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Originally Posted by bchgirl  I can think of several issues with charging 20 bucks. Whose account is holding these funds...not to mention access? No offense or implication to whomever that may be...but if it's someone else's money...they are entitled to know this. Another point...just how are you going to keep non payers from voting? Keep a running tally...then realize you need to X out this person's vote or that person's vote due to lack of payment? Further...if someone chose to mail payment...when are they allowed to vote? When the funds are received and cashed? How would you stop them from voting prior? What happens if you never receive their payment? |
These are all very valid questions. I have a PayPal account set-up specifically using the yorketalkmeetup e-mail address, so that everything is separate from any of my personal finances. I do have a personal PayPal account too, but it's using a different address, and it's a different type of PayPal account. The yorkietalkmeetup PayPal account is then tied to a savings account that's only for YT meetup funds (a new savings account I opened up through Bank of America specifically for the meet-up, so there was never any confusion between YT funds and my personal funds), so it's again completely separate from any of my personal finances. I'm an auditor for the federal government, so believe me, I totally understand where you're coming from since I'm a skeptical person myself (hazard of the job, always having to audit everyone's activities
), but because of that being my nature, I've been very particular all along to make sure there is never a question as to the money, where it's going, etc. I even made sure I had witnesses at the meet-up when I bought my raffle tickets using my personal money, because I didn't want there to ever be a question of whether or not I paid for mine like everyone else did. They told me I was crazy to think like that, but my theory is better to be safe than sorry. In case it was brought up later, I wanted to make sure I had proof. Leave an audit trail...again...a hazard of the job. Because of my accounting background, I have spreadsheets that calculate everything from the cost of each individual plate of food (both with service fees and taxes and without) to the individual registration fees to the the overall expenses and whether we're in the red or black. I am way too organized for my own good, and believe me...my hubby wishes I wasn't
.
As for keeping non-payers from voting - it's simple - your vote isn't counted until payment is received. When people needed to pay with check or money order for the 2008 registration, I gave them a deadline of when I needed to receive payment by, as there was a registration schedule, and I didn't want someone registering when it was one price and not sending payment for months later when it was a higher price. In this case, payment would need to be received by next Monday (as the deadline states in my original post). Most people use PayPal nowadays, so it's not really a problem, but we didn't want to exclude anyone. For anyone who sends payment and it doesn't arrive by the deadline, I would send their check back to them (unless they tell me to do otherwise). I hope that clears up your questions.