We are excited and pleased to announce an update to our membership policy.
As you probably already know, we offer MASC club membership to all community members that donate $24 for annual membership, or attend 2 community meetings within a 12 month period. We recognize that sometimes life steps in between our members and our amazing hobby...work schedules, family time, and other commitments may interfere with attending our monthly meetings. For some members, as much as we spread our meetings around the Denver metro area...our meeting locations would still require hours of travel from the other side of the mountains to stop by and visit. Extended travel for work...unfortunate life events...there are numerous reasons that our members are sometimes forced to step away from the hobby (temporarily, we always hope
), and it is our goal to ensure that everyone who has shown an outstanding commitment to participating in our community is recognized accordingly. All that being said, effective immediately:
All members with 750+ posts will be badged as club members
There are obviously going to be some questions on this...so I will try to address as many as possible here.
We encourage everyone to continue to actively participate in the community, and hope this helps to support the depth of knowledge and community feeling of our online forums. Feel free to PM myself or any of the BOD members if you have any questions or concerns regarding the new policy.
As you probably already know, we offer MASC club membership to all community members that donate $24 for annual membership, or attend 2 community meetings within a 12 month period. We recognize that sometimes life steps in between our members and our amazing hobby...work schedules, family time, and other commitments may interfere with attending our monthly meetings. For some members, as much as we spread our meetings around the Denver metro area...our meeting locations would still require hours of travel from the other side of the mountains to stop by and visit. Extended travel for work...unfortunate life events...there are numerous reasons that our members are sometimes forced to step away from the hobby (temporarily, we always hope
), and it is our goal to ensure that everyone who has shown an outstanding commitment to participating in our community is recognized accordingly. All that being said, effective immediately:All members with 750+ posts will be badged as club members
There are obviously going to be some questions on this...so I will try to address as many as possible here.
- Why was this decision made?
- We strongly value our web-based forums. The amount of information, experience, and help provided by our members is essential to our success...both as a community and as individual hobbyists. We would like to recognize our active members for their dedication and contribution to MASC
- What do you hope to gain from this / Why do you think this is a positive change?
- As much as we'd love to have face-time with all of our community members, we realize that other commitments often keep people from attending meetings. Also...let's face it...not everyone enjoys being packed into large social gatherings. Since our forums are an integral part of our community, we'd like to continue to invite our members to remain active in our community via this virtual platform. We hope that the increased and/or continued participation in the community forums will inspire people to have an even more active role in our community.
- Shouldn't those people just pay for membership?
- We are 100% grateful for every membership subscription that we receive. MASC is a non-profit, our BOD receives zero funds for our work...every dollar we receive goes back into the club for the website, hosting events, and putting together fundraisers. All that to say, our $24 membership donations are exactly that...donations to the club. While we love to see that financial support, we also realize that for the people who are unable to make our monthly meetings...perhaps it's difficult to justify donating $24 to a group that you haven't had the pleasure of interacting with face-to-face. We would like to encourage everyone to be as active in the community as possible, and inviting community members that show their dedication by sharing their knowledge and company via our forums seemed like a logical step in the right direction.
- How many people will be affected by this change?
- This is going to sound like a math problem...don't let that scare you, keep reading. MASC currently has over 2700 members and over 500 active members. Of those members, about 85 have over 750 posts. Of those 85...believe it or not...just over 60 are already badged members that have either chosen to donate or have been in regular attendance at our monthly meetings. We do have some inactive members with over 750 posts; after an audit when this is rolled out, I anticipate that we will be badging less than 20 active members due to the new policy. In other words, less than 5% of our active community fits this category, and we are happy to welcome them as club members.
- This is going to sound like a math problem...don't let that scare you, keep reading.
- Aren't you concerned that less people will pay for membership and just up their post count to become members?
- We currently have numerous members that regularly attend meetings, and still choose to donate to MASC. We strongly feel that those who choose to donate do so because they see the benefit the community provides; we even have donating members that "lurk" on the forums and never say too much...so perhaps this will give them the nudge to post some more, if they so choose.
- We currently have numerous members that regularly attend meetings, and still choose to donate to MASC. We strongly feel that those who choose to donate do so because they see the benefit the community provides; we even have donating members that "lurk" on the forums and never say too much...so perhaps this will give them the nudge to post some more, if they so choose.
- So...how does this work...is everyone with 750+ posts permanently a member?
- No. As of now, we are rolling this out so that everyone currently with 750 posts is a badged member. For anybody that hits 750 posts at a later date, you will receive a member badge at that time. This membership is set to expire on January 1st at the beginning of the new year. At that time, we will be auditing the membership based on activity; members that remain active throughout the year and make meaningful posts will have their membership renewed. So no, spamming "pics brah" across the forums will be of no benefit. Details regarding our procedure for verifying continued membership at the beginner beginning of the year are still being sorted.
- No. As of now, we are rolling this out so that everyone currently with 750 posts is a badged member. For anybody that hits 750 posts at a later date, you will receive a member badge at that time. This membership is set to expire on January 1st at the beginning of the new year. At that time, we will be auditing the membership based on activity; members that remain active throughout the year and make meaningful posts will have their membership renewed. So no, spamming "pics brah" across the forums will be of no benefit.
We encourage everyone to continue to actively participate in the community, and hope this helps to support the depth of knowledge and community feeling of our online forums. Feel free to PM myself or any of the BOD members if you have any questions or concerns regarding the new policy.
Last edited by a moderator:
