The Delta Grassroots Caucus (DGC) is a broad coalition of grassroots leaders in the eight-state Delta region. DGC is also a founding partner of the Economic Equality Caucus,
which advocates for economic equality across the USA.

Annual Membership Dues for Delta Caucus: Deadline for 2012 IS December 31, 2012

Posted on December 06, 2012 at 05:39 PM

Annual membership dues to the Delta Grassroots Caucus for $25 are due now, and please note that the dues are now a requirement if you wish to become or to continue to be a member of this organization. The deadline for the calendar year 2012 is December 31, 2012.

We are steadily expanding our activities and with the expanded program, the budget of course has to expand. We have been informing our partners for the past year that the dues are now a requirement if you are interested in being involved in this organization. We are just following up with the deadline near for 2012.

Thanks so much to those of you who have already sent in your dues, and for those of you who have not sent them in and wish to either become or continue to be members of this grassroots, private sector advocacy organization, please note:

Please make out the check to “Delta Caucus” in the required $25 annual dues check, with a note, “Dues-2012,” to our Washington, DC area office:

Delta Caucus

5030 Purslane Place

Waldorf, MD 20601

All dues are paid by mailing in the check.

As we have indicated for the past year, this year we have adopted a new policy that this minimal $25 dues amount is a requirement for those who wish to be members.

By being a member this means being able to take part in our activities, receive group email messages and other dissemination of information about advocacy work and various Delta regional issues, be invited to our conferences at the Clinton Library, in the Memphis-West Memphis area, Washington, DC and elsewhere, give feedback to us regarding what our policy positions should be on Delta community and economic development issues, and otherwise be a part of our coalition.

We try to be as inclusive as possible for a private sector organization. We do have to have a budget and rules, of course.

It is quite common for private sector organizations to have membership dues, so although this is new for our group, many organizations ask for annual dues. We of course have consulted many, many people for several years now on this and all other rules of the organization.

We have been collecting a relatively small number of dues for a few years now, but up until now some people have paid but many others have not, leading to the decision to make the dues a requirement for all grassroots partners.

Journalists, Members of Congress, high-level executive branch officials, and others in unique categories of course do not pay registration fees. People in these categories know who they are. All other grassroots organizations and individuals are asked to pay the annual dues.

A few people in the unique, non-grassroots categories send in checks from their private accounts and not in their official capacity, but this is strictly optional on their part. We do not ask for contributions in these categories of individuals or organizations who are not grassroots leaders, for the obvious reason that this is a grassroots organization.

This is a new policy and apparently many people are not aware that it is now a requirement, if you wish to be a member. Any new policy will take some time for everyone to become aware of it.

Some members have paid, some have not, and this needs to be done in the same way for all: We have the situation right now that while some people have sent in their dues, many others have not done so. We need to correct this and everyone who is interested in and supportive of the organization is asked to send in $25 once a year.

The reason for setting the minimal requirement at the very low rate of $25 is to make absolutely certain that we are not asking for too much. We have approximately 700 partners on our basic participation list who have had significant involvement with the organization over the years, and a further list of over 2,000 grassroots leaders who have had at least some involvement in our activities.

It is true that many people generously send in more than $25–medium-sized organizations often pay $50, larger businesses, larger banks, universities and colleges, corporations, foundations would pay $100 usually, and some generous people have paid as much as $250 to $350 in dues, and that’s great–BUT WE DO NOT ASK FOR THAT. THE ONLY REQUIREMENT IS AT LEAST $25 ONCE A YEAR.

Again, no matter how big or small the individual or organizational member, the only requirement is $25 a year.

If all of those who have been directly involved pay their dues, even at $25 it would be a major boost to our budget, without causing any financial strain to our partners.

MEMBERSHIP DUES, REGISTRATION FEES AND SPONSORSHIPS ARE THREE ENTIRELY SEPARATE CATEGORIES: These are the three categories that make up our budget, which is entirely based on voluntary contributions. These three categories have to be separate. If membership dues could be substituted for by payments in the other two categories, the dues would not have any meaning and would not increase the funds.

