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Import</title></head><body>
<div>I posted the Q of budgeting for MUG to the user group listserve
for Ambassadors etc. and started quite a discussion, here's the give
and take so far:</div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
I've been in all 3 situations (no dues); minimal dues (per year) and
Money per meeting.<br>
<br>
In the cases involving money, you'll need to incorporate as a
not-for-profit, bookkeeper other necessaries before getting too
far.<br>
<br>
The MUG I belong to that takes $30/yr recently agreed to
"swallow" and merge assets with a more specialized group
that charged per meeting [overhead, food, cover partial expense of the
speaker].<br>
<br>
the one that charges zero money is moving along, and does have
presentations - they'd have more if better organized.</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000">Ah dues and the need for
them. A universal discussion point among MUGs.<br>
<br>
you ask why MUGs might have dues. right off hand:<br>
<br>
1. Rental of meeting space<br>
2. Buying raffle items<br>
3. Paying for a web presence<br>
4. An annual gift or party for volunteers<br>
5. A holiday party for the MUG<br>
6. Purchase of a Mac for presentation purposes<br>
7. Mail and other office expenses<br>
8. There is a perception that something free isn't worth much.<br>
<br>
Of course each of those reasons is determined by the needs and
resources available to your MUG.</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000">On Feb 11, 2008 9:22 PM,
Alex <</font><font face="Helvetica"
color="#004FAF"><u>alex@amug.org</u></font><font face="Helvetica"
color="#000000">> wrote:<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#004FAF">Victoria,<br>
<br>
Ah dues and the need for them. A universal discussion point among
MUGs.<br>
<br>
you ask why MUGs might have dues. right off hand:<br>
<br>
1. Rental of meeting space<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
Cross-promote. Meet at a place that gets a benefit by your
meetings:<br>
bookstores, restaurants, partnered business associates (graphic
design<br>
firms)<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#004FAF">2. Buying raffle
items<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
Why sell raffle tickets? Simply give them away.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#004FAF">3. Paying for a web
presence<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
Free with .Mac and/or sell sponsorship. Domain names are $5.00 a
year<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#004FAF">4. An annual gift or
party for volunteers<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
If you have to bribe volunteers, then are they really volunteers?<br>
Thank them in other ways such as recognition or something
inexpensive<br>
with lots of value.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#004FAF">5. A holiday party for
the MUG<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
Potluck is not only fun, but is a way of bringing a diverse group
of<br>
people together. Instead of going from A-Z, we have things
like<br>
people running any app in classic bring dessert, Tiger and Panther<br>
brings main dish, and Jaguar, Cheetah, or OS 9 bring side dish.
You<br>
get the idea.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#004FAF">6. Purchase of a Mac for
presentation purposes<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
I'm sure you can borrow one from a member. If all you are doing
is<br>
presenting, you don't need a super powerful Mac<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#004FAF">7. Mail and other office
expenses<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
Email is free and sustainable!<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#004FAF">8. There is a perception
that something free isn't worth much.<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
You need to create value, and value doesn't cost, it pays. if
you<br>
offer something someone wants...and free, all the better.
