MONTHLY DUES payment option required to join group!
PLEASE VOTE FOR YOU BETTER MEETUP FUTURE! Us organizers had to pay Meetup in order to have a group and our members should have to do the same in order to join our group. Let us organizers set the amount which can be even be set to $0 for those that still want to give themselves away for free. ORGANIZERS: Imagine receiving just $3 a month times your # of members per month! Join for $3 which automatically re-occurs every month until you cancel! DONE! Everyone is happy including Meetup.com for retaining us... the organizers!
Bryan Kalentek
shared this idea
489 comments
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Dev
commented
Organizers choose to own Meetups, so should also choose to pay the fees. Soliciting during events is allowed, but should not be mandated. It defeats the purpose of most Meetups, to entice those who are looking to come on in. A mandated cost before even understanding if this is the group for them would be prohibitive.
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Andy
commented
No way I can run a club of 250 people without proper membership dues system that allows only paid up members to do things like RSVP, access details. But viewing event titles and limited details is needed to encourage people to join. I use meetup only for advertising our group as there is no proper controls for paid membership. It seems the meetup organizer is left to manual chase people , delete, check dues lists and compare - a nightmare system at the moment. How can I enforce that with 900 people on my meetup group - ridiculous. I cannot switch our club to meetup until it has a proper membership access system.
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Andy
commented
As Maria just said... for some people yearly or 1/2 year dues are better. The group organiser should be able to set the membership length of time (1 month, x months, x years).
After paid membership term expires they should lose some functions. I just posted a topic about access control for membership dues - set on or off for RSVP, view meeting time and place, contact details.
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Maria
commented
I charge $10 annually & this would be most beneficial. If they have not paid the month the dues were due they can't RSVP for an event w/ a note saying " you can't RSVP until your dues have been paid" or something of the like. My dues cover my organizer fees nothing more. And......if I happen to have some left over I put the money back into my group.
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Tammy
commented
We should all tell our fellow meetup friends to vote on this and make it #1!!!!!!!!!!!! If I could get just $2 a month from each member, I could quit my job and make this my living, as I'm sure a lot of you could, too!
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Stephanie DePoma
commented
I had no fees my first year so that I could draw attention to my site. In the second year I instituted a 5.00 fee for new members only. If they paid once they did not have to pay again after that. That worked great, but for whatever reason this third year we have attracted so many non-payers I had to institute a 5.00 annual fee for all members. Of course I have only received that from about 35 people which barely covered my Organizer fees. There needs to be a way for us to make the dues mandatory before a member can join. Once they join if they don't pay immediately you then have to hound them at meetups to ask for your payment. If they still put you off you either have to delete them from the group one at a time or e-mail each of those people one at a time.
If you are not going to give us the option to have it set up so that they have to pay before joining (the same as we do as organizers), then you need to have a better system for us to e-mail just the nonpayers in one group e-mail so that we can then hound them weekly or monthly to pay their dues, as well as an option for us to "mass delete" where we can choose just the nonpayers who have been in the group for 60 days or more.
In addition, there should be a way to mass e-mail based on Gender or member location. For example, if I have an event happening in a particular city, it would be beneficial for me to send out an e-mail specifically to the members who live in that area to let them know something is coming up in their part of town. Ditto for events that might be geared more towards just the ladies (bachelorette or ladies night out) or specifically for guys (bachelor party), etc.
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Tammy
commented
I voted on this a long time ago and i can't believe there are so many votes now, yet they still haven't done anything! A lot of great comments I agree with 100%!
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Carol
commented
Problem I have is I have some people ask what the dues are (annual is what we have...once a year now on a set date)...and I tell them they can't come to a meeting unless they pay up...and they come anyway. So, what am I to do? Throw them out? We have a photo club with a lot of equipment, videos, etc. So, to charge $1 is a bit crazy. We charge $30/year...and most feel that is extremely reasonable. I always get a few "what do you do with "my" money? Cost me to rent space for meetings, equipment, etc., etc., etc. I don't think there is any one answer for everyone. I think we should be able to set the amoiunt individually.
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T.
commented
At first I wasn't down with this (even though I have the same issues with non-paying members), but heck, $1 a month isn't asking for much. But I think having a set-up where only paid members can RSVP and see location details would be just as useful.
