How does your club handle transient members?

On Nov 15, 6:56*am, SF wrote:
Our club has a small number of transient members that own their own
gliders and only fly with us a few months of the year. *It is rather
punitive to make them pay the full club dues every month in order to
offer tows for the month or two that they are in town. *Does anyone
have a club membership category and billing scheme that is fair to
both the club and the transient members in instances like this?

SF

On Nov 15, 6:56 am, SF wrote:
Our club has a small number of transient members that own their own
gliders and only fly with us a few months of the year. It is rather
punitive to make them pay the full club dues every month in order to
offer tows for the month or two that they are in town. Does anyone
have a club membership category and billing scheme that is fair to
both the club and the transient members in instances like this?

SF

Type of question we'd like to tackle at the SSA Conference in
Philadelphia on the Club Track. Round tables on club/chapter
operations Friday 1:30-3:30pm, club/chapter management Saturday
1:30-3:30pm.

Without getting into all of the cosmic scenarios, it depends on your
corporate form, business model, insurance plan, and the IRS, who may
frown upon differential dues among categories of memberships.

In the particular case of your chapter, among your stated (elsewhere)
reasons for being a membership organization are the group insurance
requirements. What you aren't saying is whether these transient
members will be offered use of chapter equipment and if they are
private owners who really want tows. Are you going to provide tows to
one who may not fit local currency requirements? Consistency of rules
counts across all membership levels. I don't recall cheap flying for
transient members as being one of the stated purposes for your
organization. What you need to do is sell this type of member on the
idea of sustaining support of your stated corporate purposes that
earned your chapter the 501c(3) tax determination. The determination
does not give you the opportunity, but may prohibit your chapter, from
providing competing services to the public with a local commercial
operator. We may quibble about whether Bermuda High is local, as it
appears to be about 107 road miles away.

Why would you state the dues punitive? Are these 'transient members'
likely to go to Bermuda High if they don't get a cheap membership? If
so, then they are not 'stakeholders' in your organizational interest.

Another poster mentions Associate members. Probably doable if they
live outside of a minimum radius (pick a number, 150, 250, 350 miles)
and pay a sustaining dues year round and full dues when active with
the club. That mutes any indication that the chapter is entertaining
'temporary' memberships, frowned upon by the underwriters if under the
SSA Group Plan.

In looking at the membership levels for your chapter, I see tow pilots
get $5/tow credits against tows. So a tow pilot might earn 2-4 free
tows/day. There's nothing wrong with contracting services from
members (now a vendor) in a 501c(3), as long as the tow pilots were
not involved in the decision making process other than as an offer or
a proposal. Any tow pilots, including board members, should have been
recused from the board discussion and action. One very large chapter
uses teams to facilitate and manage daily operations. Chapter members
actively participating on the teams are waived the hook-up charges on
aero tows, $10 in this case. This is a discount method, and non-
accumulating. Which method better avoids the appearance of 'private
inurement'? Which method better mutes the question of
'compensation'? If Joe Towpilot provides an average of 16 tows per
day and tows 20 days per year, are you cutting a 1099? If not, why
not?

You have to walk the talk,

Frank Whiteley
Chair, SSA Clubs & Chapters Committee
970-330-2050