People<br>
realize that User Groups aren't about making money, but having fun
and<br>
learning. If your members aren't getting value for something
free,<br>
charging dues simply makes it less valuable.<br>
<br>
I have yet to hear a good, rational reason for dues expect
"We've<br>
always had them." This is 2008, not 1984...and it ties into
the<br>
discussion earlier about why Mugs are on the decline. The
generation<br>
of the iPod expects free music, free email, free software,
unlimited<br>
phone calls and text/SMS, and unlimited Internet. They never
knew a<br>
time where cell phone minutes were measured in dollars and not<br>
pennies. A time when you "dialed" into the Internet
and had constant<br>
busy signals.<br>
<br>
In 1984 we needed dues to supply Disks of the Month (then CD of
the<br>
month) and printed newsletters. We offered exclusive content<br>
inaccessible to others. Then we had to pay for our AppleLink and
then<br>
AOL accounts, expensive webshosting and domain names. Oh,
and<br>
probably a BBS so members to chat.<br>
<br>
Today, we simply won't attract new members by presenting them a
model<br>
that has no relevance to them. Information, as we know, seeks
the<br>
most open path. The model of computing is movings towards
openness<br>
and universality, not a "haves" and "have nots"
club. When they hear</font></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000">"Members Only",
they think of those cheesey jackets they see on VH-1<br>
Totally 80s. The concept of some "private" area on a
website violates<br>
their world view. Today, it's about open source and
Wikipedia.<br>
Ironic, that Apple constantly breaks the model in design, yet the<br>
basic model of the MUG hasn't changing since the Lisa. Do you
realize<br>
today's college students never lived in a world without a Mac?<br>
<br>
When Steve buried the classic OS in a coffin at WWDC, he did that
to<br>
show people that old habits die hard. Mugs need to adapt to
change<br>
and not force new groups into an outdated and restrictive model.<br>
Break the mold and break free of your plateau.</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000">You say you need dues, I
say Mugs can't afford to charge dues! There I said
it!</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000">Dave, all valid points but
as they say in the car world, Your Mileage May Vary, and each MUG's
circumstance may be different.<br>
<br>
I'm not going to go down the list but here is an example: we
have not for many years been able to find any place for free that has
seating for 50 to 75, provides internet access with a projector, let's
us schedule it every month a year in advance, and is open in the
evenings (for our members who work) and days *for our older members
who don't drive at night). If your group has found such a place, then
I envy you; we have to pay over $200 a month for the facilities.<br>
<br>
I can't imagine why anyone would sanction you or your group. As I said
in the response to Victoria, this has been a debate for many years. I
think that each group should do what is right for them and their
circumstances.<br>
<br>
Best,</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
The</font><font color="#004FAF"><u> PBMUG</u></font><font
color="#000000"> does charge an annual membership fee (dues) of $40.
When the club started a long time ago we charged $10 a year. We raised
it as the members approved doing more with our money.<br>
<br>
We charge this to defray costs of the club. We serve coffee and a
snack at meetings, mail notices of meetings, buy "door prizes"
for meetings, provide a monthly CD, pay for a 'thank you' dinner to
presenters after the meeting, pay for dues to national
&</font><font color="#004FAF"><u> regional computer user
associations</u></font><font color="#000000">, etc. Its not a lot, but
it adds up.<br>
<br>
Before we found a place to meet for free, the place we were meeting
charged $20 and hour for the room and $600 a year for a special 'slip
and fall' liability insurance for "outside groups." The
savings allowed us to use our treasury to purchase a new projector to
connect to the club's Mac-mini computer. Now we can meet anywhere.<br>
<br>
</font><font color="#004FAF"><u>Any sales training
program</u></font><font color="#000000"> recommends that its not just
the features of what you offer, but the benefits to these features
that motivates people to pay for them. Check out</font><font
color="#004FAF"><u> Apple's "Switcher" page</u></font><font
color="#000000"> for a great example of this. And see</font><font
color="#004FAF"><u> 10 Reasons To Join</u></font><font
color="#000000">, too.<br>
<br>
Features answer the "what it is," but Benefits answer the
"what's in it for you."<br>
For example, features of your club could be:<br>
- regular meetings, or<br>
- a monthly newsletter, or<br>
- member only Hardware and Software Discounts.<br>
<br>
And the Benefit is:<br>
- save money,<br>
- usefulness,<br>
- keeping up with the latest.<br>
<br>
The promotion could look like, "As a dues paying member of the
XXMUG there are serious cash consequences. All paid up members
