Post by Kaine Chandler on Nov 12, 2013 1:03:59 GMT -8
This document includes the OPTIONS 1-4, a short version of each, and a long version of each. Please take the time to read and understand the options and FAQ before engaging in the discussion. If you're not sure about something, please ask Kaine, Tai, or your ST.
Voting will take place in person at the BGC on November 23, 2013.
If you are unable to make it to game there will be a proxy email voting option, but email votes MUST be submitted no later than 4pm on Sat Nov 23. The proxy email address will be released no later than Nov 16. Do not send your proxy vote to STs.
Voting Options:
1) Do Nothing.
Short Version: NOTR continues to collect donations at the table, but will no longer hound, beg, plead, follow, harangue or cajole people into giving money. Even when we’re almost out. When the money runs out (estimated Jan-Feb 2014), we leave the paid venue.
Long Version: Players and STs will have responsibility to raise funds to pay rent. NOTR will continue to provide a centralized location for donations, donation tracking, and of course to pay rent with the funds collected. However, while NOTR staff and volunteers will continue to ask politely, we will not be begging. This might sound like a relief to some of you who are just as tired of being harassed about money as we are of harassing you, however, years of record-keeping shows that we will make half or less of the money we need when NOTR is only asking politely instead of tracking you down with a begging bowl in our hands. So chances are, we run out of money by Jan or Feb of next year.
This can involve fund-raisers, bake sales, pledge drives, bribes, or any other legal means of collecting money. The main point is, NOTR will revert to an auxiliary collection role, and occasionally helping to advise or facilitate player driven fund-raising activities, rather than the leading fund-begging role, and you the game will be responsible for making the money needed to pay the rent.
2) Initiate Mandatory Dues / Admission Fee
Short Version: Everyone would have to pay, earn or have paid for them the $2/night TO GAIN ADDMISSION TO THE PAID VENUE (not pay to play). There will be options for people who feel they cannot afford to pay for whatever reason (see the long version). This would go into effect automatically if the NOTR bank balance ever dropped below $700. First month free to new players.
Long Version: If the NOTR bank balance drops below $700 (one month’s rent), this plan goes into effect automatically, so you the player base can prevent this from happening by simply never letting that happen. This means that we can stay donation based as long as donations happen, and have a back up plan without having to do this crazy emergency voting thing again.
The other version of this option was just to initiate Admission Fees Dec 1, but we thought this might be easier to swallow, since it would ONLY take effect if donations can’t keep up with rent, so we have pre-placed consent to do this in order to keep the roof over all our heads.
This would be to gain admission to ANY venue that we have to pay rent to use. It is not pay-to-play, as you can still have a character, run midweek scenes, email staff, etc, and of course, any time we are not in a paid venue, no admission fees would be required. The first month would be waived for new players.
Those who cannot afford to pay have options.
1) Volunteer to work at the table collecting/tracking said admission fees. One 2 hr shift at the table would be a month’s admission for the volunteer. This can accommodate up to 16 people most months, as there are 4 2hr shifts each night. (most months have only 4 Saturdays). These positions will be awarded based on need as much as possible, but will require skill and trust as well, since these ppl handle the money and track the donors.
2) Have a friend pay for them. Your friend can simply tell the table volunteer, “Here’s 4$, for me and so-and-so.” And you both are recorded as paid for the night.
3) Hope for an anonymous donor. Those who wish to donate more than their minimum, but don’t have a specific benefactee in mind, can simply put their extra money toward anyone who needs it. Each week, the extra donations would be noted for use on a first come first serve basis for the following week. So if last week we got $20 of anonymous donations, this week, the first 10 people who can’t pay, are covered by that money. There is not really a fair way to determine who gets the anonymous donations, except by first come first serve, because we do not wish to require proof of financial hardship from anyone.
Everyone would be stamped each night upon payment of admission fee (or other means of coverage) so that they could leave and re-enter easily, and so that any who try to sneak by can be easily identified.
People who wish to pay in advance rather than nightly would receive stamped cards with the dollar amount written on them. When you arrive, simply present your card, and a hole will be punched to indicate each $2 Admission. When all the money is used up, you start again. Cards can have your name on them for security, or may say “Bearer” so that the same card might be used by anyone, should you wish to have a card others may use.
