[Finance] Question regarding membership turnover rates

[Shirley Hicks]

We’re coming to the end of our startup phase, in that three labs are built and fully usable, a new, much larger woodworking shop is coming on stream, and, as soon as that is done, we’re doubling the size of our circuits and electronics work area. 

We’ve had a high rate of churn with newcomers coming in, but about a third staying on. (yes, I took over the treasurer’s role two months back, and yes, I’m reviewing our numbers as part of preparing for year end and our annual report)

I strongly suspect that is due to the sheer amount of work we’ve had to put in building and reshaping the space. We ended up taking a larger space than was optimal, because it was the best of what we could afford in the city core, at a price we could afford. The trade-off has been that it has required significant renovation - and investment of time and material purchases by the lead members who’ve had deeper pockets. Combine that with about a third of the core membership actively involved in two separate product development projects (which are going to launch) and we’ve all had our plates full. 

Management and coordination of the work required has not always been as tight as it could be, and a couple of our member/lab hosts don’t have the “tidiness gene” baked in firmly enough to ride herd on a couple of our messier members.

We had around 37 core supporting members this time last year; we’re pushing 42 now. But there has been a lot of churn - only four of our original founding 17 are still with us. 

Some of that is the CRM experience (we opted for Wild Apricot CRM for small nonprofits, and I’ve had to push our tech admin to buy in to getting the third-party SSL cert required for full integration with our WordPress site.

This may be more appropriate for the general list. I’m a tad frustrated at the moment as I want things to “just work”. But some of our choices (including ones I’ve made) aren’t helping. 

— Shirley

> On Dec 16, 2015, at 8:29 AM, Shirley Hicks <shirley at velochicdesign.com> wrote:
> 
> Good morning everyone,
> 
> What are your annual membership turnover rates like?
> 
> I’ve taken over the treasurer’s role - and as part of that, a reviewing our membership churn in our third year of existence. 
> Am wondering what normal range is and when to get worried about member experience.
> 
> Shirley Hicks
> Treasurer, Red Mountain Makers. 
> Birmingham, AL