Diana,

San Francisco is $25/yr and that barely covers the newsletter cost. We make
most of our money from our big show, the Pacific Orchid Exposition. I think
we've got around 300 dues paying members. A small percentage of those are
life members. Anyone who serves as President gets a lifetime membership,
along with a small number of folks who bought lifetime memberships during a
short period years ago when the society actually offered them for sale!

We're lucky - there are about 10 societies in the Bay Area. Frequently a
group of societies here will fly in a speaker and share the cost of the
plane ticket. Our speakers are typically from outside the region and we
usually have at least one international speaker a year, sometimes 2 or 3.

The dues were lower than $25 when I first joined. I've heard through the
grapevine that we lost a lot of members when it went up to $25. They
must've been those folks who don't attend meetings, because the show and
tell table and general meeting attendance never dipped.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
. ..
All,

Would you mind sharing with me what your societies charge for annual dues?
We are considering raising our dues by a bit (I think they are very low
for what the society provides), and it would be nice to have information
for comparison.

TIA

Diana