H. Wayne S

My Feedback: (18)

Please assist us in establishing a starting point for Dues.
Your club dues are:


Also any comments would be appreciated.

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

I made a little dues survey about 3 years ago, just searching for clubs with websites and reading or asking about their fee structure and several other items. Of 27 clubs, I found the range was from Free to ($300 for a nonvoting membership, several thousand for a voting membership) and there were many contributing factors. Using that $300 for the high, the average was $60 and the median $36. The bulk of clubs that paid rent charged less than $40/year for annual membership, and those with rent to pay had annual dues from $40 to $150, except for that $300 statistical outlier.

There were also ways to differentiate between what clubs offer, like whether they have grass or hardsurface runways, and whether certain loud types of airplanes are forbidden.

In my old study, the numbers which show up most often are $50 and $100, either of which could fit into either of two of your surveys. You might want to modify the numbers.

I belong to two clubs, both have grass runways, both have annual dues of $100. One has a vote-in process, the other does not - but it requires a $25 fee to join or pay dues late.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

Kaos Rulz

Wayne,

Good Poll. As you probably already know our dues fall in the $50 - $75 range per year, but if a member is in good standing, the third year is free. This would reduce the overall fees to the lower range.

Good luck with your poll. (are you branching out from the Dixie club?)

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Can,t vote - our dues are $15 year.

johnboyrc

Our regular club member dues are 25, and junior dues are 15. Our dues are based upon what the clubs expenses are, and what approximently covers that cost. We rased our dues two years ago, from $15. Several older members got mad. First raise in the dues in a decade or two. With what the club has to offer, I feel that my clubs dues should be worth more, but I actually take advantage of what the club has to offer as well, and not all do. Every member of our club has a vote, but not everyone chooses to exercise it. I would not be surprised in the future if the club has nonflying dues for members who don't fly.

TomCrump

Our club dues are $20.00, but each member has to direct traffic for a local event.It's a four hour shift. For that, the Club is paid $7.00 an hour. That makes our dues $48.00.

Our field has two 350X100 feet grass runways.

hookedonrc

Our dues are $100.00, but we have a facility with a 400' paved runway, a 600' grass runway, an airconditioned and heated club house with bathroom facilities, kitchen, pop machine, covered assembly area with tables, and cemented pit areas for both small and large planes as well as 2 heli pads. Each year, we try to have one major project that improves the facility in one way or another. We limit the membership to 125 adult members (unlimited Jr. members) so that we don't overcrowd the place with flyers. It is a pretty good bargain any way you look at it.

H. Wayne S

My Feedback: (18)

No Ed not branching out, Just want to know how we stack up. Plus we need to do a lot of improvements and were looking at ways to generate income.

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

$25.00 to join and $24.00 anually. Two fields. One 400' gravel runway, the other about 600' hard packed dirt. Under 18, 1/2 price.

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

$40.00 anually. Nice grass field and a small open pavilion with 8 stand up work tables in the pits. Only 20 members.

Hughes500E

My Feedback: (16)

We charge a one time initiation fee of 25.00 dollars to offset gate keys decals etc and then a 50.00 fee anually.
Compared to what most pay for golfing, skiiing and what have you, this is quite inexpensive!
Ulimately an increase would do us good! As a member of the executive, I would like to see 75.00

BigSkyRCFlyer

My Feedback: (36)

15 dollars some years or no fees at all depends on how we feel as a club, plus all the Montana "Big Sky" you can handle

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

I belong to 2 clubs. One just raised it dues from $25 to $30 to keep up with the cost of the Newsletter mailings and the increased cost of field mowing. (We pay someone to mow.) There's a one time initiation fee of $5.00 and a $5.00 key deposit. 75 X 225 foot grass runway that's quite smooth (we roll it every spring with a 1 ton roller), and it's mowed weekly. 100 to 125 voting members, no cap, full Board of Directors. Club meetings monthly except June, July and August.

The other has annual dues of $25 with a $5.00 initiation fee. 100 X 400 foot grass runway, not quite as nice as the other, but with a larger "overfly" area. Maximum 50 members, non-voting due to the arrangement with the property owner and our liaison. Two annual meetings, at the spring and fall clean-ups.

No amenities at either field because contracts forbid permanent structures, including porta-johns. So you need to "plan" before heading to the field for the day.

