If you’re an STC member, you’ve probably heard all about the new dues models and likely the new chapter funding model. What you likely aren’t aware of is the level of confusion and misinformation around these changes. I will attempt to clarify this a bit, as there seems to be a growing misunderstanding that chapters do not get money to work with from STC, which couldn’t be more wrong.
A couple of notes before I begin:
- I am neither a STC staffer nor a STC Board member. I’m a SIG manager and outspoken senior member.
- I may be rather blunt in this entry in order to clarify the issues and the facts.
- This blog entry is not a formal STC communication by any means, rather it is my own understanding based on the facts, without emotional or political spin.
The 2010 membership model is different. There is a core membership price with add-on pricing for any chapters and SIGs you want to join. There is a Gold package deal where a chapter is included among many other benefits, but for the most part you now need to add chapter membership to your base society membership.
When you enroll in a chapter membership, you pay STC, not the chapter. That money stays with STC and is given to chapters to fund budgeted events and resources. In essence, as a member you see nothing different than what you are already accustomed to; you pay for chapter membership and you get it.
Now, chapter funding works differently. In years prior your money went to STC, who then gave the chapter a healthy chunk of that money to use in funding activities and resources. While chapters needed to budget their spending, they had looser rules around budgeting since they were given money up front to work with and were allowed to hold it in their own savings accounts. Today, chapters must budget ahead of time and are given the funds budgeted when needed. They are not allowed to build a cash reserve of their own, rather the STC holds the money for the chapters.
Many chapters have voiced opposition or their disapproval of this new structure, but really I see this as merely different. Chapters still get the funding they need for budgeted events and resources, but need to be better about budgeting for them. If anything, it adds greater accountability to the budgeting process.
Some people have suggested paying society level dues and then giving the chapter money separately. This is a dangerous approach, and I will explain why. You will not be officially enrolled in the chapter, meaning that according to STC records your chapter will be minus one member: you. While the chapter has your money, it doesn’t count toward their submitted budget, which takes membership size into account among other data points. The more people who indirectly join a chapter, the fewer members it has on official record, which negatively affects budgeting for the following year.
My advice is, in order to support your local chapter, to elect for chapter membership when renewing. If you have already renewed without a chapter, you can add one in at any time. Provided your chapter has budgeted appropriately, you should receive the same value for your money.
It is fair to note that SIGs have budgeted and been funded in thus manner successfully for years. While new for chapters, zero-based budgeting is not a new concept within STC, and has been proven to work.
If I am incorrect here in any way, please let me know.
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So, suppose I join STC but not my chapter. My nearest chapter submits a budget for N events, totalling D dollars. How does my NOT being a member of the chapter count against their grant for those budgeted events? More specifically, what would the difference be between the scenarios with me BEING a member and NOT BEING a member?
There’s no real impact if a single individual chooses to go off the grid, so to speak. But as Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ shows us, individuals can be a scary mob. Add more people doing this and soon the official member count drops enough to cause the budgets to not make sense year over year. You can certainly not join a chapter and still get benefits from the STC. I would expect that chapters would then charge you the non-chapter member rate to attend local events, and you wouldn’t be getting newsletters and other benefits from the chapter directly. If the chapter behaves differently, that’s another issue of scruples altogether.