Dues restructuring

[Ken Andrews]

At the January meeting, the board voted to eliminate the $100 initiation fee for new members, refund the initiation fees paid by current members at $20/year for the next five years, and increase annual dues to $75/year. The net impact will be a $5/year savings for current members, and will make it easier to join SHGA.

Among many members, there has been a growing sentiment that our $100 initiation fee has outlived its usefulness. In recent years, it has constituted only a few percent of the club's gross annual budget, it is an unwelcome expense to new pilots, and it probably discourages some Crestline and other local pilots from maintaining SHGA memberships. However, it is difficult to eliminate the initiation fee in a way that is fair to everyone. After much consideration, the board plans to make the following three changes, effective February 1.

1. The initiation fee will be eliminated for new members. This will obviously save new members $100 apiece, but it is a cost to the club of around $1000/year, depending on the new member rate.

2. SHGA will refund the initiation fee to all current members who have paid it. Because SHGA can't reasonably afford to do this all at once, the club will offer a $20 membership discount each year for the next five years. While this saves most members $20/year, it is a total cost to the club of around $8700, depending on how well SHGA retains members.

3. SHGA dues will increase from $60/year to $75/year. This approximately compensates for the cost to the club of items 1 and 2.

The net result of these changes are:

New members will pay $75 annual dues, but with no initiation fee. Current members who have paid the initiation fee may deduct $20/year from that rate for the next five years, so membership effectively costs only $55/year. Implementation details are still being worked out, so further information will follow.

Perhaps a few historical notes on SHGA dues will be of interest. Dues were last increased to $60 on June 1, 2001, so the step to $75 works out to an average increase of 2.25% per year. The club's annual dues don't cover our operating expenses now, and they never have. When the club was young and was faced with imminent insolvency, the initiation fee was created to help fill the budget gap. When the first glider storage unit was installed, thanks to a couple forward-thinking pilots, the SHGA balance sheet finally began to look a little more positive than negative. With the addition of the second glider storage unit, the club has been able to build some savings. This is what has allowed us to rent heavy equipment and restore the LZ after the river damage in the past couple years, improve the lawn, plant some new trees, and plan for our new pavilion. Full financial statements for the last several years are available in the Members area of the website.

While we expect the new dues system to take effect on February 1, the decision is always open to revision when better ideas come along. If you have comments or suggestions, we're interested. Thoughts are welcome here on the pilot forum, or to any board member.

[Don]

Don't know if I qualify as a "thorn in the side" or not. But what the Board approved in January is a step in the right direction and well over due.

Thanks

[OP]

We need a good way to communicate this to our flying brethren both north and south of us. Probably offering a sticker w/ membership would help.

"Sylmar, now financially solvent is offering a cool bumper sticker + T-shirt with club membership."

We could probably double our membership. ¿

[JBBenson]

Having managed hundreds of construction projects, I would really hesitate to implement this before the gazebo is finished or very close to being finished. Especially the retroactive refund part. The tendency of costs is to drift up.

Just saying.

[BudRob]

For those concerned that the dues restructuring will cost the club money, I wouldn't worry too much about that. There are many older members such as myself that can hardly remember paying the $100 fee, and will simply toss the vouchers we we get them. Since the dues change was projected to be cost neutral, those of us who choose not use the vouchers will shift the net result to the positive side, and this does not even consider new membership opportunities made possible by eliminating the initiation fee. We may get very few new memberships but at least we won't have the initiation fee to blame anymore.

The latest plan is to mail out all the vouchers at once before anyone receives any renewal notices. Those that have not paid the full initiation will receive vouchers for the amount they have paid. Katherine Yardley plans on mailing these vouchers before Jay Devorak sends out the next round of renewal notices in February. The renewal notices will ask for $75. If you have vouchers to use simply include one each year and write a check for $55.

[rsherwoo]

You can save the postage for my vouchers, I don't need them. The club can keep my $100. I'm fine with the new annual fee.

[adamwn2000]

You can save the postage for my vouchers, I don't need them. The club can keep my $100. I'm fine with the new annual fee.

Same here, The club could use it more than me.
That's 100 bucks to the tractor, gazebo or even the water bill.

[OP]

I'll neither donate the 100$ nor my interest.

Lets see here.... 2 years SHGA held my $, interest rate is going around 2%, I'll give my self the benefit of the doubt and compound that one continuously.

A(t) = A0e^rt Easy enough

Looks like I'm looking at 4.08$ + 100$.

However it gets more complicated. If I'm to be paid back over the course of 5 years. The amount owed is still compounded continuously. So for the first year that i'm still owed 80+ dollars.....

First we have:


Then...


......

Forget it. I'll donate all of it, hopefully it is spent in forming a 501c; or our LZ; or a floating gazebo.

[stebbins]

Keep mine too, and apply to the Gazebo (or whatever.)

501c is a good idea.

This is a good compromise. Old timers often objected to removing the initiation fee as unfair to them. This answers it quite nicely. And I suspect that the percentage of us who'll just donate it will be quite high. It was the principle of the thing.

Maybe I'll even come out and fly soon!

[Glenn]

I'll donate mine too. I guess we can do that by just paying the full $75. I'm just sending mine in today so that's what I'll do. Good idea, guys. We always need more members. This should make it easier to get hooked.

I love SHGA. I'll be back flying soon. 2010 was a wild ride on the ground, and I'm ready to get back to the sky.

[BudRob]

Thanks for all the positive comments. Getting rid of the initiation fee was a hard sell to some and the discussion had been going on a long time. Thanks to Ken Andrews for coming up with the correct solution.

George - you are correct. It was more about the principle than the money.

Glenn - you are also correct. If you don't want your initiation fee back just mail in the $75 and toss out the coupons when they arrive. The club can certainly use the money with the unknown costs of the new gazebo. Hope to see you flying again soon!

Orion - you might be correct... but your math is well beyond comprehension!

Rob