THIS IS NOT AN EVENT: Finance Discussion of this Meetup Group

Hi all,
As you may be aware, this Melbourne Classical Music Lovers Meetup group is currently a free group. But Meetup has been increasing their organiser fees - and until now the Main Organiser "Learner" has very very generously helped fund this group and kept it going.

This Meetup Event is to bring up the topic of finances to keep this group running - as it's not sustainable at the moment.. 😅

Enoch notes (Oct):
I've not used the inbuilt Meetup Paid membership functionalities yet - so the actual execution of this - is yet to be finalised.
Nor do I know how other paid meetup groups do it - if you have any insight / suggestions - please comment below 🙏

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Option 1:
Gold coin donation at events
What I've seen other groups do - they do $2 gold coin donation every event, and paid directly to organiser (they've set up their own Meetup PayID)...

Con: But given the infrequency / nascency of this group's events, and the low numbers that do attend... that may not generate sufficient revenue, and it'll be down to a member's goodwill to pay it - as we don't always see each other on the day, and won't know who did or didn't come.

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Option 2:
Paid Membership - ? $5.50 a month / member. (paid $16.50 quarterly)
The number of actual regular members in this group isn't particularly high. Majority of the members are infrequent (also because maybe the events we've been posting aren't to their liking / schedule anyway)

Pros: more engagement and participation. (people generally value that which costs them something) - so perhaps more members will have a vested interest in attending, submitting / suggesting events?

Cons: will lose a lot of the members at the onset. but those people weren't regulars to begin with...

? Implementation Notes
Include: a trial period of 1-3 months free
As the paid membership audit will occur ever quarter. So any new members that join mid quarter -> free until next audit cycle.

Why 3 monthly?
Because to do a membership audit every month is too much hassle - unless someone knows of a nifty smooth mechanic / function to do so.

(I am still figuring out how this could work out practically - so if you've any suggestions, please comment below
- The inbuilt membership function on Meetup takes away 7.5% + $0.50 per transaction 😵

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Option 3:
Open to suggestions 🙂

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Other questions:
What happens to the extra if we're profitable?
I think we'll cross the bridge when we get there haha. Currently we're still trying to break even 😵

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>> UPDATED: Enoch notes (Nov)
(1) Will very likely move towards a paid model (Option 1 above).
- where even for 'Free' University of Melbourne events -> we will be asking for $2 (paid directly to us)
- this is to help cover the fees of the Meetup group

(2) But will also try to find 'safe harbour' with another Meetup Organiser. The default Meetup Organiser allows for 3 groups... and so if / when I find another organiser who has a spare group slot and willing take us in -> it will mean the default Meetup Organiser fee is divided by 3 instead.

How will the transition happen?
It may mean we all have to join another group under them instead. -> I will update in due course about this.

(3) I understand that not everyone will be happy with us changing over to a paid event model - but unfortunately we are utilising Meetup's platform and it's only right that they be paid for providing us this platform that's separate to our other social media accounts.

And "people esteem too lightly that which costs them nothing" - by charging $2 per person per event - that should minimise the number of no-shows (people who ask for free tickets and don't confirm or turn up 🙂