IMA Home Meadmaker Membership

[Greenblood]

Having multiple levels of membership is always a good idea. It seems that $25 is what most are calling for. However, it is always a good idea to offer higher paying memberships to those willing to pay it.
Perhaps levels of membership such as:

Friend: $25
Patron: $35
Supporter: $50
Contibutor: $100
Benefactor: $500
etc.

I think that it is important to have membership start low enough for students and be flexible enough to allow those who are able to offer more to do so. You may also consider family memberships. Bennefits are necessary, but they should not be what "sells" the membership. The best bennefit will be watching the IMA grow, and spread the love of mead.

Cheers!

Greenblood

 

[pain]

==>pointing at Greenbloods' post.....Oskaar, take this one to Julia. I like it!

The IMA *is* a non-profit organization. I can't speak to the deductibility of donations and/or membership, not being an expert in such things, but it is already set up as a non-profit.

You Canadian types (ya, hey!...I spent 5 years in the UP of MI, LOL), you might be interested to know that one of the founding committee members is Intermiel, a large Canadian meadery, and a multiple winner in last year's Mead Festival Pro Competition. Andre there is a great guy, and one of the folks who was most vocal in the first IMA meeting last year.

I'm lovin' the activity we're seeing here, and I'm seeing lots of great comments. Keep it comin', y'all!

Vicky - working on a total re-do of the IMA website, and looking for artists who'd like to help with the artwork for the site.........

 

[Dmntd]

I'm not looking for tax deductions.

The reason I ask;

A non-profits list of members must be made public where as a not-for-profits does not.

Anthony

 

[Oskaar]

I'm pretty sure that it is the officers of the Not-For-Profit that are a matter of public record. This is different than members and different than making something public.

When the articles of incorporation, bylaws and other corporate documents are filed they become a matter of public record. From that point they are in the public domain for anyone who desires to petition the corporate documents that are publicly available via the local clerk or registrar's office.

So from the onset of the corporation, the documents are publicly viewable, but it is not up to the corporation to make them public since they are filed with the local city or county clerk's office.

As far as member lists being made public, I haven't run across that one. I'm involved with four non-profits, on the board of directors for three, and on the executive board for two. Each year the board and executive board members are elected by the general membership, and the names of the newly elected board members are filed. I don't know that we have to file our general membership lists with anyone. In one organization that is an art and cultural concern connected to the City of Los Angeles, we file our financial balance sheet, tax returns, list of officers and other financial, legal and corporate documents annually with the cultural affairs department which is an LA City agency. In the other organizations we just keep our lists under physical and digital security to protect membership privacy.

Hope that helps,

Oskaar

 

[Brewbear]

Wait for meeee!!!
Don't you guys (and gals) take off on this and leave me behind :-\
I started brewing only a few short months ago and already the amount of knowledge aquired thru gotmead and its members is invaluable. To belong to a group dedicated to mead and its place and availability to the public at large, many of whom have no idea what mead is, combined with forums and newsletters is something that is of definite interest to me. As for membership fees, I agree with those suggesting a progressive scale of membership levels. It is understandable that the higher you are on the "ladder", the more perks you wold have. For some of us just starting, a lifetime membership may be aluring but the fee might be prohibitive so we may choose a lower level membership with the goal of "upgrading" when time and funds permit it.
That being said, I'll cast my vote for a basic membership fee range of $25 - $35 per year. It is fair and does not "kill" one's pocket. Besides, committing to a lifetime membership not having a clear, tangible feel of what the organization is like is not something I am inclined to do. I have all the confidence that people like Oskaar, Vicky, Dan, Ken and so many others involved in this grass roots movement will not lead it down the path of destruction, I believe it will grow into something to be proud to belong to. It is my innate aprehension of belonging to a group, much like the SCA, that overwhelms its members with rules and regulations( I believe Pewter will attest to that) therefore, I will gladly become an entry level member and wait to see how the organization develops overall.

Ted - the wait and see johnny come lately

 

[jab]

For all of you outside of the US I realize (as do we in the committee) that it seems odd being called the International Mead Association but seemingly we are 99% US based and focused. As Vicky pointed out Intermiel in Canada is involved. Others will come. I have been keeping the bug in the committee's ear about including competition winners from other countries in the IMA Home Mead Makers competition. It WILL happen. Things like this take time.

International entries, although logistically difficult, will be welcome to enter the competition this year. One of the aims of the IMA is to introduce, lobby for, and change current legislation to be supportive of mead in general, both on the home mead maker front and in the commercial court. One of the byproducts of this will hopefully be some guidelines and easing of restrictions on sending competition samples both into and out of the US.

I would love to see a traveling IMA Home Mead Making competition, similar to the Olympics where it is something coveted, that countries 'bid' to host. Am I dreaming? Maybe. Call it what you want, but as Oskaar said, the group we have is, in a word, dedicated. Nothing is impossible.

