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Re: [RC] Cost to riders/AERC fees/the BoD - rides2far: 1.) the AERC has not raised membership fees in a decade I remember when they raised them that time. They raised them almost 50%! I think it went from $45 to $65. A jump like that ought to last awhile when inflation has been so in control that few things are going up much. 2.) Rider fees have not gone up in many years- that is the fee that ride managers pay to the AERC per rider for record keeping, office support, EN, and ride INSURANCE among other things. The insurance is a BIG DEAL, I remember it was an awfully big deal when discussed at the Central Region Convention that year. Our riding club already had insurance and didn't need it. In the Southeast SERA provided insurance. Was that unusual or was there really a nationwide call for it at that time. Wasn't it somewhat regional? I recently attended my second BoD meeting as a Director at Large. I took four days (Friday morning to Monday afternoon) out of my life when I could have been working or riding. I understand that. What I don't understand is why ideas are never bounced off the membership *before* the decisions are made instead of made, then announced to the membership. One of my hesitancies about running for the board would be that I would want to ask on-line for people's opinions and if I did I would be strung up for talking about confidential matters in public. How can a person represent their region if they aren't allowed to ask their opinion on matters? If I represented the SE, I would sometimes struggle between representing *my* opinions and the opinions of my region as a whole which might not be the same...but I would want to be honest and do my best to represent. How can they do that if they can't "betray the confidence of the board's correspondence?" Rumor is that there will be a financial allowance for board members to cover their travels in the future. I will say that I am all *for* that expenditure since it will allow members who aren't quite so financially comfortable to run for the board. I could see myself trying it *someday* but think I should get my 2nd child graduated first. So, let's just say I'm here after the fact stating my opinion since nobody asked before the fact. I don't believe that raising fees simply because we haven't raised them lately is a decent reason to raise them. Heck, microwaves, televisions, movie cameras and stereos have gone down in price during that time span. Using the same logic, why don't we drop rates? I don't understand how Bob can say we only give grants when we have too much money, then we give a bunch of grants and suddenly have not enough money and need to raise fees. That's a weird deal. When you have "too much money" (isn't that impossible...like too much fun?) isn't the idea to spend some of it, then stop before there's "not enough?" Angie =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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