Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS PayPal Webpage

[Robt R Pries <rpries@sbcglobal.net>]

John is correct in that every section and cooperating
society that I talked to at convention wishes to
participate just as they have participated in the past
in having their members able to join at the same time
as they are joining or renewing with AIS. That does
not mean that they are not considering setting up
their own PayPal accounts also. I talked with
representatives of SIGNA, The Dwarf Iris Society, The
Aril Society, the Siberian Society and all expected
they would also do their own. All have to yet discuss
this with their boards. Of course the Japanese Society
already has this. The DIS does not even have their
website running again but some officers expressed the
hope that they would have Paypal when that occurred.
It is important that AIS do as much as possible to
help our sections. It is similar to the the federal
government and the states. Some states lead the feds,
others profit from the experimentation of the leaders.
I believe it has only been about a month that SJI has
had their join button in place, but during this time
they have been gaining a steady stream of new members.
For each day we wait to have a system in place we miss
potential membership. This is why I am so impatient. I
realize we are all volunteers and it is not just
John's responsibility to accomplish this. I suugested
this over a year ago and am very disappointed that it
has taken AIS this long, and still we do not have this
in place. I would rather see us actually do something,
then have a debate over the cents that is being
charged. I don't want this to sound like a blast at
John, his accomplishments for AIS have been enormous
and I have great respect for them. It is more a
frustration with our system. I understand the value of
deliberation. I am also guilty at times of being slow.
I hope that e-mail somehow can speed our progress of
keeping up with society.

--- John I Jones <jijones@usjoneses.com> wrote:

