Gympie U3A’s annual membership fee has not increased for at least a decade. You will all be aware that costs have gone up significantly in that time.
Last year our costs exceeded our revenue. The management committee is investigating ways to keep us financially viable. Unless we increase our revenue U3A Gympie will eventually be forced to close.
As a starting point I have looked at the websites of all the U3As in Queensland. I was able to find the annual membership fee for 31 of them. The actual data arranged in ascending order is: 10,15,20,20,25,25,25,25,25,25,30,30,30,30,30,30,30,35,35,35,35,35,40,45,45,50,65,80,90,90,120.
The median or middle value is $30. The average of $40 is influenced by the outlying values. This is much higher than the $20 that Gympie currently charges. There is also a big range of values which is the result of some groups charging everyone a high fee but not charging for classes except for materials etc. There are also some groups that charge the median value for membership and for term classes.
It would be nice if we could keep both membership and class fees as low as at present but unfortunately something will have to change.
More detail will be in the next newsletter. If you haven’t already you can subscribe here. https://u3agympie.com/subscribe/
