Cost/Quality/Quantity

Hey everyone we need some advise.  A group of us (just a bunch of club members) were discussing this the other day and I thought I'd take a quick poll/suggestion.

Here is the debate regarding guest speakers.  If we bring in 3 regular speakers per year, there is no problem.  Or if we bring in two great speakers per year there is no problem.

If however you would rather see 4 or 5 speakers per year we would have a problem.  One suggestion (which has been coming up for years now) is to charge for some meetings.  We would have to charge $5 for members and $10 for non members to attend a couple big name speaker meetings. 

The questions are as follows-
1) would you like to see more/better guest speakers, even if that meant we had to charge for those meetings OR would you rather have fewer speakers and have the meetings free?
2) would you pay $5 to see a big name speaker, lets say Calfo for example since we just had him? 

Or, do you see some other fundraising opportunity or have other suggestions along these lines.

Thanks

Adam

I enjoy being a member, but have yet to make it to a meeting.

I would not be opposed to raing the club dues by $5.00

As a presidency member I can say we are NOT going to fold. I'm not involved with the finances, so it would be better if someone addressed the specifics. Regardless, the point is that guest speakers are expensive to bring in. Utah is not a hub for major Hobby/Scientific marine research. We live in a freekin desert that's miles from "Anywhere that's Anywhere". To bring in a speaker we have to pay air fare, hotel, and meals. Each speaker has their own cost associated with bringing them out and varies due to geographic origination, perceived value of the speaker, and even how cool or anal the speaker is.

Our membership dues go to building rental, meeting snacks and the like.  If we relied solely on membership dues to cover speakers and normal meeting expenses, we'd probably have 1 speaker every 2 years. For the most part the club relies on the coral cutting meetings to fund speakers, yet we are limited to the number of those meetings due to the amount of effort that goes into them, and the fund availability of those buying frags.

Adam wants to know if the club A) Wants to maintain status quo and bring in 3-4 guest speakers a year funded mainly by coral cuttings, keeping the meetings free of charge, and the remaining meetings will be hosted/spoken by local members; OR B) Wants a change to having more speakers and thus having us as a club change our funding process.

Me? - $24 a year in support of the club and (extreme scenario) $60 for guest speakers each month is way cheap. (I can blow more than that at the LFS) My first taste of WMAS was with Julian Spring...and I don't remember what I paid...but I did...and it was excellent.

(Posted later than Adam's reply...I'm a fast typer, but a slow former of thoughts)

I fear that charging admission will lead to a smaller turnout. $5 or $10 is no big deal to many of us, but others are reefing on a pretty tight budget, which is possibly why they aren't paid members in the first place. I would suggest trying to make more money at the Frag seminars (I have a couple ideas), or possibly having a small fee at the summer barbeque, or maybe selling refreshments at the meetings instead of giving them away. A little bit here and there, adds up and everyone still feels welcome. Just brain-storming of course. What do you think?

Oh, and I think 3 to 4 quality guest speakers is pretty good. If we make it too frequent, it may lose it's "seductive" quality. I also like having our local reef experts share there ideas regularly.

Non-member enterance fees... $5-$10 for a "spotlight speaker" is more than fair. Keeping up with the frag fests as is (members pay half advertised cost of corals) is also fair, IMO. Maybe those who are selling in a larger group-type situation can "donate" some of there funds back to the club for their ability to set up "shop", too(kinda like a booth fee). We are getting some very valuable advice from many others, but it's the WMAS that we truly have to give kudos for allowing us to remain as close as we are able to do both at the Rose Garden once a month and on-line 24/7.

Jason

How about making them wear a garter and speaking for tips?

The thought of Shimek in a thong.... *shudder*

I suggest we keep our annual dues at $24 and if needs be, charge for some speakers.