Update on LISA Pricing Policies by Alison Rowles LISA Controller/Business Manager Prompted by a number of member inquiries, Alison Rowles, LISA's business manager, explains the pricing assumptions behind current LISA membership fees, answers some frequently asked questions and calls for member input on pricing and service issues. In spite of LISA's significant growth over the years, its membership pricing program and fees have remained basically unchanged since 1993. At this time, membership costs were designed to provide General Assembly members with as many benefits as possible within LISA's structure as a non-profit association. The Secretariat's operational guidelines ensure that all membership entitlements are met through efficient administration, Forum management and the provision of traditional and electronic communications to facilitate member-driven initiatives and industry support programs. All of this occurs within tight budget constraints. As more companies join LISA, some additional revenues are generated through membership fees and increased Forum participation. Unfortunately, the administration of bigger events and additional memberships also increases the back office workload and distribution service costs. Member support in the form of Forum Host programs, and the provision of software, hardware and technical services helps keep the administration's expenses low, but it does not contribute to LISA's ability to fund additional programs and services. We are looking at ways to change LISA's pricing policies in order to upgrade our support to members in line with industry requirements. We would like your input to find solutions that will work for everyone. In this regard, the Administration and the Executive Committee will be releasing several programs over the next few months to help the association function more smoothly and provide a better range of products and services. In the meantime, we are soliciting your ideas and comments. To provide an overview of some of the issues we are addressing, we have listed the questions most frequently asked by members, along with our responses. 1. Membership and Forum Fees Question: Why doesn't LISA have a membership program that addresses the needs of some of the larger service conglomerates, software publishers and hardware manufacturers, so that more of their personnel can receive LISA information and benefits? Answer: LISA's current membership fee structure is geared to individual companies. Many larger members have purchased multiple memberships so that their employees can all benefit from the association through Forum participation and information distribution. In fact, due to the many mergers and acquisitions taking place industry-wide, LISA has lost General Assembly members and associated revenues, while many companies have lost direct access to industry information and newsbriefs. It is this type of issue that is being examined as LISA Administration seeks to revise membership pricing policy. In this regard, we are considering charging members fees based on individual company annual revenues, number of sites represented, or through a sliding fee mechanism modeled on other non-profit trade associations. Until a critical mass of 200 or more members is reached, it is not cost effective to revise the LISA membership database and accounting programs to permit this type of variable invoicing. Question: LISA members are only allowed to send 3 delegates to LISA Forums at preferential member rates. Speakers and Exhibitors come under special consideration. Additional delegates are placed on a waiting list and, if there is space, are permitted to attend the Forum, but must pay the much higher guest rate. Is there a plan in place to change this policy? Answer: Currently, average Forum participant expenses are equal to the first or second delegate fee, depending upon the venue. Annual Membership fees, Guest fees and Forum Host financial contributions have permitted the administration to keep participation fees low for members. The expenses associated with running larger Forums-meeting facilities for more than 200 delegates, more break-out sessions, higher third-party costs, providing free Forum attendance to keynote speakers and special guests-do not permit extending lower rates to companies who can afford to send more delegates than permitted by the Statutes. In fact, it has become necessary in 1998 to somewhat raise Forum fees to cover the increased costs of bigger conferences with multiple tracks, more equipment, additional workshops, and discussion rooms. Until we restructure the entire Membership Pricing program, the administration must respect the rules as outlined in the Statutes. Additionally, the current pricing and attendance policy was designed to insure that each General Assembly member could send the same number of delegates to a Forum. The mandate given to the administration has been to balance the supply and demand sides of the business through equal representation in the Association and to provide equal opportunity for participation in Association events. Question: Speakers at LISA Forums are asked to pay an attendance fee of $500. Generally, speakers at other industry events attend free. Why do they have to pay at LISA? Answer: Since June of 1997, keynote speakers and speakers/moderators who are responsible for organizing more than one session at a LISA Forum have had their fees waived. Bear in mind that LISA currently averages 25 or more speakers and panelists participating in each Forum. As a result, it is not financially viable to subsidize that many participants when the average attendee costs are in the same $500-$600 range, without severely reducing the quality of venues, services and catering. This year, LISA has instituted a program whereby all speakers from member companies pay a reduced fee. Member speaker participation does not count against the company head count for Forum attendance. 2. Web Pricing Question: If LISA is making its Newsletters, Forum summaries, member news briefs, and other materials available via General Assembly member-only access at the Website, how will other Distribution members be able to access the information? Answer: LISA has been beta-testing various member access methods in the past months and will soon be releasing a pricing policy entitling GA members to buy additional scaled "access rights" for subsidiaries or satellite offices. GA membership will still include hardcopies of the Newsletter, voting rights and special access to archived Forum presentations and summary files, Surveys, Industry reports etc., not available to every membership type. Distribution members will still receive hard copy Newsletters with access rights to the archives under their current membership pricing. Call for Input Please let us know if you have any additional questions, ideas or comments regarding LISA's pricing or other membership policies. These will be taken into consideration as we prepare our recommendations for the General Assembly meeting in Madrid on August 26th. Don't miss it! Alison Rowles LISA Administration 7 Route du Monastère 1173 Féchy Switzerland Tel +41 21 821 32 10 Fax +41 21 821 32 19 E-mail: alison.rowles@lisa.org