Stockholm Sub Surfers (SSS)

Hello everyone, i've got questions I really would like to have some answers to, but only the swedes here will probably know what I'm talking about so i am going to link to my old swedish thread and wright the english here (if anyone want's to read it anyway.. )

http://tacky.se/skateboard/messageboard/vis_message.asp?ParentMsg=1770155&page=1

 - The swedish one, not very correct gramaticly but my thoughts are definitely  easy to understand.

So, the swedish association SSS is trying to collect members so they can recive money to bild a skatepark called Highvalley Skatepark.

The skatepark is going to be intended to all genres in skateboarding like downhill and freestyle, pool, vert and ofcourse street.

It is going to be rather expensive so the government doesn't want to give SSS the money if they can't prove that a lot of peoples would like to have it, so every week i recive a new mail from them complaining over the small amount of members they have, and they always say that if you dont join them (it costs a little bit) highvalley will not become reality.

They say that if more people join, the skatepark actually will happen.

 The thing i wonder, is why don't they skip the whole admission thing and make it free to become a member, you don't have to get something or whatever as you do now, but atleast they will get a lot of members and it's a bigger chance that we will get the skatepark.

I think what they do is try to get as many people to join as possible so they can make a large amount of cash for themselves and maybe get a skatepark too.

I think that if they were an idealistic association it would probably be a lot easier to collect members.

Do you think that they are trying to suck out money from poor skaters who want's a skatepark or are they just not as cleaver as they should be? 

Well its not that easy for an association to register members.. If it would be legal correct it has to be a members fee. Quite simple to understand as it would be quite ease to fake members if there wasn´t a fee.

 And all serious idealistic associations have fees. The idealistic lies in that the members and leaders usually working with it without earning money on it. Also many idealistic associations also pays out small earnings for different kind of larger commissions. I dont know how it is in Sub Surfers.

 Also they already have a petitation out which you can say is the samething that you ask for. Sadly theres only a couple of hundred who had sign that to, so not so many more have signed it than the amount who have paid membersfee.

You have also to think of that an idealistic association have costs even if the work totally non profit.  Take for example, website, bankingaccount, other administration costs and also the insurance that members who pay the larger fee gets. And the stickers and t-shirts the member gets.  The eventually small earnings they have after paying the costs they have no one could even be nar to live on. The small fee is also only 50 SEK. 

 So for short they ARE an idealistic association, and there is no way an idealistic organisation can legaly count members that havent paid a fee. I dont know how it works in the rest of the world but this is the way in Sweden. They also have a petitation you can sign, and that is off course for free. But a petition would never make the same impact as a large member group.

Thank you for your answer, you made me a lot wiser :)

Hi FPelle,

Yes, archangel summed it up right, thanks.

No member fee goes to any other costs than administration, paper, web site, stamps, envelopes, stickers, tees, insurance for members. Everyone in the board is paying for their own celluar calls, travels to meetings and time we spend on getting our vision real. For example in two hours I'll go to a meeting with the city and procject burreau spending 1-3 hours instead of making money for my own living.

The member fee is starting at only 50 SEK (about €5) and will give you a skatepark in Stockholm.

Join at www.subsurfers.se/blimedlem

Highvalley Skatepark by SSS
www.highvalley.se

archangel:

If it would be legal correct it has to be a members fee. Quite simple to understand as it would be quite ease to fake members if there wasn´t a fee.

Short correction:

In the city where Archangel lives (not Stockholm) there has to be a member fee for the association to be legally correct.

In Stockholm however, the city council allows the member fee of serious legal associations to be as low as 0 swedish crowns = free.  

Arhangel didnt know that when he posted his answer but he does now, so its all good. ;)

And its actually not much harder to fake members because of a fee of 50 crowns. With the theory of fees guaranteeing that people exist pretty much anyone could put down a few thousand crowns if they wanted to fake a bunch of members .

In serious associations there are other good ways of controlling that the members exist, like phone numbers, addresses and other info that can be confirmed by the city employees if they have reason to doubt the amount of members.

In some towns (not Stockholm) officials also demand social security numbers/birth date id number of all the members.

The only reason i correct this is because i am involved with a serious and legal/legit skateboard plaza association in Stockholm with 0 crowns as its fee and i dont want people to get the wrong idea that 0 as a fee would not be ok. 

I have no problem with other associations choosing to have a fee, thats up to them.

If anyone wants to check/verify that what i say is correct, feel free to call Stockholm city authorities and ask them.  

cheers

http://www.stockholm.se/Extern/Templates/Page.aspx?id=128015

I don't understand the reason to this discussion?

SSS have a members fee of 50 Sek, beacuse we include an accident insurance to all our members who is  under 14 year. We include accident insurance and also tees and stickers to older members who want to pay 200 sek. There is almost no money profit for the club. And there is no profit at all for the board members. No one gets a free membership, tees, insurance..
 

We have a membership we as we decided it at the last year meeting. We choose it that way as we think a fee get members to care more for the club and a free membership.

We do not register or need the 4 last numbers of the swedish insurance number. Not even our insurance company ask that from us.

 
Cheers / Ants

www.subsurfers.se