proposed AERC fees change

[vanhove@unavco.ucar.edu (Teresa Van Hove)]

Some of the posts last month about membership fees, non-membership fees 
and offering jr discounts really got me thinking that if the best of 
these ideas were applied to the AERC membership fee structure they would 
really improve it. In fact I was inspired me to discuss some details with 
some like-minded folks off-line and the group came up with a what I think 
is a really good and fair fee structure plan. The following tables summarize 
our plan vs. the current fee structure system.

Current AERC Fees:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
                    Adults/Jrs           Restrictions            

Single membership  -   $65/$65                  None

                                       adults must be married or declare
Family membership add  $10/$10        "domestic partnership"  Jrs must be 
 per extra person                      dependent kids of an adult member

day-membership fees    $10/$10         None (non-membership ride fees) 

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Proposed Fees:      Adults/Jrs            Restrictions 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Single membership      $65/$50             None

                                       Group has one declared address 
group membership add   $25/$10         for AERC mailings. 1 EN, yearbook,
per extra person                       etc. per group. Group limited to 3
                                       adults

day-membership fees    $10/$5          None (non-membership ride fees)      

-----------------------------------------------------------

The basic reasoning for our plan is that we feel that administrative
costs should be borne equally by all adult AERC members and we think that 
$25 is a good estimate of these membership costs. The group all agreed 
with those of you who feel it is valuable to encourage youth to participate 
in endurance by offering discounts and we would like to see AERC adopt
the principle of Jr. discounts like the many great Ride Managers who
do this.  By charging AERC's true costs for all adult memberships it
will no longer be neccessary to restrict group memberships to narrowly
defined families.  Instead an AERC member who has an "almost" endurance
convert where they board their horses or whatever can offer to add 
the unsuspecting soul to their membership at the group rate. Most
likely AERC will soon have another member completely hooked on the 
sport :).  With a larger membership base and equitable distribution of
costs amongst all adult members, AERC may even be able to drop the single 
or "base" membership rate by $5 or so in a few years :). 


So if you agree with us that this is a good plan, or if you just want to
remove one recurrent topice from ridecamp -), contact your board members
and urge them to adopt the new fee structure when they meet at the
convention.  Contact info for the board members is printed at the front
of each EN.  I've also attached a list of email addresses for many of
the board members below.  I recommend that you include your region and
AERC # in any letters to the board so they can be sure that they are 
getting the views of their membership.

Sincerely,
Teresa Van Hove
Mt. Region AERC# M17417 


    AERC Office <aerc@foothill.net>,
    Barbara McCrary <bmccrary27@aol.com>,
    Brenda Baird <kbbaird@rev.net>,
    Jim Baldwin <baldwin@ionet.net>,
    Mike Tomlinson <CMikeT@aol.com>,
    Courtney Hart <equest@pacbell.net>,
    Crockett Dumas <otdumas@laplaza.org>,
    Dave Clinton <dave@HorsesDacor.com>,
    Dean Jackson <jackson@inconnect.com>,
    Dane Frazier <dfrazier@mail.llion.org>,
    Linda Van Ceylon <lindavaneq@juno.com>,
    Lousie Riedel <lriedel769@aol.com>,
    Maggie Price <mmsprice@mail.ptd.net>,
    Merryben Stover <Merryben@aol.com>,
    Ramey Peticolas-Stroud <ramey@wvi.com>,
    Randy Eiland <renegade12@juno.com>,
    Robert Morris <bobmorris@rmci.net>,
    Roger Blacock <carmen@hiwaay.net>,
    Stagg Newman <snewman@fcc.gov>,
    Steph Teeter <step@fsr.com>,
    Susan Kasemeyer <NdurN@aol.com>,
    Susan Schomburg <sschom@platte1.platte1.k12.wy.us>,
    Terry Wooley-Howe <Cancer@inetworld.net>,
    Terry Wooley-Howe <twhowe@inetworld.net>,
    Vonita Bowers <mikeita@txk.net>,
    Barny Flemming <ENDURANCEVET@WRITEME.COM>