NAF Membership Fee - $10

[Purplegoo]

Where there is a need for a new staff position, we'll create one. For instance, we saw a huge upswing in play and new groups / tournaments in London last year, and we found the right person in Yogi to look after that otherwise lightly covered area. Targeted stuff like that I'm all for.

Offering 'solutions' implies we have a problem. I don't think that is the case; our coverage is very good. We have only two fewer regional staff members in the UK than we have in the whole of the USA (one if you count Lycos who isn't on the list but is still very active, none if you count me), and those guys look after more members and a much greater area.

I started this thread because there is beginning to be the odd tournament here and there not attended by a staff member, and because we've had near blanket coverage for years, the cost of membership not created / renewed face to face isn't well understood. That lack of universal coverage has been the status quo in some other territories for a long time, and I don't think we're nearly in a place where we should be hiring numbers for the sake of numbers yet. Again - if we have an area not currently well served by the current structure, we can look at it. But so far as I'm aware, there isn't.

[Bsking]

Mr Goo,

Because I'm still not 100% sure:

The price of NAF membership (new or renewal) is $10 US. If you sign up at a tournament face to face with a staff member there is a discount to 5 local currency (for us, £5).

So to be absolutely clear, for a tournament run in the UK, that doesn't have a NAF staff member present, you expect $10 US from the tourney organiser (or £7.62 at the current exchange rate of 1 GBP = 1.31143 USD) per new NAF sign-up?

If so, looking at the rest of your original message, I would send out the recommendation to TO's to say "NAF membership is £5 if signing up with a NAF representative" rather than "NAF membership is £5 if signing up at a tournament".

Remove any potential for confusion!

[Purplegoo]

You are correct, that is the message. Signing up or renewing at a tournament where there is no staff member present is the same as doing so via the website, you're just asking the TO to do a bit of the work for you, effectively.

This doesn't come up that often, as discussed above. I could trawl through the database and pull addresses for / email seventy-odd TOs (that's a guess pulled out of thin air), but all things considered, I thought posting on TFF a happy medium solution. It's a fair idea, though, and if the number of instances where there has been confusion increases, I might take the time to do it.

[lunchmoney]

Put it in the Newsletter? That way all NAF members see it, and as TO's need to be NAF members they will see it. Whether they read it or not is another matter

[mawph]

Pretty sure that’s what I do every year at the NAFC

I mean specifically can I pay in a cheaper currency as we in the UK seem to be subsidising US & EU memberships. I don't think anyone could reasonably expect real time currency conversion but surely it should be €6 or $7 instead with maybe a bi yearly adjustment to pricing based on exchange rates.

Of course you are also more than welcome to come and attend the Pouring Rain Open in Bergen Norway on 31st August and get it for 50 NOK

This could a new advertising ploy for overseas tournaments Save 53p on your NAF membership.

I'd be disappointed to need to pay 50 local currency, rather than 5 if I went

[theBymster]

I there not also a question of economies of scale: if a TO has 6 coaches wanting to renew membership at his/her event surely the postage won't be £5 PER coach?
I ask because I live my life on the verge of setting up an event near me... If I charge £10 per membership that's not a great incentive to sign up, at this out post of (BB) civilisation.

Anyway, we hear you and I guess its up to each TMO to sort out their issues, case by case.

I AM v glad to hear that membership is cumulative. It would have changed the way I'd have renewed, if I'd have known that back in November. Personally its no big deal as I am also comforted to know that I wont loose out on anything for spending a couple of weeks between membership expiring and renewing.

Also, not that it means a great deal; but are we going to see two tiers of event, those with staff present and those without? If you're collecting Midland Championship Series points that is already an issue, If you're counting your pennies for membership this is still only going to be a minuscule difference, eh?

I feel it only right to say that I appreciate all the work done by the NAF, I am proud to be a member, and I, for one, would happily pay £10 per year plus postage of goodie bags !!

[lunchmoney]

. If I charge £10 per membership that's not a great incentive to sign up,

Then dont. Let people sign up online and they can sort their own membership out.

[theBymster]

Well I will then!
Lolz!!

[Purplegoo]

Hi there. The coaches that sign up at your event probably won’t all live together, so there is no ‘economy of scale’ to consider, we send gifts they choose on the site to their homes. As above, signing up with no staff present is effectively doing it via the site, the TO just does some of the work.

We don’t as a rule pre-emptively send gifts to TOs as a job lot because they know they’re going to have x new signups. That requires local staff sorting out postage (and expensing it) and knowing what gifts the new members want in advance. And what if more / less new guys turn up than expected? That’s all another level of admin that it’s not necessarily fair to expect of our volunteers.

[theBymster]

Oh. Goddit!
Thanks for educating - stating the bleeding obvious, as some would call it.