| Fall 2000 President's Report: MN NOW needs your help The never-to-be-forgotten nine days of 2000 Editorial: Have power, create your own program in MN NOW Guidelines for MN NOW regarding support of legal actions Editorial: Because I, too, believe in the right to life MN NOW continues its support for housing affordability in the state There is a difference between the two main presidential candidates MN NOW PAC rates candidates for November elections Introducing my fearless baby woman: Grace Why NOW is relevant to my life
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President's report: MN NOW needs your help
By Lee Janisch Hello again. I hope everyone has had an enjoyable summer. I'm glad to see so many people contributed articles to this issue of the MN NOW Times. We're excited to have a new designer, Rachel McFarland, take over the layout and design of the newsletter, which frees up our editor, Jill Pearson-Wood, to spend more time recruiting writers. The MN NOW Times is the main means of communication with Minnesota NOW members. Everyone has equal access to the newsletter and equal opportunity to submit articles for it. The newsletter should reflect all areas of MN NOW, not just what is happening in the "cities." I encourage all MN NOW members and chapters to communicate each other through the newsletter. Is your chapter doing something special? Have you read a good book lately or are you interested in something that you would like to share? Jill would welcome an abundance of articles and opinions. Please submit any articles to her at jill@studentpress.org or mail them to her attention at the MN NOW office at 550 Rice St. #106A, St. Paul, MN 55103. In the last issue of the MN NOW Times, I wrote about the fact that the number of members and volunteers are decreasing in MN NOW. Unfortunately, this is also reflected in our revenue. I know people don't like to talk about money, but it's important to let everyone know that unless things change, we will not be able to continue to do business as we have been. We already lost our lobbyist last fall. If our revenue continues to decline, we may lose our office space and our office coordinator as well. The decline in revenue stems not only from a loss of membership, but a decline in our annual telephone appeals. One thing you may not be aware of, is that not all of your membership dollars go to MN NOW. With a new $35 membership that is originated in Minnesota, $15 goes to National NOW, $15 goes to MN NOW and $5 goes to the local chapter. With renewals, 37 percent for at-large members and 14 percent for chapter members comes back to MN NOW. So if you belong to a chapter and renew at the $35 rate, MN NOW gets $4.98. If MN NOW just maintained a base of 2,500 members at the $35 renewal level, our yearly income would be $12,450. That depends on everyone renewing at the $35 level, which I was not able to do for several years. If our membership dwindles below 2,500 with no other income, it would not be enough to run the office. The good news is that we have steady income coming in from our Quarter Century Club (QCC) members, who give to MN NOW on a quarterly or monthly basis. This income accounts for $18,000 or about 40 percent of MN NOW's total budget. The QCC contribution is above and beyond the $35 membership to National NOW, but it can be stretched over quarterly or monthly payments. If our 2,500 members gave just $5 a quarter, it would amount to an additional $50,000 a year. Besides the benefit of giving a contribution over time, joining QCC will take you off the telephone appeals list, so you won't receive those nagging fundraising calls twice a year! Not everyone can afford to give an additional contribution. So we're open to ideas from you about how to stabilize MN NOW's budget. A fundraising/membership committee will meet some time this fall to discuss these issues. If you're interested in participating on that committee or just want to pass along some ideas, please call me at the MN NOW office at (651) 222-1605 or e-mail me at info@mnnow.org. If you're able to give an extra contribution today, please find the appropriate check box on the membership form on page 7 and send it in. Maybe you can give a gift membership to a friend or a relative. With an election looming that could have negative impacts on women's rights, please join me today in making sure MN NOW succeeds well into the future. |