[SSC] Membership types and contributions

[Terry Wassall]

Dear All

Thanks Joss for sending round the notes etc. so quickly. As I said before, I am very sorry I was not able to come to the meeting. Sounds like you had a really interesting discussion. I have just got back from a weekend in an internet free part of Scotland, practically mobile phone network free as well. I will try to respond to the emails in reverse order over the next day or so startng with the first about membershipd fees/contributions. 

There is quite a broad band of professorial salaries, starting not much above the senior lecture salary. Some profs. also have additional incomes related to their professorial work. If the prof rate is used as a benchmark then presumably lecturers A, B, Senior etc. will be proportionate, say £80, £160, £240 and £300+.  Some more junior academic staff may be on part-time of fixed term contracts, and so the a varity of circumstances will need to be considerd and allowed for. Then at any one time there will be different numbers of students with varying numbers of them able to pay anything. A general quesion is whether the 'fee's model is likely to be adeqate and equitable.

Many academics might be willing to contribute, their subject expertises, their materials, their experience of being learners and researchers, their ability to be facilitators of discussion etc., maybe even their travel expenses to attend face-to-face sessions. They may not be willing to pay a fee to do so. One answer to this would be, of course, if they are not commited enough to the idea and the ethos, then the Centre doesn't want them.  There could be differeing views on this.

I agree with Richard's comments about the need to have some sort of costing and projections. I guess you could call this, between gritted teeth, a business plan. This would need some sort of consideration about sustainability, in terms of finances and objectives, and any obvious risk factors (for instance, under recruitment of paying students). Have a realistic idea of what the costs would actually be is another way of estimating contributions as these could be divided, suitably weighted by income, across the membership.

As far as 'profit' or a surplus is concerned, I think there may be 2 main reasons for needing this - the financial sustainability of the Centre for at least 3 to 5 years (to do right by the students who enrol and to give the project the time to develop and solve the problems and issues that will arise) and to fund the further development of the Centre. This may not only be in terms of social science activity. I understand there has been some discussion of embarking upon other sorts of activities and services in the Centre that may raise money.

Best wishes

Terry


Dr. Terry Wassall
Principal Teaching Fellow
School of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Leeds
________________________________________
From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] On Behalf Of Joss Winn [joss at josswinn.org]
Sent: 27 February 2011 12:19
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: [SSC] Membership types and contributions

One of the things we discussed for some time in the pub after the
meeting on Thursday is the need to decide what types of membership there
will be at the SSC and how much we hope/expect people to contribute.

Let's use this discussion thread to work that out. One question that I
think Mike raised was that we might first ask what do we need the money for?

As for membership types, these might be academic, student, general
supporter, etc. or we might not distinguish between these at all.

As for the amount of contribution, Mike (a Professor), thought it
reasonable to ask that other Profs. contribute between £300-£500/year or
roughly £30+ /month.

I think the general agreement at the pub (outside of the formal meeting
when some people were no longer present) was that people should
self-assess their income and pay a fee that was matched to an income
category roughly in line with what Profs. Snr. Lecturers and Lecturers
(and possibly one more level) are earning. Low wage and unemployed would
pay nothing.

So, what do you think about all of this? Please send your ideas to this
thread so we can come to a decision on this.

Thanks very much
Joss


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