Membership Dues Discussion

5/8/2019

Click on the Membership Dues Discussion link above to add your comments to this private message blog. We are discussing follow up conversations on the dues topic before the next board meeting:
Current Member Dues Structure:
- Two Adult Household with or w/o child(ren) $2470
- Single Parent Household with child(ren) $1845
- Couple (both under 35) with child(ren) $1845
- Couple (both under 35) w/o child(ren) $1235
- Couple (both over 65) with or w/o child(ren) $1235
- Single Adult (36 to 64) $1235
- Single Adult (over 65 or under 35) $615

8 Comments

Rick

5/10/2019 09:21:43 am

We should consider one ‘adult’ membership category, any and all children are always welcome, no special charges.

Jenny

5/13/2019 09:12:45 pm

For what it's worth, I spent some time looking at other synagogue's websites and most don't list their membership fees, they ask folks to call or email if they're interested in joining. However, GRS does and their dues are as follows:
Family Membership $3,200
Single Head of Household $2,200
Individual Membership $1,800
Part-time Resident Member $1,800
there are also other fees and expenses, such as a security fee, building maintenance fee, religious school, etc.

If what we need to consider what is important to us ... a fair dues structure, what we think reflects the value of membership (market rate) and how we develop a financial structure that can support our organization.

Since we already have a budget, we know where we need to be financially. If we are trying to cover our annual expenses via dues, maybe we could examine what that dues structure looks like with our existing members (and our 2 new families) and see where that lands.

If we, ok, Joel:), could set up a financial model that we could plug in a couple of different scenarios, maybe that would help us get started?

Joel Collamer

5/15/2019 12:01:40 pm

Some recommendations & thoughts to consider:
1. Streamline membership categories by eliminating all age group distinctions, over 65, under 35, over 35, etc. Reality - most of our members are either 65+, or close to it, religious school closed and we no longer offer much that attracts young families, which is why we had those categories.
2. I've identified 21 or 22 "families/individuals" who are I feel are likely to be Shir Ami members for 2019/20; Most are "retired", over 65, or very close.
3. We're unlikely to be financially sustainable if we continue offering a discount for those over 65, and the trend is that our member's average age is increasing with the departure of younger families with children (e.g. Meieris), so the number who will be paying full dues will continue to decrease if we continue with the current dues
structure.
4. Reality check - some current and projected 2019/20 members pay no dues at all, and some pay a reduced amount, and it's doubtful that will change as our membership shifts toward fixed retirement incomes. By my estimate, there are only about 14 families that pay the full dues amount of $2470.
5. Even if every family unit paid $2470 for 2019/20 we'd roughly break even with the current budget, but analysis shows this is unlikely.

Susan Nisinzweig

5/21/2019 10:49:41 pm

I shared some of this in emails but since we're trying to get the conversation onto this blog page, I'm going to mention these things again here. I do believe that we will have a number of families who join Shir Ami because of Jill - I've already heard that there are people who have implied that they will. Jill is admired by many and is a draw. How many more members would we need to get to improve our situation at the current dues structure? 10 more? 15 more?
Jenny mentioned the dues at GRS. I inquired about the dues at WRT which are $4500 bottom level, and then people pay higher levels to become benefactors (who get special privileges) Sounds like it would set up a kind of class system which I'm not interested in seeing happen at Shir Ami but maybe there is some way to set up some incentives to choose higher dues rates. My sister in law pretty much lives at WRT taking every class that is offered. She pays $6500 for her annual dues because she feels she gets so much.
I mention their dues because I feel that since our dues are so much less than WRT's there could be many former WRT members who wouldn't blink and eye about paying our dues.
We've created a precedent by charging much less for seniors and that can be hard to change. If they were only paying $600 per person I think they might be willing to pay $800 but not much more than that.

(I just thought of this idea - let me know what you think...)
How about offering something like this...
Standard Dues:
Household with 2 working adults - fee $1200 per adult (kids free)
Household with 1 working adult - fee $1000 per adult (kids free)
Household with retired adult(s) - fee $800 per adult
Or... If you are able to and would like to go beyond the Standard Dues structure to further support Shir Ami's programmatic growth this year, please consider being one of our Shir Ami Stars and sign up at one of these Star levels:
* $1500 per person
** $2000 per person
*** $2500 per person
(There may be some families who have no trouble paying $2500 per person and they do it because they can and because it is offered as an option).

Ray Marschall

5/22/2019 08:58:34 am

Recommendation: Leave kinds (types) of categories as they were
- Rationale:
a) there’s no downside to keeping items (eg HH with kids) even if no current members fit because we may get new members who do fit

Recommendation: Before making any changes to rates, please calculate revenue based on likely projected membership at the individual member level
- Rationale:
a) it’s basic budgeting (I suspect we all use this kind of logic on a personal basis)
b) if sets the ‘before’ part of the analysis to see the impact on individual members (eg if a member sees his/her/their rates go up we (cong and member) feel unintended consequences

Recommendation: AFTER doing the analysis consider increasing the age of ‘senior’ to 70
- Rationale
a) a possible revenue gap close if Cong would incur a significant reduction in revenue due to members having reached age 65 between the last time we charged dues and this Sept (by comparing what members would have paid if no change, aka ‘attaining 65 rate’)

Recommendation: place focus of rates more so on current Shir Ami membership vs on possible ‘new members’
- Rationale: is there a Hebrew expression for chasing rainbows?

Ronny Kaplan

5/25/2019 04:13:10 pm

I am a new member & was not told what dues were, since there were no dues paid this past year. I expected the dues to be substantial since it is a small congregation, and we have hired an experienced, accomplished Cantor to lead us. I do think increasing the dues for retired over 65 by 100% is asking a great deal. An increase of 50%, still rather large, but certainly more manageable. After one year, we can reassess and see how many new members there are. We do have a substantial cushion in case there is a shortfall.

Jenny Lake

6/9/2019 08:47:35 am

Good morning friends. A few days ago I asked David Green if he had information about alternative dues structures - he had mentioned a "pay what you can" model at the dues discussion during the annual meeting. He generously forwarded a number of references to explore and I would like to share one that I found particularly interesting -
https://www.ujafedny.org/api/assets/787029/
It speaks not only to dues structure, but also to matching that structure to the organization.

jenny lake

6/9/2019 10:59:20 am

Just a followup - you'll need to copy and paste the link into your browser - j

Membership Dues Discussion

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