[mantisory]

So, after hearing from an attendee at the last meeting that TAAS will be charging for membership, i have a few questions:
1) How much is the fee?
2) What does the fee get a member?
3) If there are fees then should there not be an appointed (or elected) body of governance to ensure the fees are being spent appropriately?
4) Is there a 'constitution' or anything like that?
Mantisory

[markC]

Primarily, the fees are to cover the cost of rent for the new location and the liability insurance which is manditory if we are to use the facility.
I think I remember the fee being $50 for the year. I'm sure Sam-a.k.a Spirit will chime in with the full details.
By the way, Sam has already paid the insurance premium out of his own pocket.

[restock]

I missed the last meeting (sorry, out of town and finally moving here) and I missed the discussion about membership fees. I understand the need for fees if the facilities are rented. However, is it not possible to get away without renting facilities?

The audiophile club at Calgary (where I just moved from last month) had the meeting each month (or every two months) at the home/house of a member. With too many people this can be difficult. I hosted one of the meetings and it was difficult to get 30 people to fit into our 600sqft downtown apartment, but we managed and it was a lot of fun (maybe not for the neighbors). Everybody brought food, wine, etc. over to offset some of organization of the meeting. One or two meeting a year were held at Ed Meitner's facilities or a dealer's place. Different members taking turns worked out and most of the time 10-25 people showed up.

The added benefit of hearing systems in homes that the systems have been carefully optimized for the room and carefully put together for synergy. Comparing 10 amps might get difficult though.

What is the consensus about the fees? After mentioning fees it has gone awfully quiet in the forum here.

[woodsyi]

I am surprised to hear that you all have to use a rented space.  Most other regional meetings take place at private homes.  Or at least one person volunteers to basically throw a party.  Usually the guests are welcome to contribute but not required to bring anything. 

[Daygloworange]

Woodsyi,

We normally have 25+ people show up to our events, so that's a little more than most people could entertain in their home. Then there is the issue of parking and so on.

People are also geographically pretty spread out in our group, so this is our best option.

Cheers

[woodsyi]

So then hold mini-meets between regular meetings.  I am sure there are some of you just itching to show off your set up at home.    Sometimes just having a few guys over with good music is good.  You know critical listening with gear changes are fun in a way but it can be a PITA too.  Anyway, I wish you guys the best. You got some good guys and I am sure you will all work it out.

Cheers! 

[restock]

We normally have 25+ people show up to our events, so that's a little more than most people could entertain in their home.

That size is still manageable if we decide to have more frequent smaller meetings. Calgary used to have between 10-30 people/meeting. I completely agree with Woodsyi...

Most other regional meetings take place at private homes.

Just like other groups we should be able to move the meeting to private homes. Once in a while 25+ people would not be too much a problem. Admittedly, homes in Calgary are bigger...  Of course, if we decide to charge $50 member fee the membership might rapidly decline to a very manageable size   As far as parking is concerned, I live downtown and evening or Sundays parking is not too tight. Traffic is not too bad as well. Parking should not be much of a concern, just part of living in a city.

Also, I know Dayglow that you have been hosting the meeting at your shop several times, and surely we can't have it there all the time. It was a good space seating many people, but the acoustics is still far from a usual living room to evaluate equipment under realistic conditions. Starting out at a bigger space is a good idea to get people together but a switch to smaller spaces should work. In addition, in summertime less people will show since people are traveling etc...

If we decide to have smaller meetings at member's home I would be happy to host the meeting in the "near" future (once our place is set-up since we just moved here .

[Daygloworange]

Of course, if we decide to charge $50 member fee the membership might rapidly decline to a very manageable size

That would be really sad considering the events we ( Spirit, DonnieW, and myself) have managed to put together with our spare time and our own resources.

Only time will tell, how valuable having our own TAAS is to the patronage. It's future success and growth is in their hands.

Cheers

[Rafal]

I have no probem paying $50/year. I think there is a lot of value for such a small change. The main problem for me is that the meetings are on Sundays. Saturdays would work much better for me (since I have to drive up from London)

[Spirit]

Hi everybody:
I am truly sorry for not weighing in sooner.
I am scrambling to get away on a holiday and things have been whacky the last few months.
I will be away until July 30th, at which time I will gets things cooking for the next meeting.
Let me give you the skinny on the fee/location situation:
As you all know, DayGlow (Denny) has been our kind host since our inception but it was obviously
unfair to him and to the music to continue to have the meetings in his warehouse (especially in the middle of the winter when we had to shut the heat because of that intrusive fan noise).
Over the last 6 months I had asked for suggestions about a future venue from the members, but, quite frankly never received one response or comment. 
The proposal of holding meeting was brought right at the outset of establishing our group and 2 problems emerged:
1:  Our first meeting was attended by 45 people so haveing that many people in someone's home was unrealistic.
2:  Comments were made from several visitors on the forum that they were not comfortable with having strangers come into their home.
Although I thought this latter comment was infintile, one has to respect other's opinions.
The idea of having small groups in someone's home was always something I wanted to establish, but not as the main attraction of the regularly scheduled meetings.  In otherwords, if the group grows to a membership of 50, it would become a very difficult to have members commit their homes.  My thought were that as some of us became friends we could then start have small, informal get-togethers at our homes anytime we desire.
The concept of a larger venue was sparked by the Montreal Audio Society, whcih meets on a monthly basis in a Community Centre meeting room and is apparently quite happy with this.
About the fees:
I suggested $50.00 for the year.  We plan of meeting 6 times/year.  That works out to less than $10.00 per event.  I truly don't think that that is a problem for the majority of the members.
Why fees?"
1: Based on 6 meetings the cost for the rental of the Church and insurance is approximately $600.00
2: We have purchased a domain name which one of members has payed for personally.
3: Time permititng we are tring to create a "look" for the club (logo, website, etc.) which will also cost some money.
The bottom line is this:  Not one red cent of any money collected will ever be unaccounted for.
I am not Conrad Black!
However, I am open to any suggestion for future meetings. 
I would like to hear opinions from as many of you as possible.  I may even send out an email asking members to comment on how they want to proceed with the style of meetings.  That may be a fair way to decide. 
Anyways, I will start the ball rolling when I get back.  In the meantime, let's get the Circle active again.

