››REDUCED MEMBERSHIP FEES

After much hard work, the membership database has now been accurately updated, allowing us to project the Club finances ahead for the next financial year. Despite a slow but steady decline in membership we feel that membership fees can be reduced and hope that this action will help to arrest
the decline.

In common with many of the former committee members before us, we have searched long and hard for reasons why membership has dropped and offer the following:

We have been very poor at promoting the club at any level for many years.

We are a club of mainly older members and the sad fact is that age catches up with us in many ways, death, health, change of circumstances and cash flow. Cost can be the real and deciding factor on whether a person will join or rejoin a club.

How do we know that? Well, as the majority of UK based members know, it is because I have talked to many of you on the phone or spoken face to face at the various club functions and I have been asking the members for their views.

What can we do to resolve the problem? The first thing the club can do quickly is be proactive on membership fees, drop them to a lower level whilst maintaining a buffer to maintain the strong financial base we presently enjoy.

Why? So we can try to open our doors to more keen Auster fans where membership cost is a problem, the young, pensioners on fixed income, just about anybody who is cost conscious in fact.

The membership also needs to do its bit by actively trying to recruit their fellow non-member Auster pilots, fortunately these are a minority in the UK. We are actively pushing for new members in New Zealand and with contacts we have made with the AAAA from Australia and our editor being based out there we will be looking to increase our members in Australia in the next year.

Then there is the quite untapped market of the people you meet, who come to look at our Austers at the various fly-ins and also on your own personal journeys. Talk to them, be enthusiastic about the club and try to recruit them, (carry a magazine or at least a membership form with you) which is what happened in the past, it works, and we should all try to do our bit.

Now I will talk about how the club will try to change the membership fees and make monetary savings on bank charges and card fees. This will help to mitigate the actual loss of money in real terms of reduced membership fees, as a side benefit in the medium to long term it will also mean that the respective committee members¹ jobs will be easier and less time consuming

So how can we implement the changeover to the reduced membership fees of £24.00 and £27.00 depending on the method of payment?

First, can I make it clear to you all, that the following methods of paying for membership will still be in place, I will place them in the clubs preferential order?

1.Standing Order (S/O). Paid yearly.
2.Paypal.
3.Cheque.
4.Creditcard/DebitCard.

Why that order? Costs. Ease of operation. Time saving. Cash flow.

1.S/0 Costs the club nothing to operate. (Except the one of time considerations to set it up).

2.Paypal has a small charge, but the money is in a non-interest bearing account and has to be moved into the interest bearing account. This takes two transactions and two bank charges per move. And we are not all computer/Paypal literate.

3.Cheques because we all have a bank account. This is very time wasting and can take up to a month to get the funds into club bank accounts (because the membership secretary has to generate time to take it to the bank) albeit it is not overly expensive .48 per cheque at club end fees.

4.Credit/debit card this costs the club £1.00 per transaction.

One of the troubles all clubs have is getting new committee members, because it is perceived as (and it is!) a huge drain of a person¹s time and at no small cost in financial terms to them. Therefore, by reducing the time, energy and money spent on committee duties, this will also benefit future committee members and thereby the club. Also, it should enhance the likelihood of getting volunteers in the first place.

S/O is not envisaged as the payment method of choice for non-UK residents, I believe the easiest and cheapest way for non-UK members will be Paypal, however I still want your Paypal payments to become due on the 1st January every year and this to be achieved by 2010.

Why £24.00 and £27.00? Because these figures ensure that the dues paid, minus the cost of magazines, postage and other incidentals, still leave the club with monies to keep in reserve on a yearly basis, also because it is easily divisible by 12. I.e. £2.0 and £2.25 per month respectively and that will help with the problem of new and rejoining members over the transition period, depending on which route each member chooses.

Why once a year and at the same time for everybody? No renewal notices, no phone calls just a reminder on the website and forum in November and December; plus a follow up e-mail to members who are e-mail capable in November and December. Finally, a reminder in the last two magazines of the year and the job is done for the year, the time and money saved will considerable.

The mechanism of the change over.

1.Promulgation of membership fee reduction as follows:

a.IAC Magazine.
b.On the web-site.
c.On the Forum.

2.On the web-site, joiners and rejoiners will be asked this year (2008) to pay only from the month of your joining/rejoining up to the end of 2008, e.g. Sept = 4 x £2. Alternatively, 4 x £2.25 depending on your choice of payments. You will then be asked to either fill in the S/O form (if that is the way you are going to pay from now on) and that along with your membership form (both of which will be provided on the web site) and send that information to the membership secretary. At that time, you can also can pay by cheque, Paypal or credit/debit card, to the finish of the year 2008.

Alternatively if you the member wished to pay the residual of 2008 plus all of the year 2009 that would be the best and most satisfactory method of doing it, from a clubs point of view, e.g. 3months to go and paying by S/O =3 X 2 = 6+24 = £30.00 and this would clear you the member up and to the start of the S/O due 1st January 2010

3.In the year 2009, joiners and rejoiners will be asked to pay only from the month of joining/rejoining up to the end of 2009, e.g. March = 9 x £2. Alternatively, 9 x £2.25 depending on their choice of payments. You will be then asked to either fill in the S/O form (if that is the way you are going to pay from now on) and that along with their membership form (both of which will be on the web site) and send that to the membership secretary. At that time, you can also pay by cheque, Paypal or credit/debit card, to finish of this year.

4.In October/November of 2009, the committee will do a sweep up of any member that has fallen through the net and try to ascertain which route they would like to follow for payment of their dues.

I suspect there will be questions asked, hence the long message covering the major points.

I have tried not to disadvantage any members. For the non-UK members who pay by Paypal the slight increase in profit the club makes is lost in no small measure by the extra cost of overseas postage. For the other Paypal users, I am sorry a different tier of charges to cover that was a step too far.

Some extra points to consider.

REMEMBER YOUR STANDING ORDER FORM ARE GIVEN TO YOUR BANK, DO NOT SEND THEM TO THE CLUB

Please whilst filling in your forms, put in your e-mail address if you have one, it is the quickest and easiest way to keep you current on club events, etc.

Put in your mobile number as an extra point of contact, just in case you move home and change main phone number and forget to notify us, the amount of returned magazines is a testament to that.