[Jerry Cowing]

You people sound like the club is broken. There is nothing wrong with the DSCC club and the club charter doesn not need to be changed.

Our current DSCC charter asks for volunteers to orgainize events in their local areas and once a year attend an annual event - if they are not busy (don't be nieve to think that just because you scheduled an event that everyone is going to take vacation or quit their jobs to attend). This club structure is working very well. As more people join the club, it is logical that maybe the regions should be divided into smaller sections for even more localized events. When the club grows, then ask for more localized representatives, but don't re-charter the club.

Poor attendance at this year's annual meeting was not caused by lack of interest, it was caused because the meeting was not held in a central location this year. This problem was discussed at length, but the meeting was held in South Florida anyway, so there shouldn't be any surprise at the low attendance. Again, this doesn't mean the current club charter is broken. It only means a bad choice was made on where to hold the annual meeting. The meeting should have been held in Northern Florida, Alabama or Georgia which are all locations more central to all the club members' homes.

Dues are not required to fix a growing club. Those that propose collecting dues (taxes) sound like our Congress whose only solution is to throw money at things, most of the time at things that are not broken. We don't need our club to turn into a welfare, socialistic orgainzation to redistribute our wealth. Everyone can and should pay their own way -- its the capitalistic way. If someone wants to donate money towards an event, then it should be just that -- a donation -- no strings attached or they shouldn't donate. I was taught that if you intend to give a gift to someone, don't expect anything in return - not even a thank you. If you're expecting something in return then sell it to them or trade for it, then you won't be disappointed and upset.

Dues take the fun, spontaneity and volunteerism out of a club and put the burden on the person holding the purse strings. I've seen dues ruin fun clubs over and over again. It's a natural human tendency to expect those holding the club money to give the club members something in return. Many dues-paying members subconsciencely or consciencely think they don't have to volunteer anymore because they paid their dues for someone else to do it for them. If you want to ruin our club, start charging dues.