The tiered membership is something we hadn't talked about before. I like the idea and that is definitely something we may be looking at in the future.

With the right support of the community, both commercial and hobby, I foresee great things in the future. I would love to see international branches that lobby their governments the way the US arm is planning here in the states. I would love the chance to taste meads from other countries! Some of the best mead I have tasted was at the last MeadFest from Poland. We need more!

I hear a lot of 'If the benefits were right I would be willing to pay...'. Please keep the suggestions coming. What are the right benefits? What is your perfect benefit to price ratio?

You are witnessing the start of something wonderful. Wonderful for the seasoned mazer, the 'weekend warrior', the n00b, and the mead makers of tomorrow.

Rome wasn't built in a day. Mead isn't done in a week (unless you are Ancient Joe!) And the IMA of today is only the seed of a wonderful organization that we will ALL benefit from. Yes even those that for one reason or another don't become members.

This is your chance to have a say. Speak up! We are listening.

 

[infojunkie]

Yes. However, since one of the purposes of the IMA is to lobby legislatures to change laws, donations to it will not be deductible. I may be wrong on this, but that is my current understanding!

It may make things more complicated than it's worth, but some groups divide into two, a "foundation" and a lobbying group, so that the restrictions on the latter don't have to affect the former.

Here's a comparison of four types of 501(c)s:
http://members.aol.com/irsform1023/misc/comp501s.html

for a (c)7: "Social activity must be primary"

I think this organization sounds great. The meadfest (IMA) website is very attractive! (I wish my sites looked so nice.) Will the forum there compete with this one, though?

 

[scout]

Even though I am a very beginning meadmaker, I would like to add my two cents on the perks vs. dues discussion. Miriam pointed out that for many members internationally what a membership will boil down to (for a while, at least, until your lobbying efforts are successful) is a newsletter. Having a basic membership level which costs $25 and gets the benefit of a newsletter once a quarter or every two months seems reasonable. I say this because $25 is within the range of what I would pay for a one year subscription to a magazine, especially for smaller publications who don't have access to volume discounts.

Understandably, that at first it will prolly just be a newsletter, not a magazine, but having read the discussions on this forum and heard the way Ken Schramm is talked about here (I'm getting my book on Saturday *grins*) - I think that it is pretty safe to say that this newsletter will be interesting to read, FULL of informative articles (if Oskaar and Dan have anything to say about it), and certainly something that people on this forum would read and reread. And anxiously await the next issue! Not only that, but it has been mentioned that there are plans to eventually make this a full fledged magazine, making the $25 annual fee even more reasonable.

I have always believed in supporting good publications and publications with the potential to be really good. If I believe that a publication, while at the moment may not be top notch, has the potential to grow into something that I want to keep for years as reference material I have no problem with plunking down as much as $35 for four issues a year (even just as a newsletter).

I guess what I am saying is that you know these people, or have read their thoughts and writings on mead. If you believe that you will enjoy reading a newsletter/magazine by them - well, then anything else the committee manages to get done for international members seems like gravy to me.

 

[andrew_buhl]

Re: IMA -USA v Canada

For all of you outside of the US I realize (as do we in the committee) that it seems odd being called the International Mead Association but seemingly we are 99% US based and focused.

As a Canadian, Ive been watching the postings with great interest, mostly with a smile on my face. However when the issue was brought forth by Scout and or Jab that IMA is '99% American' I could feel my hackles rising a little. Canadians are extremely sensitive to issues of American agricultural protectionism since NAFTA. Dairy, Beef, Softwood Lumber and yes Honey. It Has only been in the last decade that it is even legal to import American honey into Canada. Likewise many agricultural products or their derivatives are excluded from import into the states or subject to extremely high tarifs and or restrictions.

My concern being that IMA would feel well its mostly American anyway and the interests, access to events, etc. would be structured with out a balanced consideration to the desires of Non-American hobbyists and producers.

What steps would IMA be taking to insure that the interests of other contries, such as holding events, input etc. would be taken seriously?

Please don't take offense at my asking but I do feel that this is a valid issue.

 

[Angus]

One of the main concerns I am seeing from people outside of the U.S. is what benefit they will get from membership bedsides a quarterly newsletter. As JAB pointed out, the IMA committee is interested in international chapters being created. These chapters could organize the same sort of regional Mead Fests that we have here, could petition local governments to change laws allowing the export of alcohol, could translate recipes, share recipes, export local honey types etc, etc. In other words, cater to the local Mead brewers, but make so much more available to everyone else around the world. Plus, organizations can often arrange special deals with airlines and hotels that will allow members from all over to travel to each others fests far easier and cheaper. For me, this is worth more than $25 a year.

With respect to tiered membership, any thoughts on what each tier would provide for the member? If the IMA is set up to have input from it's members, such as votes on officers, funding, lobbying direction etc., then would higher tiered membership accord greater weight? Or would it be 1 member 1 vote regardless of tier? Am I way off base here?