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Chris Jackson
commented
This is not a democracy. Meetup HQ will implement this feature only if they see value in it for themselves and clearly they don't. I do wish they would be more honest about this process and just reject the idea quickly rather than let it sit here for years... You can lead a horse to water...
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jimmy
commented
Over 700 votes for this and no reply from MeetUp HQ . They just don't care. There must be over 10 different posting asking meetup to help organizers manage getting dues from members but they never help us. Funny how they have that in place for themselves to get their payment automatically form the Organizers but not for us to get it from our members. If anyone knows of another service like meetup, and they are happy with, please let me know, because I would love to take my business elsewhere.
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JLG
commented
Just PLEASE be sure to have OPTIONS. I don't want to set dues to -0-, nor make dues mandatory prior to joining. Setting up a suggested contribution and allowing members to join first, then decide if they wish to remain in the group and pay the dues is working well for my groups.
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Dan
commented
After seeing other ideas and suggestions about no shows and people double rsvping to events, this idea would take care of them, too!!! Bravo!
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Dan
commented
Great idea! No more chasing people for money? I'm in!
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Diana
commented
After reading more comments below, it is kind of a nice relief to see so many people with the same challenges as myself with the way meetup is right now.
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Diana
commented
Thank you, thank you, thank you 'Anonymous'! Like most organizers, the frustration of trying to collect dues makes meetup not worth the hassle anymore. If this idea doesn't go through soon, I will give comlinker a go!
Thank you! -
Anonymous
commented
This might be a stupid question, but why not just use ComLinker? It's free to own/manage a group and it has some pretty powerful event management tools... you can set up tickets and people can pay directly from the event page - and the RSVPs will be real, based on who has actually paid.
Granted it's much smaller at the moment, so it might not attract you many new people, but it seems like it would definitely deal with the financial issues that seem very prominent...
It's pretty simple and you can see how it works here:
http://www.comlinker.com/howitworks -
Bob in California
commented
He'll yes! It should have options for annual, quarterly too!
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Carol
commented
In response to a recent posting...re Facebook. Our group has both the Meetup site, and as a supplement (chat site more so) Facebook. We want to capture those who might be surfing either site. When I (or others in the club) see someone post to our FB site, we reference our Meetup site. It makes members who may/may not be on the Leadership Team an opportunity to feel they're helping. The FB site is only with white background. I love the color background of our Meetup site. Plus some other options. Yes...indeed...I want more flexibility...but I do understand some controls. When, who, how, how much, etc. I think should be my decision...and no one else's. We are all unique...and that is what is the beauty of Meetup. So, please do not take that away. Our members will not want to bother with the monthly charge. They want to pay once a year...and that's it. It would be a "Hassle" for them to do this every month. And, if it were taken out automatically... Oh, boy! They'd be PO'd...and probably drop out of the club... So, best to let each organizer set the stage for that. Option could be...if they wanted to have something automatic to occur...then yest, they'd click on the boxes offered...i.e.1) Do you wish this monthly, weekly, each event, etc. 2) amount per request. 3) Do you wish to manually set the time and amount...??? Sounds simple...and gives every organizer the right to run their own show...!!!
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Carol
commented
Reading some of the comments below...about being dissatisfied about Meetup... Well, I have my issues too...but I sincerely feel they are trying to fix them... Hence this opportunity to speak out. Yes, I too, was considering moving our group to another off site...but you must consider all the pros and cons...! 1) cost! To get what you really want...is going to cost you really big bucks! It's not just the cost, but the maintenance!!! That is what got me. I don't have the time or knowledge. 2) Networking... A lot of people out there are searching (friends, hobbyists, opportunities to learn informally...you name it). Meetup is what it says, it is a place for people to meet up! 3) New members! I don't go out and knock on doors to get new members, instead they do a search for "photo, photography, or photo club" as that is who/what we are...and I get new members... a steady stream. Yes, some "window shoppers"...but many who stay on. I believe if we can positively work with the organizers of this site and help them in their trying to please us...in that "perfect" development...we will all win. By my computer, website friends in the club, going to another site is a piece of cake! But, maintaining that site...is like fire in Hell. And...even if you can provide for all the above concerns... How do you propose to get "new members"? So, there is a lot to be said for "staying power"...
