Re: Donating (was Re: Voting Members)

Hello Thatcher,

>  "Conformity is the jailer of freedom and
>   the enemy of growth." - John F. Kennedy


Amen.

With that spirit in mind, allow me to address your questions.

> So what
> I am assuming is, you don't see what being a dues paying member does for
> you?

Didn't anyone ever tell you what assuming does?

> Are
> you saying in that time, you do not see the Guild as being beneficial to
> it's members, paying or not?

No. I will say, however, that upgrading my membership has not occurred to me
until the issue of this election came up, to be perfectly frank.

> Do you feel the Guild is ineffectual in the
> resources it provides to the members?

No. Quite the contrary. I feel the HWG, specifically the mailing lists,
offers much in way of resources to its membership.

> The web site is not a proper
> database of information for designing/maintaining other web sites and
> helping members to build more professional appearing web sites?

Hardly. See above answer, please.

> Membership levels and "value-added" inducements are a marketing tool to
> increase monetary DONATIONS to an organization (such as PBS), NOT pay
> this and we'll give you more.

Thank you for that explanation. But, honestly, with 19 years of sales and
marketing experience behind me, I do feel I'm quite capable of figuring that
out for myself. Come to think of it, even without the experience, one could
figure that out.

> If your point of being a paying member is
> "what can it do for me" then perhaps the whole idea of a donation to an
> educational resources escapes you.

What escapes me is how much you assume.

> Volunteering if you can't afford to financially donate is a
> wonderful alternative, but when a person has done neither, what concept
> does that show your peers?

Not applicable to my situation, in my opinion. I spend considerable time
participating in the critique, graphics and theory lists. Moreover, it
wasn't until a few weeks ago that the issue of being a shining example even
occurred to me.

> Perhaps it is the structure in which the memberships are marketed that
> has brought this kinds of misperception or that the word "donation" was
> felt to have the wrong connotation when the idea was developed.

And perhaps none of this ever entered my mind. Allow me to explain what did.
Over a year ago, I went to the website. I read a few pages. I determined
that the Basic membership would suit my needs. I joined. I joined a few
mailing lists. I participated. I learned. I learned more. I started my own
website development business. I participated even more on the lists. I got
nominated.  I'm answering this e-mail. And oh yeah, somewhere in there (back
in May) I got married.

Pondering "Donation" with regard to HWG simply never entered my mind.

>"Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your
 >country."
>     -- J.F.K., inaugural address, 1961

Living Colour "Cult of Personality" 1988

So this is campaigning, eh? Nifty.

Regards,
Demitrius >I<
------------------------------------------------A. Demitrius Lopez
       W  E  B  S  I  T  E     D  E  V  E  L  O  P  E  R
                   I'd appreciate your vote
               to the HWG Governing Board
http://www.hwg.org/election1998/lopez.html
------------------------------------>I<------------------------------------

HWG: hwg-elections mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA