drusba
I went to Iowa once, and it was closed.
- Joined
- Aug 19, 1999
- Messages
- 14,996
My view is that once you set up something like on-line booking you are going to have members using it just to see about possible availability and sometimes just play around, more so in the early days after it begins than down the line later. The system should be set up with enough server capacity to handle whatever comes in that area along with actual bookings.
The argument that you should not use the system unless actually reserving because our dues are paying for this and we should not have to have higher dues for more server power has two major problems:
1. This is like arguing we should keep lousy service because we might have to pay more for good service. It is similar to the thus far not-so-good wifi system they have put in the rooms. Many have experienced, including me, that it it goes out service far too often when you are trying to use it. The "dues" argument is like asserting we should keep the wifi lousy so we don't have to spend any more money in dues. You need good wifi service so members can use it without it failing all the time even though many of those members are just playing around and surfing the web. Likewise, you should have enough server capacity to provide good on-line reservation service.
2. Those arguing that increasing server power will impact dues are actually wrong. You need to understand where the money comes from for centralized MS services including computer reservation services. The money actually comes from three dues line items. One is a $1 per member charge for centralized reservation systems. That $1 cannot be raised or lowered.
The second source is breakage income, what DVD gets from renting rooms that are still open sixty days out. Such income goes first to set off member dues up to 2.5% of the amount of the total annual operating budget. Any breakage income over that 2.5% then goes to funding MS, including its reservation services, and if breakage income is then high enough to fund MS, the excess above that goes to DVD to keep. As with the $1 charge, having more expensive MS services is not going to raise dues in relation to that line item.
Third, there is a "Management fee" that is equal to 12.5% of the total of the rest of the operatiing budget which can also defray costs for centralized services including computer costs, and then most of it is just basically a built in profit for DVD. The actual annual amount of that line item can increase because other portions of the annual budget increase but the 12.5% cannot be changed. Thus, you have a third source of dues that cannot increase if DVD decides to spend more money on better servers.
In other words, what is really going on is that DVD, when it increases centralized services costs, is simply cutting into the total income it gets from those three line items which do not vary based on actual costs incurred for such centralized services. Your dues are not going to change if DVD spends a little more to provide better server capacity. If the server power is not enough to handle what is going on, we should be insisting DVD improve it rather than chastising members under the false assumption that dues will increase if DVD spends a little more money on it.
The argument that you should not use the system unless actually reserving because our dues are paying for this and we should not have to have higher dues for more server power has two major problems:
1. This is like arguing we should keep lousy service because we might have to pay more for good service. It is similar to the thus far not-so-good wifi system they have put in the rooms. Many have experienced, including me, that it it goes out service far too often when you are trying to use it. The "dues" argument is like asserting we should keep the wifi lousy so we don't have to spend any more money in dues. You need good wifi service so members can use it without it failing all the time even though many of those members are just playing around and surfing the web. Likewise, you should have enough server capacity to provide good on-line reservation service.
2. Those arguing that increasing server power will impact dues are actually wrong. You need to understand where the money comes from for centralized MS services including computer reservation services. The money actually comes from three dues line items. One is a $1 per member charge for centralized reservation systems. That $1 cannot be raised or lowered.
The second source is breakage income, what DVD gets from renting rooms that are still open sixty days out. Such income goes first to set off member dues up to 2.5% of the amount of the total annual operating budget. Any breakage income over that 2.5% then goes to funding MS, including its reservation services, and if breakage income is then high enough to fund MS, the excess above that goes to DVD to keep. As with the $1 charge, having more expensive MS services is not going to raise dues in relation to that line item.
Third, there is a "Management fee" that is equal to 12.5% of the total of the rest of the operatiing budget which can also defray costs for centralized services including computer costs, and then most of it is just basically a built in profit for DVD. The actual annual amount of that line item can increase because other portions of the annual budget increase but the 12.5% cannot be changed. Thus, you have a third source of dues that cannot increase if DVD decides to spend more money on better servers.
In other words, what is really going on is that DVD, when it increases centralized services costs, is simply cutting into the total income it gets from those three line items which do not vary based on actual costs incurred for such centralized services. Your dues are not going to change if DVD spends a little more to provide better server capacity. If the server power is not enough to handle what is going on, we should be insisting DVD improve it rather than chastising members under the false assumption that dues will increase if DVD spends a little more money on it.
Bill 
