Discussion about membership dues specifics:

Since we have very little historical data to look at (membership dues, how much is visitor vs general membership, where visitor pilots are from – locals or out of towners, etc), this first year on the new website is going to require experimentation on finding the right balance of membership dues and terms. With our new method of record keeping (all memberships paid for and tracked on the website), we will be able to look at all of this in detail as the year progresses.

For now, we felt that the optimal mix that would impact revenues the least (since change is required) is the following:

• General memberships – $100 for one year (from date of purchase); to encourage on-time payment and so we can do away with the complicated proration method, introduce a $25 signup fee for brand new members (this sign up fee is only paid once – as long as you pay on time every year after that, it is waived); all current members will, of course, not have to pay the sign up fee
• Associate memberships – $50 for one year (from date of purchase) – same signup fee idea as above, but obviously less
• Limited membership – $25 for one month (this is the new “day use”)

Also, since all of this will now be fully automated (including buying/tracking storage container slots), all dues are now good for the term stated (one year for general memberships and storage, one month for limited, etc) at the time of purchase – this greatly simplifies the proration issue and also makes it much clearer to everyone exactly when your membership is up (since you can see the exact date on your “My Account” page once you buy your subscription).