Re: [Fsfe-uk] Increasing Membership

[Ramanan Selvaratnam]

> > Andrew Savory wrote:
> >
> > > members who are outside of IT (but who have
> > > been convinced of the benefits of Free Software).
>  
Alex Hudson wrote:

> We had a kind of similar discussion around pricing for AFFSAC - since we
> essentially forced membership on attendees. 
>
> In a way, I can see what Andrew is proposing is kind of marketing in a 
> wierd way - he's kind of giving AFFS leads. Potential conversions. This
> is possibly a crude analysis, but I think in a ways it's about right.
>  

I see a  point here, too.  There are few out there who will fit this 
category.
We could have a procedure to approach any activist out there and grant 
full membership.
It will be highly unlikely such a person will like to payup GBP 10 and 
save all the fuss once they know what we are doing and is rich enough.

A possible eg: 
AFFS is tipped off about this teacher who cannot stop talking about free 
software.
(S)he is approached with a pre-planned email that says something like 
...we appreciate what you are doing :-)
Would you like to join/initiate a discussion of what you do on our 
mailing list  so we all can get know more about how free softwareis 
perceived outside the IT sphere.
You may like to take advantage of the free one year full membership of 
AFFS, offered for such insights.
A signature could link to the usual propaganda and how much it costs if 
they would like to keep joining the list / lurking as an option.

> I'm interested in what people think
> of it - although I pretty much agree it's not necessarily likely that they
> would renew. 
I think such convinced people will renew membership.
If they are really broke (because we knew through the persons continuing 
good work) why not renew for another year?

Best wishes,

Ramanan