Hey wasn’t this free?
When starting in September 2022 Fugax had the goal to remain free of charge for the entire academic year. Mainly because we wanted to give everyone a chance to come and meet our new association without being tied to anything. After a fruitful year of organizing events and doing fun activities we as a starting association, have of course learned a lot. One of these things is that despite trying to keep things as cost-free as possible, it is sometimes simply not possible to organize certain things for free. Thus Fugax had decided that in the following academic year (2023-2024) Fugax will introduce a small fee in the form of a yearly subscription.
But why, and what is in it for me?
The answer as to why is seemingly quite simple. Despite trying our best to organize a lot of free events, we have learned that a lot of things simply cost some money to organize. For the past year, most of the costs have been covered by the board members themselves, which we gladly did. However, as most of you will understand, it is not feasible for us to keep doing this as we are also just students like you. Besides this, we also would like to provide more frequent, cheaper or free events and also expand as an association, which requires monetary input.
So what will be in it for you? Good question! Right now, the money that we would charge would go directly back into the association. Examples of what we would do with the money:
- Board games: all of the current board games are owned by members, so once they leave or cannot attend the association will no longer have access to those board games. Thus we will use part of the money to buy board games for the association, and these will remain with the association. Members will also have a say in this and get to vote on games.
- Murder mystery kits: we have seen that people really enjoyed the murder-mystery night and would like to organize these a few times per year. Most murder mystery kits however do cost a bit of money, as for now, we would have to make it a paid event. However next year we aim to make these free. These kits could also be re-used over the years.
- Snacks and drinks: currently the snacks and drinks for circle and book clubs are paid for by the board members. We would like to be able to keep providing this, so part of the money would go to this.
- Discounts on paid events: Some events that do require some more money like dinners, sports activities, etc. now have to be fully paid for by members. We would use some of the money to make these events cheaper.
- Beanbags: we use these for movie nights, circle and book club
- Resource materials: think of materials for D&D, circle and book club
- General maintenance: IT services, bank, insurance, Chamber of Commerce, Member administration
- Promo material: stickers, flyers, and banners; mainly for INKOM and general promotion
- Potential locations: right now we always have to look for free locations like the university and it would be nice if we could provide something with a bit more ambiance. Right now we do not have the financial means to provide this.
- Bookings: when for instance organizing a members weekend we would now have to pay that out of pocket which is not something that we have the financial means for
- Potential parties: we would like to do at least one party next year, potentially a theme party
Starting next year we also will organize at least two general members assemblies (GMA’s) in which you will also get to have a say in how the money that comes into Fugax is spent.
Wait, these things cost money?
We can imagine that some people might think that most of the things we have done so far are free. Examples of small things that are (necessary) costs made by Fugax include beanbags, snacks for circle and book club, board games, a music speaker, our website, the murder-mystery game, a bank account, registration for the Chamber of Commerce, insurance, card-reader etc. We understand that it can feel kind of annoying when something that has been free all year all of a sudden becomes paid. The truth is however a lot of things were not free, to begin with but were just paid by the board. Therefore, for Fugax to keep existing we are forced to ask for a small fee.
Okay what will this cost and can I opt out?
Right now we are still calculating this as we need to base our fee on the expenses made. We aim to ask between 20-35 euros for a full year of subscription. In August of 2023, we will start a new subscription round, where the fee will be introduced. You can decide not to continue your membership by simply not signing on next year during the subscription round. At this current moment you do not have to take any actions. You will not have to sign-out as this will happen automatically at the end of this academic year. Although of course we would much prefer it if you joined us for another year 😉
If you have any questions regarding fee’s you can always sent us a DM via instagram, whatsapp or email us via the contact form. More updates on this matter will follow later.