At the risk of alienating some folks that I am too new to know if I care about alienating *LOL*, yet being known for speaking my mind, here goes a few pennies in thoughts:

By the time I paid my membership dues, I had already decided for whatever reason that it was worth it to me to pay the dues.

For what it's worth, this club's dues are no more expensive than the car clubs in which I am a member.

I have absolutely no problem with the dues increase per se. I do think that Life Memberships tend to be self-defeating for most clubs (though I do like the idea of life members, but like more the idea of a club voting in a number of life members each year gratis, rather than the buy-in type of life membership) but that's a whole 'nother can-o-worms and really has to be set up at the beginning of a club's existance regardless, so is moot to this issue in this club, so I'll shut up about it ;).

I also cannot speak for anyone else, but for me (and apparently a few others that have posted) the issue is not at all about money. I don't base MY decisions about whether or not to join a club based on the dues. For me it's value verses cost.

I think the issue is that the reason for the increase should be easy to justify in amount and timing (and not just because dues haven't been raised in 'x' years nor because "it's still a good value for the price"). Any increase should freely be put in front of the membership for discussion before the BOD makes a decision. However, that is getting into politics, and I am too new to the club to know where I stand on the politics yet ;)