We had our official DDGM visit last night and the GM message is about raising per capita and I want to know how you Texas brothers feel about it(or others as well of course). The proposal if for going from $14.25 to $25. Currently the GL operates off of $7 of that 14.25 and the rest goes to charity purposes within the frat. The proposed increase if approved will be applied to the operations side of the budget and will balance the budget.
I am still on the fence about this personally but could be convinced. The problem I first saw is that the report gave allot of numbers on membership going down from deaths but there was no mention of the extra loss of members who could not afford a dues increase. Example if we have 1000 members and we pay $10 a piece equaling $10,000 and we raise it to $20 and we lose 450 members due to the increase we only receive an extra thousand dollars because of the loss of members. It kinda seems like a recipe for disaster for rural lodges who have 25-60 members and pay $30 to $50 in dues.
A PM of ours had the idea for GL to tack on a degree fee for candidates to pay and since we lose 3 out of 4 EAs in TX make the EA degree the big fee. This would relieve the smaller lodges of the burden of such a large jump in per capita. This to me seems it would place the brunt of theburden on those more ready to handle it. It was brought to our attention how some urban lodges have over 80% endowed members and with that not paying any returns they will be in the hurt locker as well. The degree fee would again allow this lodge to place the burden of payment on the new candidate. Many think that degree fees should not be to high but I say rubbish if you are performing them right there is no better show in town. Candidates at 148 already pay $150 a degree and most would be happy to pay more. This increase made a huge huge difference to our bottom line.
Them another PM stood up and had another great point and I quote he said " sounds to me like GL is addressing the symptoms and not the problem. What is GL going to do to help keep the members we already have?" He then went into the losing of 3 out of 4 EA and if we could change that number seems to him that money problems would start fixing themselves.
We need to sale adds in the TX Mason as well that eats up to much of the budget.
I also see the problem of 13% or so of the budget goes to GL officers driving all over the state to hold classes that could just as easily be done on the internet where all MM could view them in their own time thus saving tons of money on gas, room and board.
I would like to see this thought out a bit more because there seems to be allot of solutions for this problem it is just the easiest quickest one is to raise the per capita.
I am still on the fence about this personally but could be convinced. The problem I first saw is that the report gave allot of numbers on membership going down from deaths but there was no mention of the extra loss of members who could not afford a dues increase. Example if we have 1000 members and we pay $10 a piece equaling $10,000 and we raise it to $20 and we lose 450 members due to the increase we only receive an extra thousand dollars because of the loss of members. It kinda seems like a recipe for disaster for rural lodges who have 25-60 members and pay $30 to $50 in dues.
A PM of ours had the idea for GL to tack on a degree fee for candidates to pay and since we lose 3 out of 4 EAs in TX make the EA degree the big fee. This would relieve the smaller lodges of the burden of such a large jump in per capita. This to me seems it would place the brunt of theburden on those more ready to handle it. It was brought to our attention how some urban lodges have over 80% endowed members and with that not paying any returns they will be in the hurt locker as well. The degree fee would again allow this lodge to place the burden of payment on the new candidate. Many think that degree fees should not be to high but I say rubbish if you are performing them right there is no better show in town. Candidates at 148 already pay $150 a degree and most would be happy to pay more. This increase made a huge huge difference to our bottom line.
Them another PM stood up and had another great point and I quote he said " sounds to me like GL is addressing the symptoms and not the problem. What is GL going to do to help keep the members we already have?" He then went into the losing of 3 out of 4 EA and if we could change that number seems to him that money problems would start fixing themselves.
We need to sale adds in the TX Mason as well that eats up to much of the budget.
I also see the problem of 13% or so of the budget goes to GL officers driving all over the state to hold classes that could just as easily be done on the internet where all MM could view them in their own time thus saving tons of money on gas, room and board.
I would like to see this thought out a bit more because there seems to be allot of solutions for this problem it is just the easiest quickest one is to raise the per capita.