I am a sustainer in the Junyaleague, and every year I dutifully write my $100 check (which has gone up from the $85 it was a few years ago) and every year I get no real value for my money. Now, I love the Junyaleague so I will keep on writing those checks. I credit the Junyaleague with so many friends and good memories--which is why I gladly continue to support the organization, never balking at the increase in sustainer dues or, according to some Facebook pictures, the lack of personal hygiene among provisionals. Hey--if the League is going downhill, it's not because of my friends' valiant efforts to stop the decline, and it won't be because I drop my sustainership. They do good work in the community, and I feel good knowing that I'm supporting that work, so that alone makes it worthwhile.
I think the dues notice went out around March. I ignored it, as I always do, fully intending to pay my sustainer dues whenever. In June, that cute little Alice Jane Facebook messaged me to make sure I was re-upping for the coming year. I told her I absolutely was, then promptly put off writing the check yet again. Last week I got a nasty letter from someone I didn't know saying that if I didn't pay my dues by August 1, I'd be resigned. OK, League, thanks so much for the gentle reminder. I hopped online to pay my dues and I see that I am strapped with a late notice on my sustainer dues. I'm now expected to pay $125.
Now, I love you, Junyaleague, but that is ridiculous and offensive. First of all, I am paying my sustainer dues out of the kindness of my heart because I want to support the League. It's free money for them--I don't cost them anything--and they are lucky to get any of it. I expect them to take my $100 check and say thank you, and preferably follow up with a hand-written thank-you note. Actually, I don't even really expect that because, as we're all painfully aware, "this isn't your mama's Junyaleague." It's not even about the extra $25. I'd be happy to pay that and more to the annual giving fund or endowment, because I want to support the League. If I didn't, I wouldn't pay my sustainer dues at all, ever. I would give money to some other good cause, or maybe I'd just buy something for myself. And because I choose to give my small amount of money to them each year, I would prefer a little bit of gratitude. An automatic $25 late fee on their Web site doesn't seem grateful; it smacks of money-grubbing impersonality and a crass attention to the bottom line.
I understand that organizations need to plan their budgets for the year, and they do that through dues and giving. And they can count on my dues every year, as I assured Alice Jane in June. So I'll be hand-delivering my $100 check to Pat tomorrow morning, one day before my impending resignation, and the Junyaleague can take it or leave it. If they take it that's great; if they leave it, it's their loss, because I would have been willing to write those (slightly late) $100 checks forever, without ever demanding anything of them.
I don't go over there and meddle in their business, as so many sustainers do. I'm under no delusions that the League can't run without me--and I'm sure we can all name the people who do believe that they're indispensable. I'm happy to sit on the sidelines and let their new geographically- and ethnically-diverse active members take over and steer the League however they want. If these new girls want to be sticklers about the ridiculous late fee, maybe I'll just go shopping instead. I'm sure Lilly Pulitzer will still take my money.
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