> Of all the Sections and Cooperating Societies, only
> the SJI has a 
> PayPal page. The ASI has a PayPal method but you do
> it via email.
> 
> I believe SSI is planning on having a PayPal page on
> their site.
> 
> Most that I have heard back from (SPCNI, SIGNA,
> Dwarf, SSI, ASI [not 
> confirmed yet], Spuria, SJI [maybe]) want to be on
> our page.
> 
> John
> 
> 
> On Jun 7, 2006, at 11:01 AM, Jill Bonino wrote:
> 
> > I agree with John's proposal.  If we are providing
> a new service, such 
> > as PayPal, to other sections and societies, we
> should pass along the 
> > cost. They would have to pay this fee anyway if
> they had the 
> > service...Which brings up the quesitons, do we
> know how many of the 
> > Sections and Societies already use PayPal or
> another payment service 
> > to obtain members through their own websites?
> >
> > If there are none, this is something we can
> promote to the Sections 
> > and Societies to help them gain members
> too...Their websites could be 
> > linked for payment purposes to our website?  Is
> this possible?
> >
> > If some of them already use PayPal, they might
> consider dropping their 
> > own individual service to use ours?
> >
> > Would this significantly increase Tom's work as
> MemSec?
> >
> > Jill
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "John I Jones" 
> > <jijones@usjoneses.com>
> > To: <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 9:48 AM
> > Subject: [AISdiscuss] AIS PayPal Webpage
> >
> >
> >> When we process a PayPal (PP) payment we are
> charged 2.9% of the 
> >> transaction value plus $.30 per transaction.
> Foreign currency 
> >> transactions cost an additional 2.5% A multiple
> subscription 
> >> transaction gets only a single transaction fee.
> ($.30).
> >>
> >> The question is how much do we remit to the other
> societies.
> >>
> >> We need to establish a standard as to how we
> charge the Sections and 
> >> Cooperating Societies.
> >>
> >> I propose that we charge each non-AIS
> subscription the 2.9% and the 
> >> $.30 transaction fee. That is the same amount
> that a Section and 
> >> Cooperating Societie would be charged if they had
> their own PayPal 
> >> service. This approach would allow Tom to use a
> simple lookup table 
> >> to see how much to remit to the other group. It
> would mean that we 
> >> would "earn" an additional $.30 for each
> subscription that came as 
> >> part of a multiple subscription transaction.
> >>
> >> The same rate would apply to any non-AIS
> subscription that came in as 
> >> a single transaction.
> >>
> >> The alternative would require Tom to calculate a
> separate charge for 
> >> each subscription that came in as part of a
> multiple subscription 
> >> transaction and distribute the Transaction Fee
> across all the 
> >> subscriptions in a single transaction.
> >>
> >> In a separate discussion Tom Gormley has pointed
> out:
> >>
> >>> The existing arrangement we have with accepting
> credit card charges 
> >>> for Offshore non-AIS Members and domestic
> AIS/Section members is 
> >>> that we currently do not pass on the fees
> involved with these 
> >>> charges. This is based on AIS Policy (see below)
> which is silent on 
> >>> the subject.
> >>>
> >>> It costs us $1.02 to process a $25.00 charge for
> AIS Members but 
> >>> since most Section charges are about 30% of that
> I think we should 
> >>> continue to provide this service gratis as a
> warm fuzzy to the 
> >>> Sections and Co-ops. As Electronic payments (and
> membership) develop 
> >>> and grow we can then revisit this issue. If we
> choose to charge them 
> >>> from the get-go how do we handle our existing
> methodology on Section 
> >>> payments?
> >>>
> >>
> >> As far as I can tell through a search of the AIS
> minutes from 1988 
> >> thru 2003 the only mention of the Membership
> Secretary accepting 
> >> credit card transactions is in Oct '97 when M.
> Harlow reported that 
> >> she had sent out new ITJs that indicated the AIS
> would accept credit 
> >> card transactions. There is no mention (that I
> could find) of whether 
> >> AIS should or should not absorb the fee for a
> credit card 
> >> transaction. There may have been a policy
> decision, but I cannot find 
> >> mention of it.
> >>
> >> I propose (although I can't make this as a
> motion) that we no longer 
> >> absorb the credit card charges for subscriptions
> to Sections and 
> >> Cooperating Societies submitted to the membership
> office and that 
> >> PayPal charges be deducted from the amounts
> remitted to the Sections 
> >> and Cooperating Societies for subscriptions
> submitted thru the AIS 
> >> PayPal page. If Sections and Cooperating
> Societies so choose they can 
> >> specify an additional charge for credit card  or
> PayPal payments.
> >>
> >>> THE AMERICAN IRIS SOCIETY
> >>> CURRENT AIS MEMBERSHIP OFFICE POLICY CONCERNING
> >>> ACCEPTING DUES FOR SECTIONS AND COOPERATING
> SOCIETIES
> >>>
> >>> MARCH, 2002
> >>>
> >>> PLEASE FILE FOR REFERENCE AND PLEASE ENSURE THAT
> ONLY CORRECT 
> >>> INFORMATION IS PUBLISHED TO YOUR MEMBERS
> >>>
> >>> The AlS Membership Office will accept dues for
> Sections and 
> >>> Cooperating Societies when tendered by AIS
> members simultaneously 
> >>> with their AIS dues and paid either by check,
> money order, or Visa 
> >>> or MasterCard.
> >>>
> >>> All dues collected on behalf of Sections or
> Cooperating Societies 
> >>> are forwarded by the AlS Membership Office to
> the appropriate 
> >>> recipients during the first week of the month
> subsequent to the 
> >>> month in which they were received by the
> Membership Office.
> >>>
> >>> As a special gesture of support to the Sections
> and Cooperating 
> >>> Societies, the AlS Membership Office will accept
> dues from members 
> >>> of these groups living outside the USA who are
> not also tendering 
> >>> AlS dues simultaneously, including those who are
> not AlS members, 
> >>> when those
> >>> persons pay with either Visa or MasterCard.
> >>>
> >>> Members of Sections or Cooperating Societies who
> live within the USA 
> >>> and who are not paying AIS dues simultaneously
> should always send 
> >>> their check for renewal directly to the
> membership 
=== message truncated ===

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