3) XP for Overpaying
Short Version: Those who pay MORE than the suggested donation of $10/month will be rewarded with shiny xp, at the rate of 1xp per $5 (over the initial $10) up to a cap of 10xp per player per month, until such time as the monthly goal of $800 is reached (after which no more xp will be awarded that month). Options for those who have more time than money are described in the long version.
Long Version: The idea here is that what you get for your $10/month is a warm, electric, restroom having place to play, because that’s not free. However, in recognition that those who pay more than $10/month are carrying the financial weight of other people and deserve some kind of (reasonable) reward for doing so.
The caps are in place because we don’t want this to get out of hand, or create some kind of crazy class system by which the richer players can buy hundreds of xp every month and win by money. It’s a small incentive/thank-you that shouldn’t unbalance the game.
For those with TIME instead of money, you have options, too. You can donate in lump sums less frequently, we prefer up front rather than delayed, but we take what we can get. You can alternatively run a fundraiser yourself and donate the proceeds to NOTR and get the xp bonus, after all, you did the work. (fund raiser ideas include bake sales, art auctions, costume or prop creation, etc). The same monthly caps apply to fundraisers, however if you’ve done a fundraiser and the $800 monthly goal is reached already, you can always hold on to it until the next month so you get the rewards. XP from fundraiser donations can be split between several players, so feel free to work with a friend. And if you can demonstrate that your fundraiser took exceptional work, or longer than one month to put on, you can appeal to your ST for an exception to the monthly cap.
The monthly goal is higher than rent because we would like to accrue a cushion to help survive lean months, and maybe even one day be able to pay for things like the website and the snack bar again.
4) XP for Paying
Short Version: Everyone who pays gets some xp (1xp/$2 up to 5xp or $10). Every month we make our $800 goal, everyone who that month gets 5 bonus xp, for a maximum of 10xp per paying player per month.
Long Version: This is the most blatant form of bribery possible. No longer do we ask you to pay the minimum just because you appreciate the value of an indoor play-space, but we are bribing you to be responsible contributing adults.
Alternatively, this is the most egalitarian option, so that everyone has a chance at the rewards no matter how little they can afford to give, even those unfortunates who cannot give more than ¼ of the suggested donations can earn up to 7 extra xp each month if they give that bare $2 and others pitch in more (and an earn up to 10xp for doing so) if we reach our monthly goal.
As with option 3, caps are there to keep xp from spiraling out of control.
Fundraisers are still an option for those who have more time than money.
Voting will take place in person at the BGC on November 23, 2013.
If you are unable to make it to game there will be a proxy email voting option, but email votes MUST be submitted no later than 4pm on Sat Nov 23. The proxy email address will be released no later than Nov 16. Do not send your proxy vote to STs.
Voting Options:
1) Do Nothing.
Short Version: NOTR continues to collect donations at the table, but will no longer hound, beg, plead, follow, harangue or cajole people into giving money. Even when we’re almost out. When the money runs out (estimated Jan-Feb 2014), we leave the paid venue.
Long Version: Players and STs will have responsibility to raise funds to pay rent. NOTR will continue to provide a centralized location for donations, donation tracking, and of course to pay rent with the funds collected. However, while NOTR staff and volunteers will continue to ask politely, we will not be begging. This might sound like a relief to some of you who are just as tired of being harassed about money as we are of harassing you, however, years of record-keeping shows that we will make half or less of the money we need when NOTR is only asking politely instead of tracking you down with a begging bowl in our hands. So chances are, we run out of money by Jan or Feb of next year.
This can involve fund-raisers, bake sales, pledge drives, bribes, or any other legal means of collecting money. The main point is, NOTR will revert to an auxiliary collection role, and occasionally helping to advise or facilitate player driven fund-raising activities, rather than the leading fund-begging role, and you the game will be responsible for making the money needed to pay the rent.
2) Initiate Mandatory Dues / Admission Fee
Short Version: Everyone would have to pay, earn or have paid for them the $2/night TO GAIN ADDMISSION TO THE PAID VENUE (not pay to play). There will be options for people who feel they cannot afford to pay for whatever reason (see the long version). This would go into effect automatically if the NOTR bank balance ever dropped below $700. First month free to new players.
Long Version: If the NOTR bank balance drops below $700 (one month’s rent), this plan goes into effect automatically, so you the player base can prevent this from happening by simply never letting that happen. This means that we can stay donation based as long as donations happen, and have a back up plan without having to do this crazy emergency voting thing again.
