Introduce Family Membership
Lewis Yip
Public
Seen by 8
Note: This is a publically visible discussion.
Some of our members have partners and dependents they would like to make things with. I, for one, think that making things together makes for some great bonding moments!
We have the opportunity to recognise this with a new class of membership - Family Membership.
Family Membership resolves the awkward situation where one person is the main user and their partner is only in occasionally. Currently the partner would be a casual user (Day Pass) and it's not entirely clear how they interact with member tool usage rates vs. casual rates, RFID keys, etc.
I would propose that the Family Membership be $90/month.
$90/month is 20% more than Full Membership ($75) which is what Robots and Dinosaurs does. This means the members "break even" vs. the Day Pass rate after 1 joint visit per month.
$90/month is also the same as 2x Concession Memberships ($45/month) so there is no adverse effect there.
Some caution is needed here around:
Voting rights - 1 membership = 1 vote
RFID keys
The other alternative is to offer a heavily discounted membership to partners of existing members.
This version of the idea would make each person a member in their own right. This avoids strange interactions with voting rules and RFID keys.
We can do this right now (no changes needed) by offering Concession membership to partners and family of existing members. At $45/month the partner/family member would break even after 3 visits a month. ($45 = 3x $15).
If we think that $45/month is not attractive enough, we could create a new class of membership at e.g. $30/month.
Note that anything we do that requires us to change or set a membership fee requires approval at a general meeting.
12 Membership fees
12.1. The entrance fee (if any) and the membership fee (if any) for membership of the Association must be —
12.1.a. determined by the committee; and
12.1.b. approved at a general meeting.
Tegan Murphy Mon 18 Sep 2023 7:36AM
Even with seperate memberships RFID access is still something that may cause issues if the family has one tag but it is being used by multiple people.
Renae Currie Mon 18 Sep 2023 9:04AM
Each member is entitled to a key, so if the secondary partner is intending to attend alone, they just get their own key. I don't like the idea of key sharing between partners
Johannes Chuah Mon 18 Sep 2023 10:25AM
some members pay their member fees to GET AWAY from their family members... i (partly) joke. im more in favour of the "concession membership" for the additional "family member or "partner" (need to define this so that there is no loopholes" eg what if we start seeing "odd" couples pair up to exploit said loophole.
Can i also throw another idea spanner into the works, since we are brainstorming. how about a slot for group project membership. eg allocate them a table and 3 months access. at a rate. with one key/max 4 people. make it exclusive eg hey for the next 3 months we have this special one slot available at $attractive group rate$
Fletcher Boyd Sat 21 Oct 2023 6:21AM
As per the Management Committee meeting today we have decided to leave things as they are for now re: family memberships. In the event it becomes an issue in the future one discussed option was to expand concession membership to direct family members of existing full members.
Beau Scott · Mon 18 Sep 2023 5:40AM
I think it would need to be seperate memberships to solve potential issues like separations, and if one person wants to cancel. Also, for things like voting rights, locker allocations and tool inductions.