SFBA Membership Dues Status

From: Bob Indig (bob@quake.net-DeleteThis)
Date: Tue May 11 1999 - 08:26:05 PDT

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Message-Id: <37384C0D.5C4F905D@quake.net-DeleteThis>
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 08:26:05 -0700
From: Bob Indig <bob@quake.net-DeleteThis>
To: wind_talk <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>
Subject: SFBA Membership Dues Status
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To SFBA members whom it may concern:

As with any active all-volunteer organization, people change, issues
grow, issues are resolved, great things are created and sometimes things
fall through the cracks that few are aware of until it is too late. The
bad news is that SFBA has received inquiries from some members about
their membership dues checks not being cashed, and recently we have had
members dues checks returned to us unpaid. The good news is that not
only are things fixed, but we've upgraded to a fewer-people-dependent,
tighter and more reliable system. Here is what happened:

As you know, SFBA is always looking for a few good women and men to
assume major role of responsibility in the Association, and last year
was no exception; we turned over our mailbox/membership/dues
responsibilities to one such energetic individual, who like many of us,
is an avid windsurfer who also wanted to give something back to the
sport. As one might guess, this responsibility is not only vital to
SFBA’s health, but absolutely necessary for our survival.

For some reason, he didn't or wasn't able to fulfill his commitment (new
employer?, got too behind to easily catch up?, didn't ask for help?,
waiting for someone else to come and do it for him?). And those of us
on the Board who might have noticed the severity of the situation
didn't, thus no one took the necessary action to prevent or correct it.
On the positive side, from our review of SFBA records, this incident
appears to have been the result of just carelessness, incapacity or
neglect, and nothing more.

It wasn't until earlier this season as we were reengineering and
reorganizing our SFBA administrative services did we discover just how
"personalized" some functions had become with so little volunteer
turnover the last several years, and how difficult it might be to assume
some functions without the institutional memory (previous volunteer)
there to answer questions to keep things running smoothly.

With regard to the very, very late check deposits, when we discovered
the months-old membership renewals, we made a command decision in the
moment to deposit them anyway, and credit those whose checks clear with
current membership dues-status. I will say that the cache of old
membership submittals came as a surprise since we thought we had the
necessary appropriate cross-checks in place by virtue of treasurer
reports, database coordination, membership updates, etc. In hindsight,
we are going to start tracking more membership information and trends,
so that we can better measure and anticipate our membership services and
our fiscal performance and health. And last but not least, we must
remember that this organization is built on trust, that we count on each
other to do the best that we can, and if we can't deliver, then we need
to make it known and ask for help.

We have a new group of very responsible people managing the admin side
of things now, and I'm confident that with the system being implemented
by our new Secretary (a real IS professional) and our new Treasurer (a
licensed CPA), we can expect even better service to our membership from
here on out. Anyone who has a question about their membership or dues
payment can contact David Nelson <dnelson@hooked.net-DeleteThis> at 510-841-5057.

On the outreach side of things... dues-paying members and others should
have received the Coyote announcement in March, thus they know to check
the SFBA Web site for updates. On the newsletter and other activity
side of things, I can confidently say that most every SFBA volunteer is
working his or her butt off on access and other issues, and we have been
attempting to time things like the newsletter with major access
announcements... and the Coyote thing has been so hot, and the SFBA
folks are so fully engaged, that we plan to do a significant piece for
the newsletter AFTER the BIG EIR meeting this coming Monday, May 10th.
Perhaps our membership needs to know that each newsletter costs into the
thousands of dollars, and that's with volunteer work for everything
except the printing and delivering it to members mailboxes. Which
brings me to my closing comments: Please encourage everyone you can to
check the Web site for information and updates... such as Crissy Field
access and construction status, etc.

If you have any questions/comments/suggestions about any of this please
feel free to contact me at Atomic1@worldnet.att.net.-DeleteThis

Bill Robberson
SFBA President

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