The other version of this option was just to initiate Admission Fees Dec 1, but we thought this might be easier to swallow, since it would ONLY take effect if donations can’t keep up with rent, so we have pre-placed consent to do this in order to keep the roof over all our heads.
This would be to gain admission to ANY venue that we have to pay rent to use. It is not pay-to-play, as you can still have a character, run midweek scenes, email staff, etc, and of course, any time we are not in a paid venue, no admission fees would be required. The first month would be waived for new players.
Those who cannot afford to pay have options.
1) Volunteer to work at the table collecting/tracking said admission fees. One 2 hr shift at the table would be a month’s admission for the volunteer. This can accommodate up to 16 people most months, as there are 4 2hr shifts each night. (most months have only 4 Saturdays). These positions will be awarded based on need as much as possible, but will require skill and trust as well, since these ppl handle the money and track the donors.
2) Have a friend pay for them. Your friend can simply tell the table volunteer, “Here’s 4$, for me and so-and-so.” And you both are recorded as paid for the night.
3) Hope for an anonymous donor. Those who wish to donate more than their minimum, but don’t have a specific benefactee in mind, can simply put their extra money toward anyone who needs it. Each week, the extra donations would be noted for use on a first come first serve basis for the following week. So if last week we got $20 of anonymous donations, this week, the first 10 people who can’t pay, are covered by that money. There is not really a fair way to determine who gets the anonymous donations, except by first come first serve, because we do not wish to require proof of financial hardship from anyone.
Everyone would be stamped each night upon payment of admission fee (or other means of coverage) so that they could leave and re-enter easily, and so that any who try to sneak by can be easily identified.
People who wish to pay in advance rather than nightly would receive stamped cards with the dollar amount written on them. When you arrive, simply present your card, and a hole will be punched to indicate each $2 Admission. When all the money is used up, you start again. Cards can have your name on them for security, or may say “Bearer” so that the same card might be used by anyone, should you wish to have a card others may use.
3) XP for Overpaying
Short Version: Those who pay MORE than the suggested donation of $10/month will be rewarded with shiny xp, at the rate of 1xp per $5 (over the initial $10) up to a cap of 10xp per player per month, until such time as the monthly goal of $800 is reached (after which no more xp will be awarded that month). Options for those who have more time than money are described in the long version.
Long Version: The idea here is that what you get for your $10/month is a warm, electric, restroom having place to play, because that’s not free. However, in recognition that those who pay more than $10/month are carrying the financial weight of other people and deserve some kind of (reasonable) reward for doing so.
The caps are in place because we don’t want this to get out of hand, or create some kind of crazy class system by which the richer players can buy hundreds of xp every month and win by money. It’s a small incentive/thank-you that shouldn’t unbalance the game.
For those with TIME instead of money, you have options, too. You can donate in lump sums less frequently, we prefer up front rather than delayed, but we take what we can get. You can alternatively run a fundraiser yourself and donate the proceeds to NOTR and get the xp bonus, after all, you did the work. (fund raiser ideas include bake sales, art auctions, costume or prop creation, etc). The same monthly caps apply to fundraisers, however if you’ve done a fundraiser and the $800 monthly goal is reached already, you can always hold on to it until the next month so you get the rewards. XP from fundraiser donations can be split between several players, so feel free to work with a friend. And if you can demonstrate that your fundraiser took exceptional work, or longer than one month to put on, you can appeal to your ST for an exception to the monthly cap.
The monthly goal is higher than rent because we would like to accrue a cushion to help survive lean months, and maybe even one day be able to pay for things like the website and the snack bar again.
4) XP for Paying
Short Version: Everyone who pays gets some xp (1xp/$2 up to 5xp or $10). Every month we make our $800 goal, everyone who that month gets 5 bonus xp, for a maximum of 10xp per paying player per month.
Long Version: This is the most blatant form of bribery possible. No longer do we ask you to pay the minimum just because you appreciate the value of an indoor play-space, but we are bribing you to be responsible contributing adults.
Alternatively, this is the most egalitarian option, so that everyone has a chance at the rewards no matter how little they can afford to give, even those unfortunates who cannot give more than ¼ of the suggested donations can earn up to 7 extra xp each month if they give that bare $2 and others pitch in more (and an earn up to 10xp for doing so) if we reach our monthly goal.
As with option 3, caps are there to keep xp from spiraling out of control.
Fundraisers are still an option for those who have more time than money.