Special Notice: Changes in membership dues

Changes in membership dues

As with any entity, whether for- or non- profit in nature, there are basic operating costs to maintain services for its patrons or, in our case, members. For the past several months, the Board of Directors has discussed and analyzed our operating costs, membership benefits and expectations, and ways to close the gap between 'income' and 'outgo'. The two key areas of expense for DACS are in maintaining the Resource Center used for SIGs and the hard copy distribution of the Newsletter. Our sources of income are membership dues, donations, and ads placements in the newsletter.

To remedy the situation we need to raise dues to cover our basic operating expenses. If we do not, then we would need to begin cutting out things that would directly affect services to the membership. The Board of Directors therefore voted in July 2007 Board Meeting to close the financial gap without reducing or disrupting services provided to the members. We concurred that to setting a date for October 1, 2007 and are allowing a special renewal period for existing and past members.

Changes that will take effect on October 1, 2007

• DACS "Electronic Membership" will become "DACS Basic Membership" and will be valued at $30 per year. Each member will have access to the club tech support volunteers, Newsletter online in PDF form, able to receive club related news via email, attend SIGS, and participate in any club-only related events, promotions, or activities.
• DACS "Regular Membership" will become "DACS Basic Membership plus Newsletter" and will be valued at $45 per year. Membership entitlement is the same as above and will also receive the monthly newsletter in hard-copy.
• DACS "Corporate Membership" will become "DACS Corporate Membership" and will be valued at $150 per year. Corporate memberships allow for 10 registered employees access to the same benefits of the rest of DACS Members and the corporation will also receive a monthly newsletter hard copy. Additional employees can be registered for an additional $15 per year each.
• "Three Year Prepaid" memberships will no longer be offered or renewed after October 1, 2007.
• The newsletter will be offered as a separate subscription independent of membership. This is for the general public who would like to receive a copy of the monthly newsletter, and who attend General Meetings when possible, but do not wish to participate in other club activities or benefits. These subscriptions will be available for $20 per year per copy for a single mailing address.
• Members may add additional newsletter subscriptions to their existing account at the same mailing address for $15 per year.

Limited renewal period for current and past members

Those with memberships that expire on or before December 31, 2007 and have not yet been renewed may do so now at our current membership rates. The following restrictions apply:

1. Membership must expire on or before 12/31/2007. Those with memberships expiring after 12/31/2007 are ineligible.
2. Members that currently hold three year memberships expiring on or before 12/31/2007 may renew at the current three-year pre-paid prices. Members that currently have per-year memberships cannot switch to three-year memberships at this time.
3. Non-members may become members at current membership rates, but cannot automatically renew.
4. Renewal deadline is September 30, 2007
5. Renewal can be done online via PayPal, through snail mail, or at the August and September General Meetings.

Example 1: If your membership expires in November of this year, and you are a Three-year pre-paid 'Electronic' member, you can renew yourself as a 'Three-year pre-paid Electronic Member' at the current price of $56 before 9/30/2007. On October 1, 2007, your membership will become known as "DACS Basic Membership" and will be listed as paid in full until November 2010. This saves you $34.

Example 2: If your membership expired in June 2007 and was renewed and now expires in June 2008. You cannot take advantage of this renewal offer because you've already renewed. (Ironically, I fit into this category.)

Why these decisions were made

The primary justifications and reasons for these changes are as follows:

1. Establishing a baseline membership level helps to determine shared operating costs that all members' dues pay for. In particular, this is relative to the expenses incurred to keep the Resource Center open, have Internet access, phone, Danbury Chamber of Commerce membership, Insurance, the resources for production of a newsletter (not the printing and distribution), and other aspects of club operations. If DACS had 200 members, then $15.73 from each member's yearly dues helps to cover these costs. Since base membership is currently valued at $20, which means leftover of $4.27 to save for the club to afford things like replacement projector bulbs, club non-donated prizes, etc.
2. The difference between the "regular" and "electronic" memberships is that a "regular" member gets a hard copy of the newsletter. Beyond that, they are both entitled to the same benefits. The current cost is $30 and $20 respectively for each membership type. This difference therefore values the printed newsletter subscription at $10 per year. The actual cost to print and distribute 12 issues to one member is $20.79 ($1.73 per issue). This is a deficit of $10.79 per year per subscription. Identifying the newsletter as a separate item from membership permits for addressing financial issues independent of membership dues.
3. Part of the $10.79 per subscription deficit is offset by the $4.27 unallocated to operating expenses. That still leaves a steady bleeding of $6.52 per printed newsletter subscription. Increasing the subscription rate from $10 per year to $15 per year for members narrows the gap changes the deficit to $5.79 and the $4.27 reduces it further to $1.52. Ads and increases in total subscriptions to the newsletter close the deficit the rest of the way and will begin returning the $4.27 back to a nest egg.
4. Increasing the basic membership dues from $20 to $30 aids in quickly stabilizing the current financial situation and begins building future security in the organization. As membership increases, so would our ability to save. This in turn has a positive effect by allowing us to consider luxuries for the club we currently cannot afford or can only obtain if donated by a member or third party.

As always, if there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me directly (dacsprez@dacs.org) or contact another member of the Board of Directors.