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Participant Fees
I'd like to get some opinions on the following:
Along with everything else I do I'm a Living History Re-enactor. Primarily a Confederate War Between the States artilleryman but my wife and I also do 19th c. civilian from a variety of periods. The thing that's happening lately at some sites in our area is that the sites want to begin charging VOLUNTEERS a fee for coming out and staging these events after the site has requested our presence. Typically they want about 5 bucks per person, yet our presence alone will increase their weekend rvenues alone by, literally, thousand of dollars.
When we ask to use a site for an event we wish to stage we gladly pay all fees involved, such as insurance, food, firewood and water, etc.
When I volunteer at one of these events I'm typically hauling about $7,000 worth of equipment, plus my time getting to and from the event (sometimes driving 12 hours or more), wear and tear on my vehicle, etc.
I know $5 isn't that much, it's just the principle of the thing. It would be like my boss asking me to kick in money every month to pay the utilities.
Opinions?
Along with everything else I do I'm a Living History Re-enactor. Primarily a Confederate War Between the States artilleryman but my wife and I also do 19th c. civilian from a variety of periods. The thing that's happening lately at some sites in our area is that the sites want to begin charging VOLUNTEERS a fee for coming out and staging these events after the site has requested our presence. Typically they want about 5 bucks per person, yet our presence alone will increase their weekend rvenues alone by, literally, thousand of dollars.
When we ask to use a site for an event we wish to stage we gladly pay all fees involved, such as insurance, food, firewood and water, etc.
When I volunteer at one of these events I'm typically hauling about $7,000 worth of equipment, plus my time getting to and from the event (sometimes driving 12 hours or more), wear and tear on my vehicle, etc.
I know $5 isn't that much, it's just the principle of the thing. It would be like my boss asking me to kick in money every month to pay the utilities.
Opinions?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Don Morgan on -
I am involved with the Battle of Richmond KY Association. We don't charge a fee in fact we do quite a bit of feeding of our volunteers. We need their participation to make the event an event. Maybe join a unit and then the unit can negotiate for no fees for their participation.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel J.Brown on
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This past summer,tanglewood Music Center, in Lenox MA. did the same thing , by charging thier long time volunteers to pay a $50.00 "participation fee", the org. acquated this to a membership. Needless to say, this went over like a lead balloon. Not only did thay loose the bulk of thier volunteers, but the public reaction caused thier membership numbers to drop, as well as attendence. Any fee for volunteers is not only wrong, but possibly illegal. I would contact your state Attorney General's office and see what they have to say. At the museum I work at, the Executive Director requires all employees to work one day as a volunteer, as a condition of their employment, which he knows is Illegal under Mass. state law.
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