PRA Life Members
PRA Life Members
You are late to the party! I started paying dues again as a donation a couple of years ago and I don't think I'm the only life member to do so. In fact I think that donations over the years has been quite common but are not publicized. I know one guy handed Scott a $100 bill at the life members meeting. Rather than ask this question of life members on the Forum maybe the question should be sent to them directly. Not all of them visit here.
This is true about donations over the years not being publicized. When I went to Mentone in 2003 for my first time, I also donated $ for two separate portions of the PRA, asking it not be publicized. It wasn't (until I did just now). The amount donated was close to what I paid for a Life Membership.
**I do know that Glenn Bundy and Gary Goldsberry have, and probably many others who have served in the PRA for years, have given not only a lot of their time, but dug into their wallets as well, to chip in to bolster PRA funds, without expecting nor receiving reimbursement.
For those who like to criticize that Life Members get the magazine for free: Think about someone putting up a big chunk of money for a Life Membership, and the PRA has those funds to use up front, instead of waiting for 15+ years for it to trickle in through annual payments...
Think about annual payments that take PRA office personnel time to process. Forgotten-to-renew members calling to ask why they haven't been receiving ROTORCRAFT magazine. More time spent searching records by PRA office personnel. Then, getting back to unpaid members explaining why PRA ROTORCRAFT magazine hasn't been arriving, etc.
If added all together, the time spent by PRA office personnel to process, research, return emails or phone calls for annual renewals that have complications would surely be more expense than any Life Members surviving long enough to get the magazine past those 15 years they paid for upfront.
The time savings of not having to deal with the annual renewals and having the money upfront for the PRA operating budget should be strongly considered for bringing back into the PRA, IMOHO.
And, becoming a Life Member ALSO is a member for life, caring about the organization enough to put in investment capital, so to speak, into the PRA, without thinking of, nor receiving a profit on it, unless you think receiving a magazine is a profit.
I believe if we could know all about what Life Members have done for the PRA, it would astound us!
I believe that at least the majority Life Members have done more for the PRA than just plunk down more than 15 years worth of dues all at once and then left it at that...