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2008 Annual Dues Will be $30

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:46 am
by echan
Our annual dues are now $30 a year.

As in the past, your membership can be renewed at the any of our events. Also, if your membership lapses, we will still allow you to renew at the next event you attend, with the 12 months starting at the renewal date (not the date that the membership expired). For example, if your membership expired on September 2007 and you renew your membership in November 2007, your next membership expiration date is November 2008.

Re: 2008 Annual Dues Will be $30

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:43 am
by kyle.bowker
I'm continually thinking of ways to improve the CDC membership experience. One idea was to integrate the functionality of the website to allow members to "log in" to their account just as they do now for the discussion forum (using the same userID and password, no less) so they can manage their event registrations, see when their membership dues are set to expire, etc. I haven't quite figured out all the potential benefits or the best way to do this yet but I'm working on it. I think this might benefit the organizers, too, if we had a system that automatically sent e-mail reminders to club members when their dues payment is needed and automatically notified the organizer that handles registration to collect dues at the next event.

At any rate, I believe $30 is still reasonable and I think it's a great privilege to be a CDC member. I'll update the website FAQ to reflect all the changes effective for 2008.

Re: 2008 Annual Dues Will be $30

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:08 am
by DaveL20
Have you thought about allowing people to prepay for their events?

When we register for the event we have to prepay. I think this would cut out alot of no shows, ect.

I know a lot of events make you do this and give you a window of time to cancel, ect before the event for a refund.

That way we could pay our membership fees and event fees then just show up, tech, sign in and get our timing sheets.

Might cut down on some of the work for you guys on the front end of an event.

Re: 2008 Annual Dues Will be $30

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:13 am
by BugBomb
You could start a CDC paypal account to collect money for preregistrations. You could even allow people to pay their annual membership fee online.

Re: 2008 Annual Dues Will be $30

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:23 am
by FredK
I'm all for prepaying for events. You would still make a little when it rains, and we wouldn't have the Manassas type problems. The way it is now you can jump on, and show up if you feel like it, or not. Myautoevents.com works well for many events I do.
FredK

Re: 2008 Annual Dues Will be $30

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:18 am
by echan
DaveL20 wrote:Have you thought about allowing people to prepay for their events?

When we register for the event we have to prepay. I think this would cut out alot of no shows, ect.
I think, in theory, you're right about pre-payments helping us with the no-shows. However, these some definate cons.

1. People complain that they aren't getting a refund for not showing. Heck, I've had a person demand a refund because he had to leave early (after he ran his 3 morning runs).

2. People stating that they signed up and paid, but we don't have a record of them. This situation has happened numerous times with just the reservations. I know that some of the time participants don't hit "confirm" to complete the reservation, some of the times we had a computer glitch, and many times the participant is just trying to get a slot after they forgot to reserve a slot. I try to give the benefit of the doubt on reservations, but would have a more difficult time when the agruement is about pre-payments. In short, if the person gives us the payment in person, right there at the event, there's no question on payment. We've also have a similar problem with membership, which led to renewing in person only.

3. People cancelling the credit card payment for "services not rendered".

4. Paying any associated fees with the credit card company or PayPal.

5. Making the participants commit to something with a penalty for not showing. I know may of the participants like the flexability to no show up without losing an entry fee. Is it fair?? Sometimes the reason seems very reasonable, other times the reason may just be an excuse. We've taken the approach that we should keep the customer happy and honor all cancellations.

I know that prepayments on events and membership can generate more revenue for the club. However, I fear that the prepayments may lead to a less friendly atmosphere in the club, that "we don't trust the participants", "you must fill out these payment forms", "you will not get a refund", "you must renew your membership before it expires (even if you aren't active for 6 months)." Autocross is relatively cheap ($25 for members) and the club can afford payments on site.

Track days is another story, where the costs are several thousand. As a result we have to have these events pre-paid.

Ed