2020/21 budget: should we consider raising membership fees?

Just wondering, is there something comparable? I don't know what the other Local Chapters charge or even if we should follow them, but there must be other professional/friendly bodies....

So some comparisons:

OSM Ireland are, i think, €15 for ordinary members (€5 concession), €300 for corporate.
Swiss OSM charge about £17 for ordinary members, and about £125 for corporate.
OSM France are €20 euro for ordinary members with a €10 concession. I couldn't spot the corporate pricing.

Do membership fees have to be a fixed amount? It may be worth considering pay what you want.

connected to this, we should re-check the tax rules. A straight donation with no strings attached would/could be tax free, whereas annual subs are. At minimum we could continue with subs and have an option to donate......and perhaps the OSMF could share some of the donations they are receiving on behalf of the mappers https://donate.openstreetmap.org/ ;)

Related: I had a chat with someone from The Guardian. They're encouraging people to make donations rather than subscriptions, for exactly the tax reason that Jez mentions.
So - I'd be in favour of that suggestion, to have a basic subscription, with optional but encouraged donation at the same time. (Possibly tricky to administer if part of the transaction is taxed and part is untaxed?)

With significantly increased membership fee (e.g. £20) what if there were some real benefits e.g. discounted fees for members to access facilities such as https://ncap.org.uk/ (who use OSM)

That's a really great idea. The challenge is making the relationships and negotiating the discounted fees, mainly as OSMUK has no staff, just volunteers. Do you have any relationship with ncap or any experience with negotiating discounts? If so, would you be up for volunteering to try to get it in place?

Having thought about this some more since writing this morning - perhaps we can ask corporate members of OSMUK if there is anything they could offer to individual members of OSMUK.

No relationship to NCAP - simply thinking the sort of benefits that might attract new members. Perhaps worth asking existing members for other ideas?

I have wondered previously about the purpose of OSM and specifically in relation to the UK. From the mailing list the implication seemed to be that OSM did not require "extreme precision/accuracy" - I am not sure this should necessarily be the case. Personally I have derived pleasure from seeing what I have mapped on OSM being used by other systems (e.g. NCAP and others). However, it does not solve many issues nor do other maps. I relate this to the case where a neighbour died from a heart attach but the first responder could not find the address as data was not shared. So take a similar scenario and as a member of the public, using Google maps try to quickly find the nearest defibrillator!
I therefore believe that perhaps this review of fees is a good point in time to review the purpose. For example, what if OSM and the underlying open data available to other map systems was 'THE map of choice'.
I know this means that I might upset some folk but the key thing is that any data must always be 'open' and easily accessible.
A starting point would be to look at a SWOT e.g.:
Strengths = Large number of volunteers, huge range of skills, local knowledge, passion for mapping ...
Weaknesses = Limited resources, credibility, recognition ...
Opportunities = Create transparent links between all parties with an interest i.e. community, businesses (social media, supermarkets), government etc, education (schools etc)...
Threats = Individual parties try to take control ....
Thinking this through, this could be a pilot project where membership (say £20 but with various concessions, life membership?) would provide free resources (hi-vis vests, use of differential GPS and/or RTK equipment, AI enabled cameras that recognise features and log automatically on OSM, local training etc.) - the latter provided by funding from corporate members. The corporate members benefiting from improved data. For example a supermarket would have accurate and up to date maps (including new builds even before OS has mapped them) for deliveries. In turn delivery vehicles could be provided with cameras to capture street-level imagery. The potential for genuine collaboration is huge.
With an enhanced profile, perhaps agencies would start to take OSM mappers seriously. We have the skills but agencies such as OS and government (inc local) do not seem to recognise the importance when we identify errors in their data. One outcome could be a central error reporting tool (run by OSM) that is visible to all. OS could even use OSM data for 'provisional' data (i.e.
Other outcomes could be the funding for staff to be employed e.g. a dedicated trainer that provides training for members that ensures quality. If corporate members see real benefits, that makes it easier to seek resourcing for the whole OSM movement.
In essence I see this as an opportunity to look at the potential benefits but also risks (a business plan including vision). I acknowledge that there are potential risks but risks can be managed. I also realise that I may be the only one that is frustrated with lack of openness by various UK agencies and see this as a way to force change for the better.