Membership incentives

[Chris Young]

Apologies if this has been discussed already. I was unable to make
either of the meetings so far called...

I have long thought that the membership fee structure of the HRC was
integral to its relative failure. It was a huge disincentive on
graduating to be required to pay £30 or so to continue to use the
facilities, especially when one was likely to be using them less.
There was very little incentive to pay this sum at all when one could
be signed in for free by existing members once one had ceased to be a
student. My own group of friends just petered away from the HRC when
the critical mass of people who were members dropped.

If nothing else happens, this basic in-built disincentive scheme needs
to be addressed for the long-term. Any fee arrangement should be run
through a "common-sense algorithm" to predict the likely effects,
together with extended ramifications, on an individual's decisions.

Personally, I would suggest a flat rate in future, regardless of
status - probably a round and psychologically acceptable £10. This
would make admin easier, with only fundamental eligibility and voting
rights at issue.

I have other suggestions, but I'll contribute these in the relevant
threads if necessary.

[Omar Kooheji]

The fee is decided by the committee, why they arrived a the amounts they have I don't know.

There is a discount for those who are graduates but do not have jobs. I think the reasoning is that the club is aimed at students, once you graduate if you want to still use the club you can likely afford more. There is also a clause for loyalty membership, which is a lot cheaper.

I think membership in general needs to be addressed by the committee, a reduction of the fee's for past members could be investigated depending on how likely people are to join at what price point. I've always thought the £30 price point was a bit steep especially as most grads don't get very high paying jobs directly after graduating. personally had i not qualified for loyalty membership by the time I left Uni I probably wouldn't have bothered rejoining at the full £30. 

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[Tom Davis]

membership fees should be set low in order to widen the customer
base.

i suggest free membership to the current membership base on re-
opening, rising to £10 after one year, and £15 fee for the rest of the
student population.
previous members may renew in perpetuity, after graduation etc.
£30 is reasonable for a long-term membership, 5 years or something
like that.

any loyalty scheme should be based on regular custom, not long-term
membership. possibly even loyal custom should be rewarded with free
membership.
the main priority is to get people using the place day by day, week in
week out.

tom

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[Omar Kooheji]

How does one quantify long term membership? it it by being in the club lots? spending lots of money behind the bar? having your face recognised by a committe member?

I think we need to look at the membership numbers and find out how many people actually fork out £30 for a years membership. The Qm have a Life membership system where you pay once and you gain life membership. would that model suit the club better? Maybe include a nominal fee every year to reactivate your card?

I think it's fairly safe to assume that MOST former members will go to the club less often (because they are not on campus as much) but have more money to spend there when they do go to the club (because they have paying jobs).

This is something we have to look into, are we chasing away perspective business with the high fee of £30 when these people could spend that much and possibly more behind the bar.

 

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[JohnEwing]

On Mar 5, 12:33 pm, Omar Kooheji <omarkooh...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> I think we need to look at the membership numbers and find out how many
> people actually fork out £30 for a years membership. The Qm have a Life
> membership system where you pay once and you gain life membership. would
> that model suit the club better? Maybe include a nominal fee every year to
> reactivate your card?

I proposed life membership many years ago, but was voted down by the
membership at the AGM. The strange thing is that many of those who
voted against me would have benefited.

> I think it's fairly safe to assume that MOST former members will go to the
> club less often (because they are not on campus as much) but have more money
> to spend there when they do go to the club (because they have paying jobs).

Very true, in my experience.

John

[Omar Kooheji]

We can bear this in mind going forward.

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[Xuan-Linh Labbe]

I think Omar mentioned on the Finances thread the necessity to add
some concrete benefits to being a member as opposed to being signed-in
by your friend, in order to encourage people to become members.

That is something that should be part of our plan, I believe. He
mentioned having free coffee refills only if you're a member. It could
also be getting small discounts on the food, or having a loyalty
system like at the QM which, after x pounds spent, gives you a free
pizza or whatever. Likewise, if some events become paying events, you
could get £1 off, etc. For the reopening, we need something easy to
setup, though, so probably the coffee refills or systematic discount
on food is simpler than the loyalty card thing (which would be a lot
more hassle).

[Omar Kooheji]

Stamps for loyalty cards are less than 15 pounds make sure there are a couple then get loyalty cards printed. They wont cost more than 20 pounds for a thousand or so.

Buy 10 meals get one free.

Free coffee for every 5 (two rows of 6 with the free one marked off)

Here is a website that will create a rubber stamp for you fro any image you give them:

http://custom.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/SubCategory.aspx?CategoryID=6

It's not difficult.

