Consultation: | FYEG General Assembly 2024 |
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Agenda item: | 6. Resolutions |
Proposer: | Grön Ungdom |
Status: | Published |
Submitted: | 07/24/2024, 15:03 |
R7: A predictable system for member fees
Motion text
Introduction
The current system for membership fee calculation in FYEG is, as stated in
FYEG’s Internal Rules of Procedure (IRP) that:
“Each full MO shall pay an annual membership fee to FYEG. This Membership fee
shall correspond to 1 % of the total incomes of their previous year’s realised
budget
with a minimum of 50 EUR for the EU and European Economic Area (Iceland,
Liechtenstein and Norway), Switzerland and the United Kingdom and 25 EUR for all
other European countries. [...]”
We propose to change the model for how FYEG membership fees are calculated with
the goal of making membership fees more predictable and less fluctuating from
year to year.
The goals of the new system should be that:
Similar to today, bigger MOs pay a higher fee, proportional to their
budget
FYEG’s revenues from member fees stay at the same level (approx. 32 000 €
in 2024) so as to not impact the federation’s total budget.
Membership fees are predictable from year to year so temporary project
grants and such typically won’t affect the membership fee.
Background
The right-wing government in Sweden has cut down on funding for civil society
organisations. This means that civil society receives less funding and is
becoming more dependent on non-governmental sources of income like fundraising
and project grants from independent foundations. The consequence of this is that
the budgets of civil society organisations - including the Swedish Young Greens
- varies more from year to year depending on what project grants are approved
and the success of fundraising. We know that the situation is similar, and
worse, in other parts of Europe as well.
An important aspect of an increased reliance on project grants, is that the
means from project grants are often tied to a certain project and not allowed to
be used for anything else (e.g. putting 1% aside for an increased FYEG member
fee the next year).
We in the Young Greens of Sweden feel that we would rather pay a higher
membership fee that is stable from year to year, instead of having to revise how
much we spend on FYEG on a yearly basis. This would ensure we can budget an
adequate amount of money for the FYEG membership fee and overall make it easier
to calculate our budgeting and communicate it to our members. Furthermore, we
believe that other MOs would also appreciate a more predictable system.
Importantly, we strongly support the idea that bigger member organisations
should pay a higher membership fee. We also believe that the total level of
FYEGs revenues coming from membership fees should stay at approximately the same
level. However, the purpose of this proposal is that the fee shouldn’t vary too
much from year to year. Our suggestion is therefore to introduce a step-based
model, where the fee increases incrementally as a member organisation’s budget
increases.
The model we propose
The model we propose has incremental increases to the membership fee as the
budget of a MO increases.
We suggest keeping the lowest level to 50 € for countries within the European
Economic Area (EEA) , and 25€ for countries outside the EEA.
Note that the levels in the table below should only be seen as an illustration
of what the model could look like. Our proposal (see below) is to delegate to
the executive committée to decide on suggested levels of the fees, and to then
let the FYEG general assembly of 2025 make the final decision.
Budget(Total income from the realised budget of the previous year): < 5000 €
Membership fee: 50 €
Discount: 25 € for countries outside European Economic Area with a budget <5000
€
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Budget: 5 000-10 000 €
Membership fee: 75 €
----
Budget: 10 000-15 000 €
Membership fee: 125 €
----
Budget: 15 000-20 000 €
Membership fee: 175 €
----
Budget: 20 000-40 000 €
Membership fee: 350 €
----
Budget: 50 000-100 000 €
Membership fee: 750 €
----
Budget: 100 000-200 000 €
Membership fee: 1 500 €
----
Budget: 200 000-400 000 €
Membership fee: 3 000 €
----
Budget: 4000 000-600 000 €
Membership fee: 5 000 €
----
Budget: > 600 000 €
Membership fee: 7 000 €
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Are there organisations that already use this model to calculate membership
fees?
Yes, there are a few organisations that already use this model to calculate
membership fees. An example is LSU - The National Council of Swedish Children
and Youth Organisations. The model was introduced more than ten years ago with
the goal of it being just and predictable for all member organisations. (You can
read more about it here; the text is in Swedish but you can look at the table to
get the gist of what a similar model could look like for FYEG.)
We propose:
To delegate to the FYEG executive committee to propose suggested levels of
incremental membership fees to the FYEG general assembly 2025.
To delegate to the FYEG executive committee to propose necessary changes
to the IRP to the FYEG general assembly 2025
That the executive committee’s proposal to the general assembly 2025
should be in line with the goals stated in this proposal: a) Bigger MOs
pay a higher fee proportional to their budget and b) FYEG’s total revenues
from member fees stay at approximately the same level as 2024 (32.000 €)
That the incremental model for membership fees is implemented in 2026.