Dues have increased for the upcoming year. Read on to find out why.
Club invoices were emailed out to each of you last week. You may have noticed that the annual membership rates have increased. This change was discussed and voted on at last week's business meeting. A handout was provided that details the costs of a single membership (see below). These costs are non-negotiable and are what we pay to Rotary International and to our Rotary district. Here's an overview:
- Rotary International has increased their dues to $82 a year per member - we pay this in two payments of $41, one in July and one in January. This is an increase of $2.50 per member per year. The plan is to have another increase in a few years.
- The Rotarian Magazine is $18 per year (again, billed at $9 two times a year). Regardless of whether you receive this magazine in the mail or electronically, the cost is the same.
- There are costs per member for Council legislation and for insurance.
- In August, our district dues of $38 per member are payable. Every club also pays $100 for PETS and other district benefits.
All of this adds up to $146. 61 per member. Our dues were $140 per individual member, so we were losing money. After discussion and an explanation of these costs, the club voted to increase individual dues to $150 and for corporate and couple memberships to increase to $250. The primary difference between corporate and couple memberships is that a corporate memberships allows for up to three people to attend meetings, but they have only one vote and appear on the roster as one entity; a couple membership allows for two people to attend meetings - they each have their own vote and are listed separately on our roster.
The last time dues were increased was about five years. The hope is that by making this increase now we won't have to make another increase in just a few years when RI dues increase.
