36 | | The new membership payment policy has been the other major undertaking. We set a new deadline for member dues payments at 90 days. Jamie has created an alert system to track the deadlines and he created a payment plan option so that groups can spread out the payments. We are also offering dues reductions or scholarships for groups unable to pay. The new policy went into effect August 22nd. We are just now starting to reach the first deadlines. I have been doing a lot of targeted outreach to groups with delinquent payment records to settle their past due amounts. We've been able to identify a number of defunct members. Others have been responding to the notices with payments; some with criticism. I think as a first run we are going to discover a variety of problems, bugs, issues and opportunities to refine the process - but there is a lot of potential to alter our language, the alerts, etc. The main goal is to better connect with members, open new lines of communication which will help us better serve the membership, and ensure greater accountability of members to the shared infrastructure. |
| 36 | The new membership payment policy has been the other major undertaking. We set a new deadline for member dues payments at 90 days. Jamie has created an alert system to track the deadlines and he created a payment plan option so that groups can spread out the payments. We are also offering dues reductions or scholarships for groups unable to pay. The new policy went into effect August 22nd. I have been doing a lot of targeted outreach to groups with delinquent payment records to settle their past due amounts and to alert the full membership of the change. We are just now starting to reach the first deadlines. We've been able to identify a number of defunct members which represent an easy fix. Some groups/individual have been responding to the notices by making payments; others by offering criticism. I think as a first run we are going to discover a variety of problems, bugs, issues and opportunities to refine the process. There is a lot of potential to alter our language, the alerts, etc. But this process raising key issues that should be a point of discussion for the Leadership Committee. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | MF/PL is not a commercial provider. But the idea of suspending groups for lack of payment can be viewed as the action of a profit oriented corporation. What we have tried to stress in communication with members is that the dues they are paying supports a membership model based on shared resources. In essence, members are accountable, not to a corporate entity, but to the entire membership as a whole. And like most memberships, when the terms of membership are not met on either side, that membership expires, as do the benefits of that membership which in our case include web, email, database hosting. But this raises important questions about what it means to be a member, whether or not current members share our understanding, if our current outreach tactics are effectively communicating with members and how we can use this opportunity to build and connect an active and engaged membership. |