Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In a message dated 7/30/02 1:33:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time, roland@dnai.com writes: > Perhaps for each new member that joins at a discount, an older member gets > a senior discount if they renew for full price the second year. No good deed ever goes unpunished. Roland, don't get greedy. :-) The LHSA idea was to invite LUGGERS to join a group we believe LUGGERS will enjoy and to offer a small extra benefit to make it even more attractive than the mere annual meeting. Clearly there are LUGGERS who ridicule the idea. That's fine. For all the rest who can get to Portland and wish to, there's Mastercard, er, I mean we hope many of you will come share in the fun and companionship. Will it be better or worse than a PLUG, BLUG, KLUG, SLUG or other LUG gathering? I don't know. I've never been to a LUG gathering and to only one LHSA annual meeting. I almost made ther NY LUG meeting but couldn't get to NYC. I guarantee you one thing, for ANY serious photographer, professional or not, the Portland meeting will be informative, engaging, fun and uyou will meet folks you will simply enjoy being with. > Perhaps we should sell life memberships. That has been considered by the Board. And I can tell you that I have seen life memberships come and go in several other member organizations. The problem is the annual cost of servicing each member. With quarterly publications constituting the major part of the budget, even with volunteers doing the writing, photography, editing and adminsitration, the printing and mailing costs per issue per member are significant. And they may be five times higher not too many years later. There is no way to predict. Except that you know costs are not going to decline. In 1978 I bought the Ferrari I still own. It was then regarded as just an old sports car, not an international icon, which was how I could afford it at the time. The dealer asked do I want to join the Ferrari Club of America, annual membership $25.; life membership $300. I said to myself, I hope I'll own this car as long as I can drive; and to him, I'll take a life membership. Like LHSA, the Ferrari Club has a beautifully produced quarterly magazine and a quarterly newsletter rather than our Catalog. Out-of-pocket cost per member is probably analagous to LHSA, I don't remember the actual cost of either but I think it is not less than $30. a year. Current Ferrari Club annual membership dues are $100. and life membership was discontinued almost 20 years ago. This is my last message on the LHSA Portland meeting. I hope to see many new faces at this meeting. For those of you who need to pick apart each nit and think your derision clever, peace. Seth LaK 9 - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html