David Said: > > the last three feed into the first. > > why should someone be a member? > > direct benifits to the member is one possible reason, but things like > discounts, etc are really not the best reason to get people to join. > > The 'community' is one benifit, but how much of a benifit is it? why should > someone pay to be part of the LOPSA 'community' instead of joining one of > the many other possible communities (SAGE, or one of the many free mailing > lists, or even some of the for-pay questions and answer websites?) > > David Lang >
Brad Said: > The biggest complaint I've heard so far is: > > What the hell am I getting for my money?!? > You guys don't actually do anything!!! > > So, waiting until your Stage 2 before we actually do anything is pretty much > guaranteed to result in us never being able to grow the organization by > enough that we can actually reach Stage 2. > > > We need to define some simple things and benefits that we can achieve now, or > in the near term, and which are of sufficient value to the membership that we > can then bring in more people who will pay a relatively small sum of money to > be members. That will allow us to grow the membership to the stage where we > can start going after more meaty targets. > > I should also add -- if we already do those simple things and provide those > basic benefits that actually make it worthwhile to spend the minimal amount > of money that a membership currently requires, then we need to do a better > job of making that information understood to our own members as well as to > prospective members. > > > Yes, there are some simple things and benefits that LOPSA provides today, but > nothing on the list really speaks out to me as being really worthwhile for me > personally. > > Since LOPSA was founded, and back before LOPSA existed, I was a member of > these communities not because of any hard measurable benefits that I could > point out to people, but more because of the people that it helped me connect > with -- and to help support the organizations in question to help meet their > potential in the future. > Oh boy, here we go... You both (David and Brad) make excellent points, what I think I can safely boil down into "No one is going to pay for an organization that doesn't do anything, so unless we do something to benefit them, people won't pay to join". I think I can agree with that sentiment. With the exception of community-minded people like ourselves, who pay to be members of a group that pays back what we expend for it only because of our own exertions, people can be generally expected to look after themselves, and keep their $50. As David said, discounts aren't enough. So, stepping back a bit, we see that there are cross purposes going on. On one hand, we have the need to obtain a larger membership, in order to get the pull that we want and need so badly. On the other hand, we have a $50 membership that, when coupled with the current benefits of membership, is actually a /disinclination/ to join the group. So, I've got to ask...what if you didn't have to pay to join LOPSA? Now, I know, we have a $50 membership fee because we have expenses. I'm down with that, and I'm not out to bankrupt the group, but suppose for a second, that LOPSA had a free tier. Only the pay tier would, of course, be allowed to vote and hold office, but the discounts could be discussed with each of the sponsors and things could be decided there. In the end, what is the per-member cost to LOPSA? Is it the mailing? Do we get T-shirts? I know there's a welcome pack. In other words, if we had 500 new people join LOPSA as free members each year, what would the cost realistically be (and how can we lower it for non-paying members?) I ask, because out of those 500 free members, we are going to get paid members, but even more importantly, our numbers are suddenly much more impressive. I've never heard anyone say the magic number is 1,000 /paying/ members, only that it's 1,000 members. It's possible that I'm misinformed. Again, for the record, I knew this was going to be an unpopular opinion. --Matt -- LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? COOKIE MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.lopsa.org https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
