USAWA

well money is a little tight for me & has been ever since i moved to denver, but the low membership fee (which i will renew next month!) gives me something fun & inexpensive to do that my whole family enjoys. i understand al’s frustration, but i hope USAWA stays low cost as long as no members have to subsidize others.

thom makes a point about “entitlement thinking”. i hope the low costs aren’t hurting anyone else–if they are i will drop out until i can afford to pay more. but i’m really grateful to have such a terrific sport available to me. thanks to the guys who put all the real work in this organization.

jf

I hope my story today didn’t come across as “to brash”. I wasn’t in the best of moods when I got up today, and it’s probably not a good idea to write when that’s the case!

We are very fortunate to be financial secure in the USAWA. We do have adequate “money in the bank” to do the things we need to do as an organization. However, lots of our bank account is “old money” (due to a very wealthy anoynomous donator that has passed away a few years ago). Since then our account has dwindled somewhat, and our financial report last year showed a loss for the year. It takes money to make things happen in an organization – ie drug testing, the awards program, the website, etc. These are things that everyone benefits from for their membership fee.

I’m a business man and I’m trying to run the USAWA like a business. There are lots of things that I will give “wiggle room” on, but when it comes to the USAWA money there is no “grey zone” for me. Al

Sometimes, we all need to be reminded that it can take very little work on our part to make someone else’s job a whole lot easier. I appreciate the work you do, Al, and what you have done for the USAWA.

With that being said, I enjoy the low memebrship. HEre is why. I like competing in a number of strength avenues. I pay dues to be a pro strongman. I would have to pay NAs dues if I wasnt the state chair. NAHA dues, when I compete there, plus whatever powerlifting federation dues are required of meets I want to do. That adds up, or at least it can. I know of a guy who competed only in the Gus last year. Between NAS fees and entry, it was almost a benjamin for just one contest. Luckily, as far as the USAWA goes in our area, there is plenty of opportunity to compete anymore.

Now, with that being said, I agree with your stance on no wiggle room with USAWA money. Fact of the matter, if it doesnt average out to paying for itself (without rich benefactors-those dont come around all the time), we may have no choice but to up the membership fee. I hope it doesnt come to that. When I first joined, before there was drug testing, I believe I paid thirteen bucks which was like seven for the USAWA and six for IAWA. But if we need to pony up, I will do what I have to do, as Im sure most other members will.

Sorry for the wandering, windbag post
ET

I apologize, I may be one of “those” people. After reading Al’s post it made me realize I never sent in my application form. I pay all my bills online so I put in the $25.00 to pay my membership fee and forgot to mail my application.

So I will take my lick’s in a public. I do apologize.

Eric made a good point about paying membership fees in other organizations as well (which most all are more than $25 per year). This adds up. We don’t want the USAWA to be that organization you “give up” on for a year because you would rather pay your strongman or powerlifting dues for the year. But I do know at some point we will have to raise fees. I haven’t completed the financial analysis for the USAWA yet for 2011, so it depends on how things turn out with that whether this will be the year I recommend it to the membership to raise “prices”. Hopefully, that will not be the case.

James point on paying online is a good one as well. This is in my long range plans for the USAWA. All it would take is setting up a paypal account (which is easy), and making some additions to the website to work with paypal. The problem is that there are fees with paypal, and this would take away from the USAWA income. Again, more costs equals higher membership fees. And that’s the bottom line. Al