get</font><font color="#004FAF"><u> special offers and exclusive
discounts</u></font><font color="#000000"> so you could save money on
what you want."<br>
<br>
We have found that the value added of paid membership more than
exceeds the nominal amount of the membership fee.<br>
<br>
Gary Kampel<br>
Apple Ambassador</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PBMUG.org</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000">I'd like to add a bit
about budgeting, if I may.<br>
<br>
First of all, I'd strongly recommend listening to the audio of the
Second User Groups 2.0 Virtual Conference, which can be found
here:<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica"
color="#004FAF"><u>http://www.mugcenter.com/category/user-groups-20/</u
></font><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
<br>
I can guarantee it will open your mind to many new ideas about how one
group handles money.<br>
<br>
To begin in terms of a budget, my suggestion is to run a MUG like a
business. Any business, whether it's a doctor's office, a restaurant,
a thrift store, a private music teacher, or Apple, Inc., will have a
reason for being. What is the reason your MUG exists? To get you
started along the path to an answer, you might want to ask yourself
why you belong to your MUG. The answer to that most fundamental
question, why does your MUG exist, will almost certainly make almost
all the other business and budget decisions fall into place. For
example...</font></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
If your MUG exists to create a warm sense of community (similar to a
book club), then you may not need any dues at all. You can meet at
someone's home, and have virtually the same people each meeting, and
have a great time at no expense. There's nothing wrong with that.<br>
<br>
Another option is to treat your MUG as an educational organization.
This will almost certainly require getting speakers, advertising,
getting space, and more. People will almost certainly want to leave
with something in their hand, and/or new ideas or ways to do things in
their mind. There may also be a sense of community, but there is a
very real sense of going beyond just the community aspect to outreach
and education. So your real bills will determine your real budget. One
huge difference between a community MUG and this type will be
advertising. Word of mouth is great, but it will only get you so far.
The whole question of whether you want to charge dues or an admission
price at each meeting or sell products or sell advertising or some
other system to get your money is up to you, but that's the other half
of the budget question. Once you know your expenses, then you can
figure out how much you need per month (or week, or year, etc) and
figure the best way to meet the expenses. But the bottom line really
IS the bottom line in a business, and so your customers/members had
better leave with something of value to them or they won't come back,
no matter how slick and cool your web site and newsletter and flyers
and advertising are.<br>
<br>
The third option is what is described in the Second User Groups 2.0
Virtual Conference, so I'll just leave that as a teaser :)<br>
<br>
So, in a nutshell, figure out why your MUG exists, (there are more
choices than just the ones I've listed, you'll have to open your mind
to what is really happening in your MUG) see if you even have any
expenses at all, and then do the math. Once you know the amounts, then
the big question is determining how to charge for those amounts. I'll
simply say that in Chicago, we have a membership of $40.00 per year,
and in my mind it's a fantastic deal. It beats the communities I can
find online, the info at the meetings is a lot more in depth than a
web page or any product review, I can know the people as real people
and not just as "MacUser5534" or some such anonymous
username, I can actually influence the development of products for the
Mac (and I really have from my MUG!), I have access to many of the
movers and shakers in the Mac world and I've actually met them myself
at our MUG, and I walk away having saved many times the $40.00 each
year on products I would have purchased anyway. I can't get any of
that anywhere else in Chicago, that's why I'm a member :)<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Russ Conte</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000">As it has been said
before... it depends upon your group. But I am writing to tell you
that I have been a UG member for decades. Our group has had high
membership with no money and now lower membership with higher dues. We
are a much happier group WITH money. I think that is true for everyone
in life. It is not fun to try to develop a program and always struggle
with money.<br>
<br>
We use our money to keep up on technology. We have, in the last six
years, begun to keep up with the technology changes in the hardware.
We just purchased a nice powerbook with Jaguar for our group. We have
a nice projector. We sell at auction to our members the older
equipment. We set minimum bids and take sealed bids. High bid gets it.