What I'd suggested earlier was buying 10-20 coffees at a discounted price. and getting them marked off as you got them. this could lead to people abusing it by trying to rub off the stamp which is why you'd probably want to get a shaped hole punch like the ones available here:

http://www.machineadvantage.com/singlehole_manual_punches_1124_125_0.html

you have to be wary of people trying to forge the stamps but it's unlikely that people will want to forge the hole punches as using one would imply you had spent that coffee so wouldn't benefit you.

Maybe on joining we could give members a voucher for a free pint/coffee/tea/softdrink (exclude premium beers)

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[Frank Bishop]

There are *some* life members of the club but this membership option
was stopped.

Also the club changed its policy with regards signing in people who
were eligible to join but hadn't. Members are not permitted to sign in
people who are eligible to join but have not.

Yes I agree Xuan-linh, I think we should have more incentives to join
the club, I know the hpstairs is free fro events if you are a members
but maybe food discounts or a loyalty scheme like 'beanscene' operates
for food would be a good thing.

[Omar Kooheji]

While members may not be allowed to sign in people who are eligible, they can and do. It's (almost) impossible to police this.unless you want to pay someone 5.50 an hour to check that people coming in are actually members.

Making a difference aside from having a key (which you don't even get any more) makes sense. Members incentives is one way we can do this.

[Frank Bishop]

Yes you are right, but of course I meant it is not permitted under
club rules, as opposed to people who dodge paying.

On 6 Mar, 17:10, Omar Kooheji <omarkooh...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> While members may not be allowed to sign in people who are eligible, they
> can and do. It's (almost) impossible to police this.unless you want to pay
> someone 5.50 an hour to check that people coming in are actually members.
>
> Making a difference aside from having a key (which you don't even get any
> more) makes sense. Members incentives is one way we can do this.
>

> > hetheringtonclub-g...@googlegroups.com<hetheringtonclub-gene ral%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>

[Michael Comerford]

I agree, incentivising membership is better than having a negatively focused policy that says you can't sign people in (as has been said it happens) and we're not going to bother paying for membership policing.

The loyalty card idea is good, but I also think Omar's idea of bulk buying we be a good incentive for regular visitors. Maybe we could negotiate some local discounts with places that fit with the HRC ethos? I know students get general discounts, but maybe some local businesses might be interested?

[JohnEwing]

On Mar 6, 5:10 pm, Omar Kooheji <omarkooh...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> While members may not be allowed to sign in people who are eligible, they
> can and do. It's (almost) impossible to police this.unless you want to pay
> someone 5.50 an hour to check that people coming in are actually members.

Why? It used to be that if you were on the CoM, you were on duty in
the Club after 8pm (I think) once, or sometimes twice, a fortnight,
and that duty included answering the door, checking that people were
signed-in correctly, taking memberships, etc., etc., etc.

[JohnEwing]

On Mar 6, 10:14 pm, Michael Comerford
<commissarkollon...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> The loyalty card idea is good, but I also think Omar's idea of bulk buying
> we be a good incentive for regular visitors. Maybe we could negotiate some
> local discounts with places that fit with the HRC ethos? I know students get
> general discounts, but maybe some local businesses might be interested?

I think a lot of this is for later. Personally, I would encourage
people to use the Club by reducing the bar prices - and that could
easily be included in any business plan. It has worked elsewhere.

[Chris Young]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was only students and staff who would be obliged to join to use the facilities. Graduates / former members such as myself could still be signed in by an existing member. Quite rightly. But the price of membership was too high to join on the off-chance of using the facilities.

Committee members rarely camped out in the foyer non-stop. And there is very little way of proving that someone is a student without frisking them for secreted ID.

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[JohnEwing]

On Mar 8, 5:10 pm, Chris Young <ch...@chrisyoung.org.uk> wrote:

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was only students and staff who would be
> obliged to join to use the facilities. Graduates / former members such as
> myself could still be signed in by an existing member.

No, anyone who was eligible to join, in theory had to join after the
first two weeks of October, or thereabouts. A former member who turned
up occasionally should have had to join, but usually was signed in.
(And that included me, BTW.)

> Committee members rarely camped out in the foyer non-stop.

We used to, on busy nights. It was quieter in the foyer.

[Morag Hunter]

I'm sure this was no longer the policy, John. Students had to join if
they were eligible. Staff etc. could, but did not have to, join. At
least that was what the board over the sign in sheets said.