Last night the National Council discussed what we would charge for annual membership fees. With the new membership database system we will be able to charge annual fees, which will put us on much firmer financial footing going forward.
After much debate, we settled on keeping membership pay what you want for the time being, with a suggested amount of $50. This is the same set-up as we have in place for new members.
However, we also thought it would be a good idea to put this proposal to members for feed-back.
We also considered a compulsory fee of $20 a year with $10 concession or setting the suggested pay what you want figure at $20. Any ideas are welcome.
$20 is a very modest amount, and i doubt anyone who was considering joining (or current members) would take that costs into consideration.
$50 is a more significant amount, and i guess it might make some people consider the cost, but joining a political party isnt something people do on a whim, so i still dont think it would prevent people joining.
Perhaps higher membership fees might mean people are less generous when there are special fund-raisers, not sure.
I have only a vague understanding of the financial issues faced by PPAU. What attracted me to the party was the honest appraisal and understanding of current social and political issues, with considered policy to address those issues now and into the future. A party for those on welfare and the working poor. A party for the 99%.
I think a zero dollar membership option should remain available indefinitely because: it seems a large chunk of the 99% could find paying $50, even $20, a burden. I have. Indeed I see the zero option as a significant “selling point” for PPAU. The only Australian political party that doesn’t demand money to be a member (are there any others?). I expect PPAU members would vote PPAU if they can and if membership rises then it’s reasonable to expect PPAU votes would increase. A good thing, yes?
So, a $50 suggested membership works for me, with a zero option.
Agreed. Being able to enter $0 matches our ideals of social inclusion, plus I’m sure that plenty of members will pay above $50 to support the party if they have the ability to do so.
Well obviously the right answer is Tiered membership and DLC packs.
The different levels of membership of course dont effect what you can actually do in the party… but do effect how cool you look.
Have you put much thought into creating sponsorship packs as well? The more you can commoditise it, the easier it is to sell - people giving away money are usually busy and don’t want to have to think too much or talk to people too much.
I’m a bit wary of tiered membership if that means people are publicly recognised as having contributed different amounts of money. But if you mean something like “pay more and we’ll send you some cool shit”, then I’m all for it OTOH if that adds too much complexity then a simple PWYW with $50 default and $0 as a valid option seems fine to me.
option to override to $0 is very important to the ideals of the party.
Ties in with the namesake that “pirates” want everything for free.
Someone who deliberately choose to pay $0 is unlikely to pay more if they were forced to.
Helps with numbers of showing how many supporters we have, let alone minimums required if there was an audit, there are a lot of backups
$0 Members could be lost by non renewal
There are other opportunities to fundraise during the course of membership
For example in my case, I did a $0 membership because finances were tight and I wanted to knew the party a bit better before making a financial commitment. I then donated $75 via. Pozible and will get a bit of swag out of it too.
I am not against tiered membership either to identify who are financially supportive and who are going along the ride because it’s free.
+1 for Bitcoin too… And for God Sakes DOGECOIN too. Seriously the Dogecoin community is amazing and I think that an Australian guy started it. We probably have many synergies with members of the Dogecoin community and those guys jump at anything that supports Dogecoins
Eg:
$0-24.99 - Basic member
$25+ - Full member
Suggested amounts:
$25 - Concession (self declared - if you think you deserve it)
$50 - Full Price
Bonus:
$75 or more - Pirate Party booty of swag (T-shirt, badge, some stickers. I wouldn’t mind a Polo Top actually which is more “Professional” to wear to work to raise awareness there, if this can be arranged)
(Helps get a head start on getting some marketing materials and awareness/free advertising on the ground)
OTOH if that adds too much complexity then a simple PWYW with $50 default and $0 as a valid option seems fine to me.