[restock]

That would be really sad considering the events we ( Spirit, DonnieW, and myself) have managed to put together with our spare time and our own resources.

That would be very sad indeed. However, we should make sure a fee is not a deterrent for current and as important, new members to the group. A good indication would be to do some research about other Audiophile clubs, i.e. size and possible fees to see whether instating fees will carry.

A few more comment, even though I am fairly new to the group and have only attended one meeting so far. I do have some exposure to other clubs having spent the last few years at every Calgary meeting possible.

One of the biggest societies in the North America is probably the Boston Audio Society, which even hosts interview which are broadcasted over the internet. BAS fees are $40+, the fee covers rented venues as well, bimonthly print publication. Member numbers are probably much higher than TAAS and it has been in existence for 30 years+.

Personally I would prefer 2 larger meetings a year with several smaller (possibly topical) meetings at peoples homes. I don't think a yearly fee should exceed $20 to not act as a deterrent, even though I spent much more than $50 to participate in the Calgary meetings (for hosting one event at my place, food and item brought to other meetings).

The main reason for me to consider smaller meetings in homes vs. rented spaces is the usefulness of meetings in big spaces and not having fully optimized setups. Room acoustics is problematic. How is the rented space at the church by the way in this respect? (I missed the last meeting ). Many home systems that I heard have been optimized over several years and carefully matched together.

The comfort level of having strangers come into ones home might be a problem especially in a new group that has grown very quickly. Given the unfamiliarity between members this should be given some thought.

As Sam suggested it would be good to get more opinions on this - even from outside people who have experience with other audio clubs.

[markC]

Tony has offered to hold a BBQ/listening session at his place.
I know that summer is a busy time for most, so I'd be interested in how many would/could attend. The date would be Sunday August 12th. He is located north of the city, (about 20 min. from 401 & 400). It's a pretty good set-up with a largish rec room where the gear is set up. Room leads out to back yard for smokers.
Let me know if you are interested and if we can get a few people to commit then I'll set it up.

[Gtasound]

Markc

I am available and would like to attend.

gtasound

[lo_tse]

Although charging a fee might deter new comers to join the group.  However, it would also strengthen the commitment of the group of people that are interested.  Holding meetings in a member's abode is great but would only work if the number of people (may be 5 or 6) attending is small.  How many person can sit in the sweet spot?  With a typical attendance of 20-30 people for the past TAAS meets, it is just not practical.

I was at the last meet that was held in the church.  The topic of charging a fee to cover the costs of renting and insurance was discussed among those attended and the support was practically unanimous.  We all felt that the fee proposed was fair and would solve the problem of looking for a venue to hold the meet once and for all.  Granted the venue's acoustic is not ideal, however, if we are going to have regular meeting there, I think we can come up with some "room treatment tricks" to alleviate some of the problems. 

Sam, you have my full support.

Lo-Tse

[markC]

Gtasound,
I will keep the thread active as members commit. I don't think that we need a huge commitment here, just enough to get together and have fun and listen.

[KBK]

Let me know the next time you guys get together, I'll arrange for me to be there or to send along one of these new cables to check out. A totally new technology. I'm in Kingston, so I'm not that far away.

[markC]

What kind of new cables? No need to divulge too much, just a little background & info. about them.

[Spirit]

What kind of new cables? No need to divulge too much, just a little background & info. about them.

Mark:
I have been trying to get hold of you.  I sent you a reply to your PM a few weeks ago. Not sure if you received it.  Is your offer still open about having a get together at Tony's place?  Would ove to talk to you!
Sam

[KBK]

What kind of new cables? No need to divulge too much, just a little background & info. about them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamics

A fluid conductor. Yes. A MHD cable. Patent pending. Not frozen lattice structures, but a dynamic motional molecular fluid. Every single person who's heard them is totally blown away. The only cable they have not bested, is the Nordost Odin. Simply as it has not been head to head with it, in the same room; all others have suffered a Promethian dashing against the rocks. $1k, $2k, $5k, $8k, $12, $15k, whatever. All cables..in all ranges..all trashed..virtually overnight. And you know it..within seconds of hearing it.

Repeat, this is a new technology, nothing else even comes close.

Every single person who hears it...MUST own it. What you find, is that..for the first time in your life you get to hear what analog signal transfer sounds like..without 'wire'. The first time. Ever.

It's mind blowing.

That kind of difference.

[markC]

Hmmm.... is it legal????