MEMBERS DONATION's

SON240sx Automotive SON240sx Off Topic
1

there are alot of people who are very active on this board and have access to the members section who have not made the donation for 2004.

now of course we havent had a big meet yet, but my question is this:

who here is actually going to support the board and contribute to next years hosting, domain name?? And this coming year’s Signal booth, as well as other club related events???

on the flip side:

who here is going to give flack and say “WHY SHOULD I”

as active members you should be leading by example

that is why

as the individuals who contribute and receive the greatest benefit from the boards you should make an effort to strengthen the club

that is another reason why.

the frills and what not that are actively being pursued should be used to garner support for and from non-members…

all the regulars should do so out of respect…

this is not to get on anyone’s back, and maybe it is too early. but i have alreayd heard these excuses from a couple people (no names) and i would like to know before a meeting next week what kind of support we can expect financially to pre-book certain events.

thus far:

black apple
Gonad
Shift_sideways
AnDrEw (aka idiot box)
bing

are the only donations.

paid from this total were the stickers ($60) and domain name ($15 i think)

the account sits at $110.

this is public knowledge, so there you have it.

2

I thought our hosting fees and domain names have been covered for next few years. So what else will our money go towards?

3

Lap dances? :shock:

I think it’s best to work on gettin sponsors or special discounts to various
shops for club members, if we want to put this $35 to any good use.

4

Oh and another thing, donations could be X amount of money. $35 is a membership fee.

How did you guys get to a figure of $35 exactly?

How do we keep track of who has paid? What if some next guy goes to CP racing or whoever and says he is part of the SON crew?

Is it a one time fee?

Aside from a small number of dicounted shops, what are the other perks? As it stands, i have no need for Pasmag, CP racing, or whatever else has been advertised here.

Do we have an online chart of who has paid, how much they paid, what the money goes towards, etc etc?

Keep in mind that most car based forums are free to surf and post, and the only restriction is maybe a small Member’s only section and/or Group Buys sections.

Donations are welcome, but fees are not demanded in most cases. We need a sponsor who will pay for our hosting bills.

5

Come on,

From what I understand:

$35 is membership fee per year,
we get 2 stickers that normaly sell for 8 bucks each
membership card
Members Chat access
Discounts on shops (still pending I guess)
Supporting our club

What happens when we want to have a club event like signal, and there is no money to make the banner? Comes out of someones pocket does it not?

Lets build up a fair amount of money for club activities, so we can start having club activities.

Wut if we wanna have a BBQ at a track day? Free to paying members, and charge to none paying members.
List can go on.
To have club activities we need money.

I propose a bank account is started, and someone keeps books on money going in and out (Bing).

Furthermore, I think we should have a club election/finger point to deside who all is going to call the shots. Who will maintain website (Dre), who’s prez (andrew), who will be accountant (Bing), etc etc.

That way we are organized.

My $0.02.

6

Bing there are 4 more payments which I have sitting in my account…

  • iQuABoB - my own
  • Farmer
  • 240SX Boy
  • DNash

I’d like to thank DNash who paid $90 - a $35 membership fee, and a $50
donation to the club. This is the kind of support we need if we want to turn
this club into something good.

We are still trying to finalize the perks of membership, so we can give you
guys the most for your money. The $35 is what all the admin has agreed
on. With this kind of fee, we will be able to get better webhosting for next
time :roll: , and have the booths for SON events paid for, rather than
people like bing and dre reaching into their pockets and ending up paying
for things that were done for the club.

The donations for last year of a recommended $20 were enough to pay
for basic hosting, but didn’t allow us any surplus for things like stickers
and setting up the SON booth at signal. With the increased membership
fees, we can guarantee things like our booths, and have enough to make
deposits for things such as track days. We need to do stuff like this, not
only for our own fun, but to attract new members, since there are plenty
of people with 240s which don’t know about our club yet.

Last but not least, the $35 separates you the members into a different
class. $35 is not a lot relative to the costs of living in this country, but
for the people who have and will pay, it shows a level of commitment to
the club, and that you are serious about SON and see the value of joining
a community full of resources for your car.

If you think $35 is too much, consider the support alone from your peers.

I realize everyone is busy with school, and during the winter months you
guys aren’t so involved with your cars. We will be setting up meets in the
spring so that we can all have a good time, and pay our dues. Just keep
this in mind, and start saving your change… you will have $35 in no time.

7

just so you guys know…

Dre paid out of his pocket for the banner for signal, and out of his pocket for the shirts, and relied on the sale of the shirts to reimburse himself.

i paid out of pocket for the stickers for SON and NEO, and the recent domain name registration for 1 single year.

luckily in the last case there was a balance to reimburse me…

so is that fair?

hasnt Phil paid out of pocket in the past years as well???

who really cares what the perks are…

share the burden of the costs that arise, and with a balance remainign we can put deposit on event registrations instead of myself, dre or phil putting out of pocket or having to hound after people…

THAT is WHY…

certain people should not be asking, “what is in it for me?”

you are here, that’s what’s in it for you.

