A Word About Subscription Fees and Membership

A Word About Subscription Fees and Membership

Future Reflections September- December 1983, Vol. 2 No. 5
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WORD ABOUT SUBSCRIPTION FEES AND MEMBERSHIP
Growth of a magazine means increased costs, and the
dramatic growth we've experienced has meant a
dramatic jump in expenses. The National Federation
of the Blind is committed to doing all that we can to
directly help blind children and their parents, but we
also have other activities and services (all of which
indirectly benefit our children) that we must promote
and support. For example, we have just expanded our
scholarship program. We now offer 12 scholarships
(who knows, your child may someday be the recipient
of one of them). We are putting our resources and
efforts behind passage of "minimum wages for the
blind" legislation. Our success or failure (and we mean
to succeed!) could mean all the difference in your childs
future ability to support him/herself in a decent,
respectable manner.
With those considerations, we decided to request a
nominal subscription fee. Because institutions usually
have funds for this purpose, we will continue to request
a $15.00 per year fee from them. To all others, we are
asking for $3.00 per year. As you may guess, $3.00 per
year does not cover the cost of publishing and distributing FUTURE REFLECTIONS (we wanted to
keep the fee low enough so that anyone could afford it),
but it will help. It also means that we still need your
donations, or Associate Memberships. We appreciate
so much the donations we have received, and hope
that others will do likewise.
We also want to stress that this is a subscription fee only. You do not have to join the National Federation
of the Blind, or any of its affiliates or divisions, to
receive this, or any, publication of the National Federation
of the Blind. Until recently, this had been pretty
much the practice of all national organizations of and
for the blind.
However, there is now a national parents group that
requires membership before you can receive their
newsletter. We find that distressing. We believe information
about blindness should be available to all -- without strings -- and that membership should be a
meaningful choice to support an organization you
believe in, not merely a way to get information
otherwise denied to you.
We believe our organization is worth joining and
supporting, but we will not require it, or pressure
anyone into it by withholding information that can be
valuable to them.
If you are interested in joining, or making a donation
to the NFB, you should know that the NFB is a nonprofit
organization (which means your contribution is
tax-deductible) and is principally funded by contributions
from the public. The money is used to educate the
public about blindness; to promote better educational
and job opportunities for the blind; to protect the rights
of blind individuals through court action, or whatever
means is appropriate; to award scholarships to worthy
blind students; and to support many other activities
and programs that will help achieve the goals of
security, equality and opportunity for the blind. Your
contribution and/or membership will do much to help
us achieve those goals.
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