This TOASTMASTER year, when I took over the treasury of our club, I thought to myself – “How can I persuade our members to pay their membership dues well in advance to avoid running after them begging for membership payments?”

I plotted a few time-frames and started thinking of incentives, which I could use as rewards for adhering to early-bird offers. “Yes, discounts could work well” and when Lynne Gevers, Division D Director, mentioned that members could pay for 12 months in advance – the idea was born!

Here’s my recipe:

SWAKOPMUND TOASTMASTERS charge a fixed amount per month to their members in order to cover membership fees and other costs which occur during the year. To give an indication of how the discount structure is being used, please use the following example:
Option 4
6 x 160.00 = 960.00 (for the period of October – March)
Knowing that the last days in September are extremely busy on TMI website and all other treasurers wanting to pay their dues, I thought of trying to have most of the membership fees paid up by 15th September.
This is the deadline for the N$ 960.00 payers

Option 3
We offer a 10% discount for members who pay their dues before or on 31st August.

Option 2
If members pay by the 15th August, they receive 20% discount.

Option 1
This is the best offer. A member who pays for 12 months in advance by the 15th of August gets 30% deducted from their annual total fee.

We started the test run this year and the result was phenomenal!
Being a small club with less than 15 members, three (3) of our members invested in themselves by taking the 30% discount (option 1) and 6 members paid on 15th August for (option 3). When TMI opened their website for the coming round of semi-annual payments on 15th August, I was able to pay membership fees for all 9 members. This new payment model not only earned our club one (1) point on the DCP performance scale well in advance, but the club has secured itself a good human resource foundation for the coming TM year.

The idea behind the discount system is to reward the longstanding members for their loyalty towards TOASTMASTERS, besides giving incentives to those who can afford to pay ahead of time.
With this approach I am hoping to be able to assist our Club President by making my department a stronghold for our club. At the same time I am trying to convince my fellow TOASTMASTERS that the role of a treasurer does not need to be stress ridden
My motto for this year is THINKING FINANCIALLY INOVATIVELY!

Monika von Wietersheim (ACG; ALB)
TREASURER (2018-2019)
SWAKOPMUND TOASTMASTERS CLUB