 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group CPU (Club President's Update) Charles Wright charles@melbpc.org.au |
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In the past year or so, we've been faced with something of a dilemma. We've made a major effort to extend services to members, despite the fact, ironically, that those gains are achieved at the cost of diminishing our traditional sources of revenue, while at the same time, of course, diluting our financial reserves.
We've spent thousands of dollars for instance increasing the number of telephone lines and providing high-speed modems for the BBS, to give a rapidly increasing percentage of members access to outstanding online facilities.
But as more members participate in the benefits of electronic communications, we've also made it easier for them to download large volumes of shareware free, rather than buying it from the group. That used to be our traditional revenue source, and it was the foundation for continuing profits and steadily accumulating financial reserves.
Having added an online CD-ROM player, which we're in the process of stocking with the latest disks from the US, each of which carry hundreds of megabytes of shareware programs, we can expect even more damage to the cash flow.
This doesn't necessarily dismay us. This committee is determined to provide the maximum value for the membership dollar, and to a certain extent it's only accelerated the inevitable. The shareware market has become saturated with small entrepreneurs at venues like swap meets, and income would eventually have dried up.
Meanwhile, our expenditure on capital items continues. We'll be putting another $16,000 this month into Internet access yet another source of free shareware which ultimately will become a net earner for the group, but in the early development stages will probably be a negative influence on the balance sheet. Other organisations - the Australian Computer Society for instance - are charging their members much more, for a less comprehensive Internet link.
It's been tempting to try to cover these expenses and income losses by increasing fees, but we've taken the opposite approach.
We've cut our training fees, and I'm pretty sure that the committee will decide to extend our student rate to all concession card holders, and will also reject a suggestion that it charge for access to the BB8 It might also extend membership to include family members, free, or at most for only a small administrative charge.
(I should point out here that the office of president in our group has no real executive power, and that all major decisions are made by the committee. These columns, therefore, do not necessarily reflect club policy, although one would hope the president is never all that far apart from the majority committee view.)
The increasing value of the annual membership fee is good news for members, but it puts more pressure on the committee to find new sources of revenue, and where possible increase the returns from our existing ones.
In the first few months of the financial year we were unable to make too much impact on last year's deficit, but since October we've been whittling that back, and at the moment it's possible that despite our investment in new equipment, we'll be able to break even by June 30.
We've been able to revive some of our flagging income, and cut back our expenses. We're considering a proposal to reduce the amount of rent, perhaps by half, by using our headquarters space more efficiently. We wouldn't see any savings from that in the current financial year, but in the long term it would have a dramatic effect on the balance sheet.
Less encouraging is the fact that we've pretty well exhausted our ability to implement many of our ideas, through sheer lack of volunteers. The load on the committee and the small group of workers who devote so much time to our activities has simply become too great.
We've arranged accounts at the major book publishers which will allow us to offer books at 20 per cent discount to members, and we plan to advertise them in PC Update. But we urgently need volunteers who can select and market those books. A few members of the Graphics SIG have agreed to handle production of those monthly advertisements, but we need some marketing and administrative support from members.
Meanwhile the weight on the office, through such things as Internet memberships, has increased, and we are sorely in need of volunteers there.
Unless we can find these volunteers, we're going to have to employ people, and that will inevitably affect our financial performance, and very quickly result in increased membership fees. Don't take the easy way out by claiming you're too busy. Most of the work is done by people who are too busy to do it.
In my opinion, we're also going to have to consider whether it's wise-it certainly doesn't seem fair-that the increasing editorial burdens of PC Update are performed by people who are not paid for any of their work. We have, for instance, over many years, paid the people who bag and mail the magazine, and we also pay the advertising representative.
But the major part of the work - an extraordinary number of hours - has been performed by people like Peter Smith, Ash Nallawalla, and more recently Gary Taig, for nothing. In my view this exposes the most vital part of the group's activities on a number of levels. We risk burn-out, or a sudden change of heart, and we have very little back-up.
My column last month mentioned my policy of trying to have a larger team working in each of the club's activities, such as the BBB to prevent this exposure. It's more difficult to achieve this with the magazine and still maintain the high standards that we've managed to achieve.
And to some extent those standards are best guaranteed and enforced when they are provided on a paid basis. In my view, this is something the group is going to have to face, in the near future. I must make the point that none of the editorial team has ever complained, or asked for remuneration.
You will notice, incidentally, that the advertising content of the magazine, and its size, continues to increase. I believe that we will be able to pay for some of the editorial work out of increased advertising earnings.
Reprinted from the March 1994 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
