09-10-2008, 07:12 AM
There is no $100 membership to have a say. Lots of our members have plenty of say and pay zero per year. If you think any local organization can be effective with zero budget then please tell me how. FoPF has hopes of lowering the voting membership dues and that may occur in the future. For the present we formed up to become effective this year not in 2012. This is not intended to be a social club. It is intended to be a lobbying group and that is exactly what we are doing. We started with the simple question of "Can Puna Have More Clout? So far the answer seems to be yes.
There is one factor about our voting member dues which I have not mentioned. Other local groups, with annual dues of say $10, have had a history of takeovers. When a council person for example is unhappy that a local org doesn't agree with them it has been easy to send in a batch of buddies to an annual meeting, pay the small dues and take over. Take control. This has happened here before. It would be quite okay if those "taking over" actually stayed and worked on community issues. History is they don't. They jam up the organization, mess up the books, discourage participation and leave. In cyberspace these are called "trolls".
Knowing that history and wanting to take some effective action this year FoPF set the bar a little bit higher. We only seek members who are committed to promoting the interests of Puna. Those interests are defined by our member's voices - and many of those voices pay no dues.
Also we have formed in a manner to avoid endless meetings. A lot of our group communications, polling of members and voting takes place on the internet by email. That saves time and saves gas and saves having 30 people spend 20 minutes or an hour listening to someone like me talk. We think that is efficient and respectful of people's time. We have had face to face meetings when necessary and when our members desire to do so.
FoPF feels that our district needs some consistency in it's advocacy. Two year council terms leave some serious peaks and valleys in attending to issues. Having a year-in / year-out long term approach will hopefully reap benefits. But FoPF will only ultimately be as effective as it's membership. The only reason to consider supporting an organization such as FoPF is to try to achieve more as a group than we can alone.
Why not join in with FoPF? It doesn't cost anything.... and if you actually find it to be productive you can choose, like others have, to support it financially.
Rob Tucker, President
FoPF <friendsofpuna1@mail.com>
There is one factor about our voting member dues which I have not mentioned. Other local groups, with annual dues of say $10, have had a history of takeovers. When a council person for example is unhappy that a local org doesn't agree with them it has been easy to send in a batch of buddies to an annual meeting, pay the small dues and take over. Take control. This has happened here before. It would be quite okay if those "taking over" actually stayed and worked on community issues. History is they don't. They jam up the organization, mess up the books, discourage participation and leave. In cyberspace these are called "trolls".
Knowing that history and wanting to take some effective action this year FoPF set the bar a little bit higher. We only seek members who are committed to promoting the interests of Puna. Those interests are defined by our member's voices - and many of those voices pay no dues.
Also we have formed in a manner to avoid endless meetings. A lot of our group communications, polling of members and voting takes place on the internet by email. That saves time and saves gas and saves having 30 people spend 20 minutes or an hour listening to someone like me talk. We think that is efficient and respectful of people's time. We have had face to face meetings when necessary and when our members desire to do so.
FoPF feels that our district needs some consistency in it's advocacy. Two year council terms leave some serious peaks and valleys in attending to issues. Having a year-in / year-out long term approach will hopefully reap benefits. But FoPF will only ultimately be as effective as it's membership. The only reason to consider supporting an organization such as FoPF is to try to achieve more as a group than we can alone.
Why not join in with FoPF? It doesn't cost anything.... and if you actually find it to be productive you can choose, like others have, to support it financially.
Rob Tucker, President
FoPF <friendsofpuna1@mail.com>
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
Punaweb moderator