Discussion about allowing the board to adjust membership dues:

The current bylaws, as they stand now, require the following in regards to dues/memberships:

• Dues be paid on a specific day every year (June 1)
• Dues have a proration schedule if they are paid at a different time than the normal membership time
• Changes in dues are allowed only by an in-person general member vote
• Amendments must be sent out to members 30 days prior to a meeting

Since 30 days are needed to allow everyone time to vote on important issues, this means that any change to bylaws or dues requires 60 days to pass. Online tools (this discussion forum, election/voting tools, etc) are already in use to help us all facilitate discussion and voting, so there is little reason why we can’t be a bit more agile.

There are many reasons why the board is suggesting to be allowed to adjust rates. Here are a few:

• The specific issue that we encountered this year (RRRG demanded a change to how we charge visiting pilots which required quick action; we could not address this demand in a timely fashion without changes to the bylaws since the term of that membership type was specifically defined)
• Ability to “dial in” on the best combinations of fees and terms for all pilots; as the board conducts reviews of club finances on a regular basis, we may discover from accounting data that adjustments are needed to address things such as increased club expenditures, lower visiting pilot revenues (possibly because prices are seen as being too high, COVID-19, increase in out-of-town vs local SoCal pilots paying the visitor fee, encouraging local pilots to sign up for the annual membership instead of the visiting, etc)
• Promotions/attracting visiting pilots – if the board wants to run, let’s say, a week promotion with a reduced visitor fee to attract visiting pilots, that would currently require a bylaw change
• Board members pay membership fees too (no free lunches) – we have no incentive to raising rates for anyone (member or visitor) other than to ensure the club (which is barely breaking even) stays afloat

Yep – all good! Definitely worse ways I could have spent a Sunday. Every launch is good practice.

Saga continues – after a great day of flying yesterday, a spectator in the LZ had their dog off-leash and as I was folding up, I looked over and the dog was sitting on my wing. Owner didn’t seem too concerned about it, and I was lucky this time that I didn’t have new holes.