COC Reboot

Some thoughts that I shared with a coordinator who asked "What's the big deal about paying a $15 membership fee?":

1) We are not proposing to return to the "ask for $2 at the start of an event" model.  That was always problematic, and it is even MORE problematic in a Covid world.  We want to retain the "suggested donation of $2/event to a max of $20/year" but we're going to collect donations differently (not the toonie at the event thing).  People will be encouraged twice a year to make a donation via e-transfer to Leonard based on the value they received in the previous season, or the value they anticipate receiving in the upcoming season.  We used to do this back in the day as well with our "Twenty-Smacker Parties".

2) When I started the COC, I didn't want to charge membership fees.  I had looked at many clubs and balked at joining them because they were all charging fees and I didn't know which one(s) I wanted to join.  It would have been a really expensive exercise to pay membership fees to each of them before I figured out which one(s) I actually would get some value out of.  Especially since most of them at the time were hiding their event lists so you didn't even know what you were going to get for your money.  When people are looking for a club they want to go through a period of "discovery" where they find out if that's the right club for them.  An up-front fee takes away that option.

3) Back when I was super involved with the club I heard over, and over (and over) again from people that:
    a) They joined the COC because it was free - they didn't want to pay the up-front fee of other clubs;
    b) They really appreciated our "pay as you go" model which allowed them to pay according to how much they attended.

4) Back in the day, the $2/event donation was generally applied only to certain events:  out-of-town events that didn't carry any additional fees.  Applying a yearly membership fee applies the same "solution" to different membership scenarios.  Now people have to pay regardless of their "attendance style".

5) The COC used to have very strong offerings of lots of event types that do not lend themselves to payment.  We had events that carried extra fees (i.e., court fees), and events that are easily accessible "just right over there".  Why would you pay to go on an urban hike with the COC when you can go on one for free with a Meetup?  Again, membership fees apply the same "solution" to different event preferences.

6) Not being able/willing to pay $15 doesn't have anything to do with how "into" the club you are.  People who could afford to make a donation were always more than happy to do so.  But, we often would get immigrants and students who appreciated the club SO MUCH because they were able to get out and join a community without having to pay for the opportunity.  They would often express that they felt bad that they couldn't afford to cough up the $2 when everyone else was and we always assured them that it was ok.  They could make a donation someday when they could better afford it. 

7) The COC is having a lot of its events siphoned off by Meetups right now, which are free to join.  Being free to join was our own "differentiator" back in the day when we had people leaving clubs like EVCC and the Ramblers to come over to us.  They preferred our model.  Now we're hemorrhaging members to other organizations that are offering a model that is more similar to how we used to operate when we were the ones "stealing" members.

 You hit the nail on the head with that reply Rhonda!  This line especially struck a chord with me..."I think you've expressed, very succinctly, the existential question for the COC, and perhaps expressed why it has not done so well over the past eleven years.  As we have moved further and further away from the concept of building community, and run the club as an "organization", we've lost the spirit of the COC that made it so strong in the earlier years."