I am often asked why do we need a membership fee when we pay a door charge for each meeting?
The simple answer is that like any organisation, we have overheads that are not included in our door price. These costs include our website, providing tasting glasses for guests, replacing the spittoons and printing costs and numerous small items that eat away at any surplus we may have.
But of greater importance are the special events that we subsidise to varying degrees. The AGM alone costs in excess of $450 to run. The BBQ, the two dinners and the bubbles evening are other events to benefit significantly from the payment of your membership fee.
Lastly we use your membership as a sort of safety net to smooth out our cash flow from our monthly tastings. Our aim is always to try and break even for each tasting. But this is not an exact science as attendances are influenced by a number of factors that we have no control over. Competing events, weather, interest in the type of tasting, cost and people’s forgetfulness are just some of the things that can impact whether we cover our costs for a tasting or not.
Sometimes we will have a tasting where the presenter may decide not to charge us at all. These occasions provide your committee with windfall profits that we then plough back into future meetings, along with any left over membership fees, by reducing the door costs. That is why you should never judge the quality of a tasting by the door price. It may be lower than normal simply because we have a higher than expected budget surplus.
So I hope this helps explain how we use your $25 membership fee each year. If you have a specific query then please don’t hesitate to ask me.
Wayne Kennedy
Treasurer