Here are several tasks that should be done at the beginning of a new board's term in addition to those embedded in the transition meeting template.
| Task | Done by |
|---|---|
| Create folder for the new term in Board Documents by Year | TBD |
| Create folder for the new term in Financial Reports | Treasurer |
| Create folder for the new term in Membership | Membership Coordinator |
| Create a new copy of and update the timeline for the new term | Compliance Officer |
| Create a new copy of and update Who What Where | TBD |
| Create a new Topics for Discussion document | President |
| Task |
|---|
| These are done by the webmaster. Someone, ideally the communication coordinator, needs to communicate the changes. |
| 1. Update board members and officers on the About HATDS page. |
| 2. Update forwarding for board@hatds.org, compliance@hatds.org, and any other email forwarders that need to be changed. |
| Task | Done by |
|---|---|
| Notify the current dance hall owners/managers if a new contact with them has been chosen. CC: board@hatds.org and new contact person on that email. | The previous contact person |
Membership Decisions Needed ASAP
Memberships are not taken during July in order to prepare for the annual membership drive that begins August 1 and to avoid someone paying for only one month of membership.
For the current membership policy, reasons to encourage people to join HATDS, and the current dues structure, see the membership landing page on the public site.
If there are going to be any changes that affect the annual drive (dues amounts, how members join, incentives for early renewal, etc), those decisions must be made and communicated to the appropriate volunteers (membership coordinator, webmaster, listmaster) no later than July 1, preferably earlier.
It is strongly recommended that no changes be made without a thorough discussion of the financial consequences and the work involved in implementing any change.
Historically (pre-Covid and pre-Dauntless), the membership drive went through the HATDS Birthday contra—the first contra dance in September.
For several years, HATDS boards offered one free dance certificate for every member who renewed on or before the birthday dance. The certificates were discontinued with the move to Dauntless. They can be reinstated by any board, but please read Free Dance Certificates below before doing so.
If the current board desires to offer an incentive for early renewal, an early renewal discount is easier to implement than free dance certificates, can be programmed into the online membership system, and will cost less in lost income. Tap Offer Discounts? below for details.
Is an early renewal incentive necessary or worth the cost?
- A parsing of the 2023-24 membership records show that half of the total membership joined during August and brought in 47% of membership income to date (April 2024). There was no early renewal incentive other than "Don't wait until you're at the dance!".
- Treasurer John Bloom once estimated that free dance certificates cost us $300 a year.
- A 10% August-only discount in 2023 would have cost us about $50.
Since half of all memberships for the full year come in during August—without any special incentives at all—and monetary incentives have a poor or even negative ROI, early renewal incentives of any kind seem unnecessary.
The main reason that more people don't renew early (or at all) seems to be that they are unaware that their membership has lapsed. This is almost always their own fault IF a board uses all HATDS publicity tools effectively (announcements at dances, emails, social media, text messages, website).
When someone who has not renewed their membership by September 1 arrives at the contra dance and is asked to pay the non-member price, they have two choices:
- Pay the non-member price and join online later.
- Step aside and join on their phone, show the confirmation page or email to the door manager, and then pay the member price.
Free Dance Certificates
Advantages:
- Encouraged early renewal when offered during the membership drive.
- Could be gifted to and used by a non-member.
- Could be used at both contra and ECD.
Disadvantages:
- Income decreases at dances where certificates were used but expenses, including cash payments to the talent, do not decrease.
- Lowers the effective income from dues. With the current (2024) dues and dance admission amounts,
- an individual $20 membership or a $30 household membership becomes a $10 membership.
- an individual senior or student $10 membership becomes a free membership.
- a $15 senior household membership becomes a -$5 membership.
- Printing, individualizing, and mailing dozens of certificates costs money and volunteer time.
- Certificates have to be created, printed, and snail-mailed.
- Each certificate needs to be individualized somehow so that it can't be photocopied and used repeatedly.
- Adds complexity to the financial accounting for each dance.
In the past many certificates were never used, suggesting that they weren't as much of an incentive as thought.
It is certainly possible to reinstate free dance certificates, but people who have dealt with them in the past and/or whose jobs would be affected should be consulted first (membership coordinator, treasurer, usual door managers, web developer) to get a fuller picture of what's involved.
Early Renewal Discounts
Since membership renewal has moved totally online, implementing a membership discount as an early renewal incentive is relatively easy. For example, a discount of 5% or 10% could be offered during August.
Although it would be possible to extend the discount to the first English or contra dance in September, doing so is strongly discouraged as those dates change each year. Coding early renewal for just the month of August is a one time change. Plus, after the start of the membership year on September 1, any renewal after that date is not really early
.
Prorate Dues?
Online membership registration also makes it easy to prorate dues instead of having a single 50% drop in dues on March 1 as we've done for years. Prorating dues will certainly cost us more in lost dues income than the current system yet might be perceived to be more fair.
A decision to prorate should not be made lightly, with several schemes carefully examined.
Proration has been proposed a few times in the past and has been rejected by every board.