The member can then print it on card stock or nice certificate paper, in either color or black and white, whatever.
Lowering chapter requirements? I was against this for a long time. But I think it’s a numbers game. If we have more chapters, the organization will flourish. We may see an initial pinch, but eventually more chapters would turn into more members which in turn means more cash to work with.
Chapter fees used to simply cover cost of mailing and creating the commissioning certificates, postage for all the VRR form mailings (all in triplicate!) between RC, ShOC, OPS, mother ship, etc. I propose the chapter fee be a sort of “licensing fee.” We own the name STARFLEET. For $10 a year, and if you continue to met the requirements, you get to use that name.
In return, STARFLEET would offer more. Better fliers, brochures, business card templates, recruiting information, a more frequent and updated Vessel Registry, etc.
Yes, there will initially be a pinch. Some chapters will cry “we’re broke” and drop out because they can’t or won’t pay $10 a year. But, overall, it shows that the chapter is serious and wants to play in our sandbox. It would also help to filter away the “paper chapters” simply by attrition.
I would rather have quality over quantity. I’d rather have 150 STRONG, active, smaller and leaner chapters than 227 that currently most exist on paper or to simply boost some guy’s ego.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
So not being an SFI member, I’m just curious.
What are the operational costs to run SFI as an organization? I don’t need a complete ledger breakdown. But where do the bulk of the fees collected go to?
Thank you for helping me understand.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
CKS, The two biggest legitimate expenses are the By-Law mandated Membership Kit and the By-Law mandated Bi-Monthly NEwsletter (the Communique or CQ). I don’t have a current breakdown, but the last I saw those two items took over 80% of the budget. To drop them or how they are delivered would require amending the By-Laws. This isn’t supposed to be easy, Starfleet has promised its members and prospective member “X” materials, this makes Starfleet Legal Obligated to deliver “X”, not 1/2 X, or Y, but X, unless we change the requirements within the rules as written. Illegitimate expenses would include spending 25% of the budget sueing members the Commander Starfleet doesn’t like.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Since the Membership kit and the CQ are mandated expenses, then why don’t the EC, AB, or even a Joe Member bring forth the proposition that we drop these expenses and make them on-demand only? I know that I don’t need a membership kit each time I renew, nor do I need the VR or the Card, unless it actually means it has a cool little magnetic strip that allows the discounts to actually mean something.
I’d love to see the dues drop to something more believable, like 5 dollars a person.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I will say this, seeing that STARFLEET had the funds to afford $8000, or even just $1000, for a lawyer it is painfully obvious our dues are too high.
Just my opinion.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:23 am
it is painfully obvious our dues are too high
Whatever, Rob. STARFLEET needs money to operate. A quality CQ costs money. Quality membership materials cost money. International Conferences cost money. The Scholarship Fund is a Good Thing™ too.
There are many ways the money has been spent wisely in the past. But that was the past. Darn. I’ve got an idea! Let’s slingshot around the sun…
August 20th, 2008 at 1:21 am
So, if Joe Member does not support the scholarships or go to the IC, he is forced to support them with his dues - correct?
August 20th, 2008 at 4:40 am
So, if Joe Member does not support the scholarships or go to the IC, he is forced to support them with his dues - correct?
Rob: YES
This really is not open for debate. That is how much it costs. Basic individual membership rates have stayed the same for over a decade. Family rates were adjusted in 2000, I believe, however someone may have to fact-check that for me. STARFLEET’s operational costs have continued to rise. Cost of living has also gone up nationwide. It’s called “inflation.”
STARFLEET does not make a profit. The problem is simple. STARFLEET either needs to raise rates or decrease costs.
It’s even simpler. If you really, really, really cannot afford six cents a day, quit. But good luck in next weekend’ s powerball. Remember, “play responsibly.”
August 20th, 2008 at 9:02 am
“This really is not open for debate.”
Then I guess that as they say is that.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Then I guess that as they say is that.
No, it’s not. You are taking the issue of “STARFLEET needs to cut costs” and changing it into “wah, STARFLEET is too expensive!”
STARFLEET is not expensive. However, people are leaving STARFLEET (to hear Joe tell it) because of the money. It’s not the amount of money, it is the perception of the expenditure. There is no “return on investment” for these members.
These are the ones that at renewal time scratch their heads and ask “what did I get out of STARFLEET for my $15 last year.”
I have said it before, you get out of STARFLEET what you put into it. And the “value” received is, at the end of the argument, all relative and a matter of perception. There are those that enjoy simply being members, getting a CQ every so often, and a membership card. There are those who immerse themselves in Academy courses. There are those who enjoy their “role” either fictitious, or in real life in STARFLEET.
If you really think STARFLEET is too expensive, Rob, then you may need to find another hobby.
I think the late George Carlin said it best. “I don’t have hobbies; hobbies cost money. Interests are quite free.”
August 20th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Actually, that STARFLEET could afford the lawyers (and it can’t, not really) is more an indication of an EC that doesn’t know how and where to spend money than that dues are too much.
August 21st, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Joe, Robbie, etal
Money had been set aside over the last ten years, and a CD bought, in case something bad happened. Last year after Pat vindictively ratted Starfleet out to the State of Texas days after being canned as CFO, Starfleet found it needed to hire a lawyer to DEAL WITH TAX ISSUES. SO the leadership decided to cash in the CD to do just that.
THAT is responsible financial management, save money when your costs are lower than your revenue, use it when something comes up.
What happened though? Santa decided to use that money to vindictively attack members or to hide behind the lawyer when members asked questions. Costs have gone up over the last 15 years, but our revenue stream per person has stayed the same, and the economies of scale have been reduced as more and more members fail to renew.
But what do I know, its not like I’m the Director of Financial Operations for a company that has grown its revenue 99% in the three years since I started.
Sheeeesh