REPLY Income based membership dues (SD6665)

[SDMAIL Bob Eberlein]

Posted by  Bob Eberlein <bob at vensim.com>

Hi Everyone,

The new dues structures was discussed at the conference this summer and 
formally announced in the September Newsletter. The intent was to give 
membership access to individuals who would not otherwise be able to 
afford it while not significantly impacting overall membership revenue. 
The tiered dues structure was the result of a committee that looked at 
different possibilities for achieving those goals. The reasoning involved 
and the details are available in their reports on the Society's web site 
(under Governance).

It is too early to tell whether this is moving us toward those intended
goals, but there have not been any clear warning flags as yet. I do ask 
the central office how renewals are going from time to time and so far, 
there does not seem to have been much of a change from last year. I think 
that is good news - the kind of new members we hope to reach will take some
time to get to. I am hopeful that we will see more participation from lesser 
developed countries and communities, but we will have to wait to see if that
happens..

And just to make it clear, the Society does not ask anyone to report their 
income. This is simply a tiered dues structure that has categories based on 
personal income. It is up to the individual to choose the appropriate tier. 
One could, of course, infer something about income from the dues chosen, 
but that choice will not be reported on except in aggregate in any case. 

      Bob Eberlein
Posted by  Bob Eberlein <bob at vensim.com>
posting date  Fri, 7 Dec 2007 13:10:44 -0600