Hello everyone!
This is a post that I have been meaning to write for a while but the timing has finally become right. We are introducing some changes in how we conduct our events.
All our future events, excluding outreaches and regular meetups, will have a flat fee of Rs. 250 added to the costs as club contribution. Everyone, including the organisers, will pay this fee. You are exempt from this if you are a student below 22 years of age.
We have always believed in being transparent with the community and would like to continue doing so. We want to take a moment to explain why this is necessary, what it covers, and how it helps us stay sustainable and keep bringing astronomy to more people in Chennai and beyond.
Why not a membership fee?
We are not at the stage where we can introduce a membership fee for the club. The community is essentially being reborn now as a lot of old timers are no longer in the city. Introducing a membership fee will cause the following issues:
- We currently cannot host more than 30-35 people for various reasons. What happens if we have 100 members who have paid to be a part of the club and all of them want to attend an event? It would be extremely unfair.
- It can create entitlement - people expecting access just because they paid, even if they don’t contribute to the group’s learning or dynamic.
- Astronomy needs both gear and knowledge shared freely. Membership would turn that into a transactional relationship, which defeats our community-first philosophy.
Why not donations?
We avoid relying on donations for the same reason we avoid memberships. Our focus is on active participation, not passive support.
- We want people to contribute with time, knowledge, gear, and curiosity.
- If someone donates, there’s an expectation of returns - priority access, special treatment, etc. Even if they do not expect it, it puts us organisers in awkward situations. At least till the club is in a more mature place, we want to be able to tell no to people.
We want to scale responsibly, without compromising on the quality of experience or turning it into a crowd-heavy, sightseeing event. This model allows us to grow thoughtfully.
Why are we introducing this now?
The club has been around for 12-13 years and it has always run on the funds of organisers. We have done multiple outreaches in schools, orphanages, villages, public parks, etc. We have also distributed gear in multiple places. This has all happened with our own funds. We can comfortably continue doing this if we maintain this level of events. However, we feel that this is the right moment to switch to this flat fee model to sustainably grow this club.
- There’s a drastic increase in the number of people who are participating in our events and in the number of events itself.
- We are also looking at doing more outreaches both inside Chennai and throughout the state.
- We need a lot of volunteers for this. So far, the volunteers have pitched in. However, it is not very sustainable for people to keep doing this over the long term as the events get more frequent.
- The core team will continue pitching in with funds if the club pool isn’t sufficient.
What are we going to do with this fee?
As always, we are not trying to make profits. We are trying to build a pool of funds that can be put to good use.
- Inviting speakers to our events: We want to invite speakers to our meetups. However, a lot of them expect to be paid for their time.
- More outreach to underserved communities: We aim to do more outreaches for government schools and for children in rural places. Just traveling to these places costs money as our volunteers have to transport their gear. Since we need separate vehicles for each of these, we cannot carpool and fuel and toll charges build up quite easily. We want to reimburse our volunteers so that they can come to as many events as they can without having to worry about all this.
- We also want to show our appreciation for the volunteers who dedicate their time and energy to our outreach programs. Many of them take time off from work and sacrifice family time to share their passion for astronomy in remote areas. By offering a very modest stipend, we aim to support and motivate them to continue contributing to these important efforts.
- More public outreaches during eclipses, and other astronomy events.
- Printing of sky maps, handouts, and educational materials for our outreaches and star parties.
- Introducing more programs like the Badge Program - these things cost money. Having a pool of funds will help us introduce more of these and keep the club engaged.
- Getting common gear like more tarpaulins, red lights, etc. for our events.
We aim to do at least one free outreach session for every 2 star parties that we do using the funds we collect. Hopefully, with our fund pool increasing, this can become more frequent.
Every January 1st and June 1st, we will share a breakdown of how these funds were used so you’ll always know where the funds are going.