8

what if the forum lost hosting, and the club was not able to participate in any events and you could no longer associate yourself with SON240sx?

all intangibles

all still worth your support.

9

Once again, there are a tonne of forums out there that don’t implement membership fees. Many are a wealth of resource, so i have to ask you again why SON?

Jesse brings up good points. Some of us who are dedicated already have stickers, and can’t justify paying $35 for being granted access to this small section.

Making deposits on track days is a good idea, and i hope the paying members get a discount on those days. It wouldn’t make sense to be paying for the deposit and on top of that paying full price.

The argument that everyone else who is dedicated is paying $35 is a weak one. If they jumped off a bridge…

I’m all about supporting SON, but you need to realize that a site this big with many members can’t only rely on self sufficiency. How about we do what other forums do and have the advertisers pay towards the hosting fees, domain name and what not. Go ask PDM, CP racing, Jspec, Mach1, Shannonville Raceway even. If you even get a Nissan dealership to advertise for us, odds are they will cover the BBQ at track days/meets.

We are just playing the Devil’s Advocates. I might as well bust your chops before you post this in the open forums.

10

I really don’t mind the $35, i just didn’t buy coffee that week.

But if everyone is against this, why not have a donate button thats rigged to paypal, say $5, 10, 15, and full membership. I’ve seen this on a few sites and i think it works well. If it’s money we’re so concerend about, i think that the math will prove that more money will come in if the donation is 5 or 10 than $35. It’s more likely that say 300 members will pay 5 or 10 than 100 pay 35

11

I really like Bob’s idea of doing some sort of fundraising, thats definately
an idea we should pursue in the summer.

We are not so much trying to meet a certain bill and pay the bare
minimum. We are trying to build up some capital that we can use to put
deposits down for events, or do any sort of club related stuff.

If you don’t see the value here, and you need a bunch of tangible rewards
for your $35, be patient, we are working on that.

12

fundraising is a great idea…

doesnt krispy kreme have something like that??

why would a nissan dealership sponsor us?

the only justification would be because they are sure the exposure would generate additional revenue, which it would most certainly not from SON.

advertising and promotion budgets for establishments like these are accounted for before the fiscal year begins.

it is unlikely that they have a sum of money set aside that goes to whom ever asks first for a donation. and even if they did, it could be tricky writing off a donation to a club like ours. it would be better spent with the United Way.

i am not ruling it out. Marc, pursue your local nissan dealership.

andrew… that is great about the other donations… we will have to combine them when i see you next.

13

Sorry, i’m just about to rush out to work. But i’d like you to see the GTAsentra board. They have a few sponsors, including Scarborough Nissan.

http://www.gtasentra.net/main.html

Not the best looking site, but they seem content and organized.

14

The fee is high this year, because this is the first year we are attempting
this. Once we get a solid base, and everyone is all stickered up and
representing the club, we will be attracting many more new members. The
fees will most likely go back down next year, even when more value is
added. Its always tough getting started, and we need your help. Just try
and go with it for a year, and more value WILL be added throughout the year.

Most likely it will be $20 next year… so look at it this way. $15 to join, $20
to stay.

15

$35 includes Membership and 2 stickers
$25 includes membership and 0 stickers

How’s that sound? I like the fundraiser and BBQ idea; I’m down for that.
As long as we can get some hot chicks for the car wash, I’m in. :shock:

Another idea I had, would be to include a small competition at our
lapping/track events. Like using our lapping times to have a friendly
competition, just a thought I guess.

16

sounds good i didnt want more stickers.

17

Many local community centres will let you use the grounds for a fundraiser, like a car wash. I can remeber doing simialr things for Hockey and School.

The Fundraiser’s sound cool, i’ll definatly help out if it gets off the ground

18

i have grounds for a car wash in Guelph…

19

well can barely organize small group buys… i see no grounds to ask any legitimate business for money at this point.

20

Just pay the friggen 35$ and stop bitchin!!! :evil: :evil:

im +ive that the money will go to good use, especially when summer

comes around, and we want to host an events and ish (that is our plan)

and guess whut?.. with no $$ we suck…sad but it’s ture.

It’s NOT fair for others to have to pay, why should we leech off of others?

If we say we are a club, then we should act like a club. So lets suck it

up and pay the 35$.

I dont think we should change the price…it should stay like this…we can’t

keep on backing out our word!..you either like it or you dont.

just help the club out, and we will keep track of where the money goes,

and we will prove that it will be put to good use.

:evil:

…right now SON is a growing club, and we need everyones support, yes

the membership may seem too expensive…but it is going for a good

cause, so dont worry about the fact that u are getting only 2 stickers,

think about the club growing and becoming a better club, think about out

events (bbq, track, show days that we can potentially run with this $$)

so its not really about the stickers and the card…just try to look at it from

a bigger picture…

step out of the box!