For those of you who have attended the recent business meetings or taken a glance at the minutes, the idea to abolish paid membership has been brought forth by a few officers. The fact is, the incentive to become a paid member is viewed as poor by some and closes off a good chunk of the club to the average member if they can't afford the fee or don't wish to. Before we delve deeper into the subject, let's have a quick history lesson.

Why the switch to a paid club?

When the Anime club was first established, meetings used to be held in Violette hall. Unfortuatenly, circumstances forced the club to meet in Magruder due to disputes with another club. At the time, Magruder did not have access to projectors, therefore the club decided to enstate a small membership fee in hopes of saving up for and purchasing a projector to view shows.

The Goal Succeeded! Somewhat…

Yet as luck would have it, Truman went around to upgrade classes with projector systems throughout classrooms in Magruder. Thus the Anime club was sitting on a club fund with no true purpose. Instead, small amounts of funds began to be used toward prizes for the Halloween party or activities for the club's other events but the club still had a surplus after that.

Do we even need this much?

A couple semeseters back, there was a slight debacle over the budget established for advertising which in the end put the club at a loss for the year! Scrambling together, the officers managed to put together the Anime Club artsale with astounding success pulling the club back into the black. Yet what was all this money actually for? The parties that the club held had no use for such amounts on top of the club dues.

Conventions

Thus sprang forth the idea of using some of the funding to help support a group of anime club members to go to an Anime convention during the school year. The idea was fleeting back and forth a few semesters until this spring it took off. A problem occured with how much would actually be allocated towards this convention. With fears of using up the surplus already gathered, the Anime club dedicated their second art sale to gathering funds for the trip. The money earned was then used to fund for a part of the convention.

So about this surplus…

Our club earns a modest amount of income based on club dues which over the years has created a bit of an issue. Does our club even need this much money? The amount spent on club parties is slightly over on average with the income generated by membership dues. On the other hand, fund raising events such as the art sale have been incredible assests in raising money for events. A single art sale fundraiser could easily cover the expenses of the club parties. Here's the tricky part; in order for convention trips to happen, the club would need to run even more fundraising events without eating into funding earned by club fees. After all, it isn't right that the few that go on these trips use up the money paid for by all of the members. They too should have a say with how they want the club's funds to be spent.

Wait, what was the original point here?

The removal of paid membership. Right now those who become paid members to Anime Club receive the following benefits:

• the ability to vote on the ongoing show and officer elections
• the right to participate in Oh No hour contests

In this day and age, that isn't much for a person to spend $5 dollars on. It offers no tangible benefit and makes the voting process segregated despite the club being open to everyone. A lot of you may also notice that when voting for our ongoing shows passes, the attendance rate of the club drops drasticly. This is because those who aren't paid members have no control over what becomes a ongoing show, and thus lose interest in the club. Oh No hours also become a chore of pulling teeth to get people to participate since more and more paid members fail to show due to waning interest. Additionally, because only paid members can vote for upcoming officers, there is a skew between who the club as a whole would like to see in office and who actually wins. Every year when we collect dues, we allow the future of our club to be determined by the select group of people who pay for their opnions to have more weight. By removing dues, this may help in fostering a community that isn't seperate by wallets and have a more active member base.

But if we have no money…

So how would the club be able to afford funding for parties and conventions? It's already been stated but we have a very capable and dedicated crowd of folks that run the art sales and bring in a nice amount. It's entirely possible to hold two art sales a year with one for the club and the other fundraising for outside school activities such as conventions.

In closing…

When it gets down to it, we really shouldn't worry about money here. We're the anime club and we'll always be able to enjoy doing what we do best. Watching the coolest/cutest/bizaare shows with our friends here at Truman.

We want the entire club's opinion on this drastic change. Give your thoughts and opinions in the official thread. 

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