When Did That Happen?

[kevin_standlee]

Well, I sure didn't notice until it was pointed out to us that Denvention Three raised their supporting membership price to $50 (from $40) on January 1, just in time for Hugo Nominating to open. That's rather unfortunate. It's legal, don't get me wrong -- the price cap is 125% of their $40 advance supporting membership ("voting fee"). I just think it's unfortunate, at least if you want to encourage people to vote. I have to say that this tendency to keep raising the prices on such low-overhead-cost memberships makes the prospect of requiring voting-rights-only (no publications) memberships at a relatively low cost a more attractive idea. I'm not going to launch a campaign for it, though, as I don't think there are enough votes for it. Business Meeting fandom is likely to be pretty happy with the status quo in this department.

Comments

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

But Supporting Memberships are already a poll tax. As Deb points out, the physical things that you get for your money account for less than half of the cost of the Supporting Membership, and that fraction is going to continue to go down as Worldcons move to electronically-distributed PRs. The only other point in buying a Supporting Membership (as opposed to acquiring one through voting in Site Selection) is so that you can vote in the Hugos. Voting Memberships would not create a poll tax, they would reduce the level of the existing poll tax (and along the way make a lot more money for the Worldcons).