We review books and software, and members who do so present at
meetings and then can keep the reviewed item.<br>
<br>
We have two socials a year. Our picnic in the summer has been
out-of-doors and combines a digital photo contest with small prizes in
about four or five catagories: best close up; best animal; best
person; best action; etc. The food is wonderful and is pot luck with
drinks, plates, plasticware, cups, and paper products supplied by the
club.<br>
<br>
The second social is our holiday party. We usually allocate $200 for
"gifts". We have canned air, jewel cases, DVD's and CD's,
thumb drives, printing speciality papers, etc. That everyone gets to
choose one. We usually add a bit of "spice" to it by
allowing items to be "taken" and it becomes very lively.
Again the food is pot luck, all the accessories are provided by the
club, and we generally share our systems and have an open show and
tell. Fun for all while holiday music is supplied via
iTunes.</font></div>
<div><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"><br>
Now we don't get our treasury up and hopping with just dues. We have a
raffle. The idea came to us through a member of a fraternal
organization that used it for years. We have also been using it for
years and it really helps the coffers. Here's how it works. You need a
roll of double tickets. When members arrive they may purchase a ticket
for a dollar or 6/$5. At the break we draw. The winner is then given
the opportunity to reach inside a heavy money sack that has 12 white
poker chips and one red one. If they draw the white one they win $3.
If they draw the red chip they win the potý. The pot accumulates. We
have had it go twice all the way to the red chip being the only one
left. As each week passes the odds get better, the money gets higher
and the participation gets higher.<br>
ý The pot is half of all the money taken in, less the $3 paid out to
folks who don't get the red chip. So if it goes all the way, you'd pay
out 12 x $3 = $36. But the money that comes in more than pays for
that. The half that the UG keeps adds to our bank account each month.
It is fun and it helps us.<br>
<br>
We have a very active group of volunteers who help folks with their
systems and software. There is no charge, but donations for our group
are always welcomed. Often the recipient of our goodwill joins... at
least for the year. Then they feel good about the "free"
help and at least half stay longer than one year, which helps our
treasury, too.<br>
<br>
We take donations of older software and we sell it for low sums of
money, which also helps our group. So if you have older software,
books, etc. you may donate them; we sell them for $1-$20 depending on
what it is. That sits on a table and is available at break time for a
look.<br>
<br>
We also burn a "disk of the month". It has software on it
that is reviewed and saves the member the hassle of downloading. This
cd is $5. We haven't done any recently, as most of our members are now
using cable or high speed connections, but if your members still use
dial up it can be most helpful to them. We will actually take orders
and then burn that many.<br>
<br>
This is what our group is doing now. I have not been the best
Ambassador. I've had a difficult time logging in; finding out info,
etc. So I am moving on and our soon-to-be- ex president will return to
this job. I know I'd really enjoy it, but I am challenged to find the
info I need when I am looking. So now I am no longer looking and Peter
can take it over and figure out the classes and tests. I would have
liked that, but perhaps this is for the best for now.<br>
<br>
Ambassador Kathryn Whitacre for NW Apple Pickers in Tacoma,
WA</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Arial" color="#000000"><br>
I thought this might be a good place to guide your
consideration...<br>
<b>Starting a user group requires time, effort, leadership,
dedication, and vision. However, ask almost any user group leader, and
they'll tell you it's all worth it. Consider some of these reasons
to start a user group...<br>
</b>From "</font><font face="Arial" color="#004FAF"><u>Why Start
A Group</u></font><font face="Arial" color="#000000">"<br>
</font><font face="Arial"
color="#004FAF"><u>http://www.apple.com/usergroups/leaders/whystart/</u
></font><font face="Arial" color="#000000"><br>
<br>
Gary Kampel</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000"><b>Victoria L. Herring, Attorney
in Des Moines, Iowa</b> - Civil rights, Discrimination &
Employment Law, http://www.herringlaw.com. Ph. 515/255-4475;
iChat AV: victoriaherring@mac.com; Skype:
vlherring.</font></div>
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