The dues will play an essential role from now on, because we do not want all of our budget to always be tied to the major conferences. That leads to a situation where a large volume of revenue comes flooding in around the times of the major events, but very little the rest of the year.

We work every day all year-round and there needs to be a third source of funding not tied to the big conferences, as we continue to expand.

As we have said on many occasions, the Delta Caucus is not, has never been and never will be a 501c3, because we do not want the restrictions on our freedom of action that come with 501c3 status. We need to be able to speak our minds freely and occasionally take stands on controversial issues in a way that a 501c3 should not. We have a trade-off here–we decline the financial advantages, tax advantages of a 501c3, because we must have unrestricted freedom of action in our advocacy activities.

WE NEVER WANT TO SEND MESSAGES OR ASK FOR INVOLVEMENT FROM ANYONE WHO IS NOT INTERESTED: We take very seriously our obligation to not send “SPAM” to anyone. Therefore, if you do not wish to pay the dues and do not have any interest in this organization, or have decided you simply no longer have the time to do so (which is perfectly fine), we will be glad to remove your email address from our data base and not contact you further.

Everyone in our data base is there because we were told and believed in good faith they wanted to be there at some time. Our group messages always have the permission reminder for people to hit “unsubscribe.”

Trial period for new members: If you have only recently started taking part in our activities, we will be happy to give a period of 90 days for you to observe our activities and decide whether you are interested in taking part. If you are still interested after that trial period, it is a requirement to be a member to send in $25 once a year.

If anyone disagrees with the policy of asking for $25 in membership dues, you are certainly entitled to your point of view and we respect that and will not send any unwanted communications from that point on. We do need to make clear, however, that anyone in the grassroots categories who has been involved for a substantial period of time (approximately three months or more), and continues to want to be involved, is now asked to pay the annual dues.

We feel sure that the vast majority of our partners who have not sent in their checks have not yet done so because they did not know it is now a requirement, or were busy and have not yet gotten around to doing it.

NEXT YEAR: CALENDAR YEAR MINIMAL REQUIREMENT FOR 2013 BEGINS ON JANUARY 1, 2013 AND ENDS ON DECEMBER 31, 2013. Again, the only request is that each organizational or individual member pay at least $25 once a year for dues.

Strictly as a courtesy so that you will know whether we have received your dues or not, wWe list those who have paid for 2012 below, in case you do not recall whether you have sent in your dues.

We would like to thank those who paid their dues. We have had many people who made other contributions who could not remember whether they had sent their dues in, so again the only reasons for this list are to thank those who sent their dues in and most importantly so you will know whether or not your dues are paid up for 2012.

The list will save people the time of having to ask us to check our files to see if they have paid yet.

We do not include how much each member paid. If you or your organization are not on this list, please send in your $25 annual dues as soon as possible and at least by December 31, 2012.:

Appreciation for Annual Membership Dues Payments Up to December 3, 2012; Deadline is Dec. 31, 2012

William McFarland

Kevin Smith

Mayor Sheldon Day

Martha Ellen Black, Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center, Missouri

BGACDC agency, Phillips County, Arkansas

E. Marshall

Bill Ransdall, Missouri

City of Helena-West Helena, AR

Brad Cole, Illinois

Harvey Joe Sanner

Phillips County Chamber of Commerce

Southern Illinois University

Steve Copley

Kay Goss

Desha County

Johnnie Bolin

Mid-South Community College, West Memphis, AR

Arkansas Municipal League

Grambling State University, Louisiana

Rivers of Joy Ministries, Jonesboro, Louisiana

Phillips County, Arkansas

Deb Owens

Thomas Fiala

Wilson Golden

Georgianna Tuuri, Louisiana

Kenny Gober

Melissa Gober

Southeast Missouri Food Bank

Dumas Chamber of Commerce

Eugene Smith, Louisiana

Shawnee Community College, Ullin, Illinois

Mississippi County Economic Opportunity Commission

Arkansas Inter-Faith Conference

Mayor Arnell Willis

City of Dumas, Arkansas

Delta Grassroots Caucus