Ray Bushnell and Gil Stromsoe gave an outstanding, insightful and thorough  presentation on our Club’s proposed budget. Every member needs to check their e-mail Inbox for an email containing our proposed budget and a link for comments, questions and concerns.

The bottom line is we must increase our revenue stream.

There are two sides of our budget: (1) the operations side, which includes things like meals, the room for our meetings, PowerPoint and the like, and (2) the charitable side of our budget. The proposed budget is strictly addressing the operation side.

For regular dues, the proposal is $200 a quarter up from $150 per quarter. For those under age 46 and participating, the cost is $160 per quarter. “Participating” means members under age 46 must attend at least 2 meetings a month and be involved in a committee or some aspect of Club Service; otherwise, the $160 cost will not apply. The decision to lower the fee structure for those under age 46 comes from Rotary International and the District, where there is movement to charge less dues for younger members in the hopes of making membership both attractive and feasible.

Rule of 85 is a sensitive topic. It is a designation, not a classification, that is part of how Rotary operates. If you are over 65 and have 20 total years in any Rotary Club then you can take this designation. You still must pay for the dues, but only pay for meals when you attend. The benefit is the meals charge, or lack thereof if you do not attend.

Multi member level membership is another option for membership and the purpose is to attract high quality members who may not consider membership otherwise. Any spouse or child of a Rotary member, or employee of a Rotary member in good standing, qualifies. The Post Alarms family, Jack and Sue Lamb, and our new members, the Hamiltons, are, for example, multi level members. They will pay $75 per quarter from $65 per quarter. If both members attend, then both pay for lunch. If only one attends and not the other, for example, then there is only one meal charge.

The proposed budget also contemplates a $5 increase for new members.

Member “fines” will continue.

Just to clarify, we cannot use revenues that we collect on the charitable side of our budget for operations. For information purposes, we all owe a great deal of gratitude to Mike Real and Bob Harbicht for their work with the Field of Honor because this fundraiser currently pays for all of our service projects that we have budgeted.

The official vote on the proposed budget will be November 1st, so please plan on attending this meeting. Any questions or concerns can be posted on the link sent out by Ray Bushnell via email at the start of last week.