2024 marks fifty years since the creation of Starfleet Command as a whole. In it’s early years SFC was a fully immersive fan organisation and still carries a lot of those elements in the 21st century. Even with the split between Quadrant’s 1 & 2 decades ago, we still retain some of the legacy ideologies and policies baked into our “Starfleet Handbook” for new and existing members.
Times however do bring in change. And one thing that changed as we live in hope that onje day we’ll see a society as wholesome as the idealistic Federation is how we see money. You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th century…
These days nearly everything has a subscription fee. From the common issue of multiple streaming platforms to the ability to keep the heated car seat you paid extra for turned on there’s barely anything left that doesn’t come without some hidden cost or fee.
In a world of squeezing out every penny from loyalty, Q2 has committed to never charge a penny for membership.
Historically, that’s not always been true. Even after separating our structure from what’s now Quadrant One, Q2 did have membership fee’s for several years to help level out the cost of operations and offer certain perks to members from newsletters from the Director of Communications to printed certificates and membership cards.
As the internet took hold and we moved into a digital age, a lot of that seemed more unessential. Comms moved to PDF format and email. The Q2 forums – which phased out naturally with the rise of social media platforms and social devices and soon enough cost of operations dwindled massively and there was no material cost to pass on per head.
Plus, lets be honest, hobbies and activities cost a lot and much of it doesn’t need someone to pay a needless membership fee. Who wants to be charged for meeting fellow sci fi fans and talking about warp core regulators or what shade Worf’s uniform is this episode? No. Things cost far too much and being a fan of something, as well as being a part of a group, shouldn’t come at a cost.
Running costs do exist, of course. The most consistent being our servers and domains. We also have a surplus of materials for fleet use that can be sent to CO’s and their members and will on occasion – by special circumstance or request – offer printed versions of our documents. We also pay for business services and software to help maintain a healthy and secure fleet database and other random services with the latest being a new mobile contract to offer direct communication to the DoFC office via phone, text or Whatsapp Business. But all those costs are, and always wil be, absorbed by the board.
Event costs also do exist and are handled by the unit CO or selected representative, which is fair. One unit in particular has a cost-sharing method where if they receive five free passes and six people share the table, that single entry cost will be split between all parties to ensure fairness and flexibility; it’s generous enough for organisers to make the offer!
We’ve said for years that fandom doesn’t come at a premium and we mean it. For as long as we remain Q2 will never have a membership fee to join, charge a penny through donation to our club and nor will we create shelves of merchandise just to line a pocket. Having no money involved, aside from being less complex and giving us less things to deal with, means that there’s no barriers to be involved for anyone.
Even in occasional special runs, such as the fleet and pride patches, we kept the costs that low that when we worked it all out we donated what we thought was excess only to realise we’d miscalculated and lost money!
Of course, that does mean that sometimes things run a bit slow and fall behind as requests can take a back bench to real world responsibilities. Also it results in the occasional rant on Facebook about the cost of stamps…
…but the most important thing to all of us is bringing fans together. And unlike many other clubs, we believe fandom doesn’t come at a premium and welcome all new members to join our collective without ever asking for money in return.
The July Edition of SQ2&A will look at one of the most vital pieces of Quadrant 2’s policy: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations and how it’s core to our values as an organisation.
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