$5.00

Today the average full-time wage for a male in Australia is almost $65,000 p.a. (Australian Bureau of Statistics) therefore the average worker is fast approaching the time when they will earn $1 for every minute worked - i.e. $60/hr. Today if you see a gold coin on the ground, rather than bother to pick it up yourself, you might steer a kids attention towards it and get them to pick it up as their hands are closer to the ground than yours. Chances are, if there are no kids around, you might not bother.

In 2011, $5 will buy you:

• nothing substantial from McDonalds 
• 10-15 sms messages on your mobile phone 
• 4.3songs off iTunes 
• 3.5 litres of fuel

Not much when you think about it. But why am I talking about $5? I'll get to that soon.
On the 31st of December last year, I had the  p l e a s u r e  of sitting in on the Council of Estonian Societies in Australias (Austraalia Eesti Seltside Liit, or AESL) General Meeting which was held at Adelaide Eesti Maja towards the end of Eesti Päevad. The meeting was made open for all comers to be in the audience. Boards from all corners of the Australian Estonian community came together to discuss matters at hand. 

During the meeting, there were numerous things discussed on the agenda. I had no idea what these things were when I arrived or what to expect though a quick look through the agenda showed there were going to be some interesting things discussed. 
Once the meeting got under way and the usual pleasantries were done with (weapons holstered - joking) I found the naming issue of Eesti Kula particularly interesting as I have recently written about in another entry on this blog (November 2010). 

Another item that popped up and came in under the radar was the proposal to raise membership fees per member to the AESL from $1 a year, to.......$2! a year. Admittedly, due to my Eesti keel not being so hot, I didn't learn about this matter until the 'New Years Eve Ball' later that night. But I was understandably amazed when I heard about it. 

When I learnt there was going to be an increase in membership fees, I could only assume it was in line with the rise in inflation that has occurred in the last year....sorry....typo....last 20 years. That's right people! - the membership fee has been stuck on $1 for the last 20 years or so.

Craving more information, I also found out that during the discussion of this topic at the meeting, un-surprisingly, there was opposition to the proposal to raise the fee to $2!. The main argument behind why the fee had never been raised in the past basically came down to the fact that the AESL administers many smaller organisations (20 in fact and will soon count more) which have members that pay fees to these smaller organisations which in turn end up with the AESL. It was suggested that if the fees to the AESL were raised to $2! dollars, these smaller bodies may elect to drop out of the AESL as these smaller bodies feared members dropping out. I can only conclude this was because it would send the members of these smaller organisations bankrupt such was the burden of spending an extra $1 a year.

A compromise was suggested that these organisations should pay a single fee on behalf of those members, thereby eliminating the need for more fees to be paid to the AESL. The rationale being that if these other bodies were having memberships paid to them by their members, and these other bodies were paying fees to the AESL, then those fees were as good as AESL fees anyway. Follow? No? Well I don't either so...tuff.

“So what does the AESL do?”, I hear you ask (as did I).

Well, by way of financial contribution, the AESL supports:

• Meie Kodu to the tune of $10,000.00 annually 
• The Estonian Archives in Australia gets $3,500.00 
• The Adelaide newsletter "Virgats" gets $1,500.00 
• Sõrve gets $3,000.00 
• ESTNET (www.eesti.org) $700 
• Estonian language teachers $500 
• Unanticipated requests $1500 (?)  
• Estonian language and culture $3000  
• Membership to Ülemaailmne Eesti Kesknõukogu (ÜEKN) $100 plus costs associated with ÜEKN AGM $300 
• AESL general running costs budgeted at $500

Now, I'm not economic savant suspects, but my basic schooling in space math leads me to question whether or not the old annual membership is a little under-cooked. You see membership fees go directly towards the administration of the AESL, and with a 2011 projected budget of $1,400 just to keep the administrative part of the AESL ball rolling, a possible loss of a few thousand dollars is on the cards as there are only approximately 1,350 members across Australia. i.e. $1,350 in fees with a bill of almost $25,000.

There are three other (possible, though not guaranteed) income streams that help bridge the considerable gap left by (the lack of) fees:

• An annual "Rahvuskapital korjandus", i.e. an annual request for donations from members of the member organisations 
• If AESL is nominated benefactor in someone's will 
• Interest on monies invested that have previously been bequeathed to AESL

Now, I don’t know what your line of thinking is, but knowing a little bit about Estonians fish like tendencies  for dolling out cash and looking at those last 3 points, there’s about as much reliable cash flow from those sources than a South Australian river bed. 

Thankfully, stunningly, logic came to the fore at the meeting and the compromise to make membership a single fee via the smaller organisations was vetoed and a rise of $1 in membership fees (begrudgingly) agreed upon increasing fees to $2! annually. With this momentous and historic step forward, the AESL has assured its future with a lavish budget of $2,700. Roughly $22,000 shy of what it needs to not loose sleep at night.

Super.

Not.

I for one want to take things a step further.

I'm proposing that every member who pays fees to one of the smaller organisations dig deep. The time has come to get serious about our/your  organisation again and raise it to the heady heights of yesteryear by having a coffer dripping with cash. Well not quite dripping. I'm putting it out there that the annual fee be raised to...drumroll...$5 a year.

"$5 A YEAR???", I hear certain members of our community scream.

"But we already pay taxes to Qwoin Gillard!", they argue.

"How will we afford to feed the kids, the dog and court fees for tennis on Thursday mornings with the ladies auxiliary?"

The plain fact of the matter is by paying such paltry fees, we are failing in our individual duties to support the body that supports what we do. With a membership base of 1,350, a realistic rise of fees to $20 would be needed to assure the organisation pays the bills on time and keeps-on-keeping-on from year to year un-aided. So an ask of $5 is pretty reasonable, right? It means the difference between getting something done that needs to be done straight away rather than form a sub-committee to discuss possible alternatives and strategies around the expense, and never get to doing it anyway.

If your still unconvinced and find coughing up another $3 extra dollars a year too hard to swallow, maybe you should ask yourself why you are turning up to our Maja’s, our Eesti Päevads, our Sõrves? Why bother if we’re dooming the system to fail from the inside out? And it will if it stays as $2!.

For those of you who think my idea is wrong, uncalled for, not needed, my only suggestion to you is to take a teaspoon of cement and harden up. Even if I am wrong, $5 a year...let me emphasize those last two words...A YEAR...not daily...not weekly...not monthly...A YEAR...is not too much to cough up. In fact it constitutes less than 2c a day.

There is no personal budget that cannot afford $5 a year. You waste $5 every single day of your life on something frivolous you don’t need – like extra G.B.'s and bandwidth to read my blog.

There are no excuses.

Click on ‘YES’ in the poll at the top right side of this page to help send the message that we want to support our administration and have the annual fee raised to $5 a year.

Support the body that supports us.

You know it makes cents.