Hello All
1)Personally I would favour placing the group on a more formal basis as
Sue suggests. I agree that one of the charm of this particular group
*is* its informality but the reality is it costs time and money to
organize/hold meetings and to produce/post the newsletter and other
mailings. As we have seen quite recently, hosting a meeting is a
significant burden for smaller organizations. Enabling smaller
institutions to act as host is the primary justification for
subscription fees and/or meeting fees. The meetings need to represent
the diversity of the MCG membership hence it would be very limiting were
we to rely solely on the generosity of the larger institutions.
2)An annual membership subscription plus meeting fees for non-members
[who don't wish to join] may offer advantages over charging meeting fees
alone. Just distribuing notification of the meetings [accompanied with
the Newsletter] generates costs regardless of the number of people who
decide to attend. Also, it would, as Sue points out, be an effective
method of maintaining accurate statistics on the membership.
3)I'm sure we'll all agree on this one! Subscription rates and/or
meeting fees should be moderate so as not to adversely affect membership
levels. People shouldn't mind paying a moderate rate - it is not
realistic to expect something for nothing. There may be ways of
ensuring that the rates are kept relatively low. For instance, if the
Group did not aim to meet all the costs of a meeting but provide a per
centage according to need. Hence the smaller institutions would be
provided with a greater per centage than the nationals.
4) Another good reason for placing the Group on a more formal footing
would be that a committee might be the means of helping to share the
responsiblity and hard work that up to now has been shouldered by the
Chair alone.
5)Newsletter - paper vs electronic. Personally I think that it should be
available in both media - that they complement rather than replace each
other. Having the Newsletter on the MCG website would provide access to
a wider audience. However -
1)not everyone has *easy* access to the Internet (I cite my own
institution as an example)
2)there would always be a demand for a paper copy as people prefer to
read documents on paper rather than screen
3)in accompanying notification of forthcoming meetings, the Newsletter
may help to encourage members to attend
4)the Newsletter would be another incentive for people to join the Group
or stomach the imposition of subscription fees (help people feel that
they are getting something tangible for their money!).
I shall look forward to hearing other members' opinions.
Sue
In message <[log in to unmask]>, Sue Gordon
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Dear MCG members
>
>Now you have had a chance to recover from the New Year celebrations
>and got over the disappointment of not being called in to work on 1st Jan
>to fix the Millennium Bug, it's time to think about the future of the
>Museums
>Computer Group.
>
>The basic question is: Should the MCG charge a membership fee?
>
>What do you think?
>
>Sue Gordon
>MCG Chair
>[log in to unmask]
>Visit the MCG web pages http://mcg.virtualave.net/
>
--
Sue Julian-Ottie
Editor, Museums Computer Group Newsletter
tel: 0181 858 8232
fax: 0181 293 3186
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|