Even if your $2000/month for 1/2 time work is a reasonable estimate, I think we're going to have a hard time selling a 100% increase to $10/month to hcoop members. My opinion is that its reasonable to set new member dues at $7-8, and recommend but not require that existing members upgrade to $7-8, and also do some more outreach/marketing to attract new members. Does anyone know what our membership growth rate is currently? Another idea: what about starting with a quarter-time person?<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 1:59 PM, Adam Chlipala <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:adamc@hcoop.net">adamc@hcoop.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im"><a href="mailto:docelic@mire.hcoop.net">docelic@mire.hcoop.net</a> wrote:<br>
> I personally was one of the people who like the idea of HCoop due to being<br>
> a non-profit and not charging more than absolutely needed.<br>
> Some kind of a "limit" I've always had in mind when thinking about<br>
> per-member due was $7.<br>
><br>
<br>
</div>I think that is quite a reasonable target, even if we get a half-time<br>
paid staff member, if we grow membership enough. Just considering our<br>
current member base and the $2/mo. dues increase that follows your<br>
suggestion, we end up with $266/mo. "extra" to pay staff. From my<br>
experience being a graduate student in CS, normal pay for half-time<br>
research assistants is under $2000/mo.. (And that is for quite<br>
highly-skilled work compared to sysadmin'ing for "normal"<br>
architectures.) At $7/mo./member, we would only need 867 more members to<br>
close the gap to $2000; and we might be able to save money by finding a<br>
better physical hosting situation. It seems like a stretch to assume<br>
we'll get to that membership level in the next few years, but it's not<br>
at all out of the question, if we get a stable platform that overcomes<br>
the current most popular gripes. If we raise dues to $10 instead of $7,<br>
we only need 267 more members to fund a $2000/mo. part-time staff<br>
member, if other costs remain the same.<br>
<br>
I can't see how we can get to that point without dues above $7 in the<br>
mean-time, though, through extra pledges or a higher fixed amount for<br>
each member.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
HCoop-Discuss mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:HCoop-Discuss@lists.hcoop.net">HCoop-Discuss@lists.hcoop.net</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.hcoop.net/listinfo/hcoop-discuss" target="_blank">https://lists.hcoop.net/listinfo/hcoop-discuss</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br>