Both clubs are easy going with virtually no politics, and great guys.
Dennis-

carrellh

$40 per year. 650 ft grass runway, 16x40(?) shade with picnic tables, porta-potti. Two of our members own the porta-potti company and donate the service. One of our members owns/maintains the field. The club reimburses tractor upkeep and fuel expenses to our land owner; if he'll accept.

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

The club I'm in costs $60 / year (Pro-rated for joining in the middle of a year), with a $20 / year grounds maintenance fee, which covers mowing, fertilizing, seeding, gravel for the parking area, etc. One of our members is contracted to mow, but most of the other maintenance labor is done voluntarily by club members. We have about 55 members, pay about $1500 / year land use fee to the landowners, who let us do what we need to make the field good for us. We have a 1000+ foot paved runway (it's an old drag strip) and a 1000 foot grass runway adjacent to the paved one. With careful expenditure, the club has managed to bank a decent savings. We have porta-potti. covered areas with work / picnic tables. At several of our yearly fly-ins the local volunteer fire dept sets up concessions, and they get to keep all the money they generate; this makes them a big fan of our club and it helps the community, too.

BobbyRichardson

I wish my club dues were 200.00 a year. All this would mean is that we would have a nicer facility. Things like two runways. air-conditioned clubhouse more organized events with free food and prizes I could go on and on. Where else are you going to have so much fun for so little money.

deckerv

My Feedback: (21)

Here in no man's land our local club charges $40 a year. The only member requirement is that you have to help mow the field 2-3 times a season with a team of 2-4 people.. depending if you have a riding mower or not.

*Crash*Johnson*

My Feedback: (7)

I'm in the 50 to 100 club...

I don't think that a poll (although very informative to everyone else to gauge how much they are paying vs everyone else) should be the determining factor in how much you set your dues to be.

Things like rent for land, what the field is like, surroundings, ect should be the determining factor. Noone would pay $150 to fly from a swamp surrounded by trees and a working airport. Things like a building / clubhouse, bath facilities, paved runway, ect should be factored in.

Personally, I'd figure out all the costs involved and divide it amongst the clubmates (with a smidge extra cushion... just in case). It's the fair thing to do.

BobbyRichardson

Crash

I agree the nicer the field or plans for a nicer field should determine the dues structure. All the things that make a field nice including up keep cost money.

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

BobbyRichardson,
Since you've advocated $200.00 dues for fields. How much are your's? Inquiring minds want to know?

Personally everyone I've met in this hobby likes to save a buck if possible. $200.00 dues plus AMA is a nice ARF. Our property is managed by the county and the dues could go up to infinity and we still would have the same one run way.

John

H. Wayne S

My Feedback: (18)

I could not agree more with you Crash, BUT We all have to have a starting point and a goal. I/we have a great deal of work to do on/at our field and for some reason we are always broke. Eventhough the field is provided by the county, we still have to pay for grass cutting, AMA charter, Insurance,(over and above the AMA provided), Porta Potties, Dumpster, Road maintaiance. And the list goes on. We were thinking about raising the dues. The results of this poll prove it would not be prudent.
Thanks to all that participated.

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

We've all given you info on our dues structure, how about providing your's?

Maybe we could offer suggestions for raising or saving money.

One of my clubs had been paying $75/week for field mowing. We shopped the membership and came up with someone willing to do it for $37.50 (half the current amount). He also happens to mow the field at the other club I belong to. This saved us $900/season, or about $8 or $9 per member per year.

We asked club memebers who are on-line to volunteer to receive their newsletters via e-mail. About 25 agreed, which saved us on the order of $135/year. Not substantial, but reduces each member's dues the equivalent of about $1.00/year.

Anyway, what are your club's dues now?
Dennis-

BobbyRichardson

Guys to each his own, but I for one like a well kept up field with everything that you need to enjoy our hobby. My club dues are a 100.00 a year but I have donated around a 1000.00 on top of that to the club when the club could not afford to pay for some extra things to make life better.

Pilot Chad

My Feedback: (4)

I don't have club dues till I am 16

mulligan

This poll may not be very useful. A club's dues are dependent on too many variables, such as:

- Did the club pay for a paved runway?
- Is the land paid for or is it provided for free by a kind property owner or municipality?
- Is this a big club with young members who mow their own grass?


Of course you will want to consider these questions in the future tense.

It might be more useful to gather a few budgets from established clubs, ideally ones who are close to yours in anticipated membership and facilities. Then you can tweak it for your specific situation.

If you'd like, I'll be glad to send you a copy of my club's budget for this purpose. PM me if you'd like a copy.