[bagpuss]

Its a new paypal option, it automatically renews every year, we are hoping to remind people before it happens though and of course once you are paid up you are covered for the next year even if you cancel so you can sign up and then follow the simple instructions to cancel if you don't want to be left with an automatic payment

[marigold]

Thank you Sally that makes intentions a bit clearer. I appreciate that a lot of thought has gone into the matter and my issue isn't really with the amount, it's with the wording . Leaving aside my personal feelings about it, I think the current options may appear to imply to newcomers that Downsizer is a Families-only organisation. Most other organisations that I belong to which require a subscription have Individual, Group/Family/Household and Concessionary membership options as a minimum and I think that’s what most people would expect as normal.

If the staffroom don’t wish to offer a separate Individual membership option, then I suggest the current options are changed to Annual subscription (waged) and Annual subscription (low income/unwaged) and that the introductory text on the profile page explains what a subscription covers e.g. subscriber and others living at the same address attending events and/or wishing to assist with running costs. Though it does get a bit tricky when you factor in the possibilities of children who don't reside with the subscriber, but who might attend events with their parent, or people who live at the same address, but aren't family members (lodgers, staff), and what about a disabled subscriber's non-live-in paid carer - would they be covered by the subscriber's fee?

Maybe this seems over-picky, maybe it doesn't matter that much as long as enough money is generated to cover the costs that need to be covered, but I'm an ex-business systems analyst and think it's worth being very clear about things, particularly for the benefit of newcomers who haven’t yet read and taken in everything there is to know about DS. I think it would also help to make it clear in the wording on the profile page that people attending events must be covered by a subscription, but otherwise subscribing is entirely optional. Again this might not be clear to a new member seeing the payment options for the first time on their profile page and would save having to field queries from newbies .

[cab]

I don't think it does, but I think it might be hard to formulate something as simple and brief as whats there already that says what you want it to say.

Edit: Another important clarification would be what 'family member' means, at least from an insurance point of view. Take a nephew to an event, is he covered? A non-married partner? I appreciate this is all a wee bit more complex and not really whats wanted in the 'up front' part, so perhaps a link in there to a more complete terms and conditions?

[bagpuss]

The insurance will cover everyone at the event, non members will be allowed to attend the subscriptions primary purpose is to give our insurers a clear idea of how many people are likely to attend so they can assess risk not a definite list of names of who is covered

[jema]

Sort of. Insurance comes cheaper if we buy per year and not per event and for that purpose we need a membership number to put on a form.
This subscription system will be a way of doing this.

[cab]

The insurance will cover everyone at the event, non members will be allowed to attend the subscriptions primary purpose is to give our insurers a clear idea of how many people are likely to attend so they can assess risk not a definite list of names of who is covered

[bagpuss]

The section in the profile now links to this thread in the forum and we are thinking about the best way to improve the wording of the initial annoucement to make the insurance aspect clearer

[Mrs Fiddlesticks]

[cab]

The section in the profile now links to this thread in the forum and we are thinking about the best way to improve the wording of the initial annoucement to make the insurance aspect clearer

[jema]

We will know, we are clever like that

[Marionb]

We will know, we are clever like that

[marigold]

and, quite frankly, I am not amused. Whatever the staffroom's intentions that wording feels to me like a nasty poke at what I thought was a perfectly reasonable request. Conceding my point, but in a snidey sort of way. Possibly I'm being oversensitive, but, my feelings aside, I don't think it would look particularly good to a newcomer to DS either.