It's interesting the different things that infuriate members of organizations. I can't comment on MSCC subs (mine is an annual gift from my mum
) but I do have a perspective on the reserve fund and payment processing fees.
I sit on the board of a local Children's Choir (in which various of my offspring sing). It's a non-profit organization, most of whose income comes from tuition/membership fees, with additional income from grant funding from government and charity bodies, concert ticket sales and sundry fundraising initiatives.
The umbrella organization for Ontario choirs, in lockstep with the two largest grant-funding bodies supporting arts organizations, suggest that around six months' operating budget (so around 50% of annual revenues) be held in reserve. This seems very sensible to me - we wouldn't ever want to have to use that, but if, for example, we lost performance or rehearsal spaces (not our own - we rent concert venues as needed and rehearse in a local church hall) or there was a reason we couldn't collect revenues from one of our primary streams, we would need a cushion about htat size to keep us solvent until we could get sorted out.
We've recently rolled out an online registration tool (mainly to save the huge volume of paperwork and data entry by our long-suffering administrator) and started taking credit card subs. We had a long debate about passing on credit card processing fees, but in the end decided that we'd make an educated guess on how many people would choose to pay by card, and try to include the addition cost to the Choir within a modest annual fee increase. My view during the discussions was that it seemed counterproductive to charge people extra for something whose prime aim was convenience to the Choir rather than the Membership.
Paypal, as Martyn pointed out up-thread, is where the real fees are hiding. We sell concert tickets through a paypal-enabled portal, and the Paypal fees (for tickets around the $20 - $30 range) are astronomical, with a high fixed minimum that makes a significant dent in revenues if tickets are sold singly rather than in blocks of four or more. We have, in fact, started to pass on Paypal charges to ticket purchasers.
And don't get me started on monetising audio/video recordings online. We used to sell a handful of CDs an occasionally put a video compilation together. We're not nearly big enough to bother the likes of iTunes or to generate significant YouTube ad revenues, most of our online music is sold to the likes of Granny and Aunty Ethel so they can watch Little Johnny sing his solo. But we want to make a little extra money... Shopify seems to be the platform of choice, so we have one an alumna, just about to start her first year studying for an electronics engineering undergrad, "gaining some real-world experience" by implementing that over her summer vacation right now...
