My Cambridge college, Corpus, is proposing to set up a mailing list for its old members who were involved in the Chapel choir or music society. If you’re on it, you’ll get a newsletter and invitations to reunions of the group. Cost £25 a year, which doesn’t seem to include any donation to the funds of the choir or music society, but is purely to cover the costs of running the scheme.
I have sounded out some contemporaries of mine, but some who would otherwise have joined are put off by the cost. This is going to reduce the usefulness to others, because a reunion to which few are invited will be less appealing. Do other colleges run this sort of scheme and what do they charge? I have joined the Friends of Merton College choir in Oxford, but that is specifically to raise money for the choir, although there are some perks as a ‘thank you’ to members.
[The cost was later quietly reduced, though people weren’t actually told! I was told that it partly subsidised refreshments at gatherings, though if you live far away you’re less likely to attend these.]
Colleges and unis are increasingly finding it hard to cover overheads for all the admin they now have. It’s much harder to raise money for the admin office than for the music soc or boat club, so some of it gets siphoned off from the membership costs of these organisations. Praps that’s what has happened here.