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De Postbode© stands for The Mailman, as the DCA maintains a mailinglist of about 400 subscribers and sends out emails to it's members in the Ottawa region about what is going on here in the Dutch community. Our guess is that about 1000 people actual read De Postbode© every week. Sometimes things get out of control and De Postbode© is published twice a week. Some readers are known to have printed and filed all editions we ever have sent to them.
De allereerste postbode in zijn huidige vorm kwam uit op 12 maart 2002, dat betekent dat we al weer bijna vijf jaar postbodes samenstellen, en nog steeds met veel plezier. We zijn gegroeid van een kleine 50 emailadressen en een eenvoudige mailing na het huwelijk van Alexander en Maxima (02/02/02) naar een bestand van 400 adressen die tot in Europa, de VS en binnen Canada van Nova Scotia tot aan Vancouver Island reiken. In de loop der tijd hebben we enorm veel positieve reacties ontvangen. We hebben mensen opgespoord, interviews aan de wereldomroep gegeven en we zijn zelfs via het ANP in de Nederlandse kranten terechtgekomen met het verzoek om kleurenbeeldmateriaal van de 2e wereld oorlog. Wie zei daar dat Nederlandse verenigingen te ziele gaan?
See you in court?
Normally you won't be reading this page if you don't have
e-mail but you may be the one being asked. Technically we can, and we
would, despite the additional cost (more than twice your annual membership
fee) for postage, paper, printers, toner etc. but we don't because it is
simply to much work. Printing, folding, stuffing,
labeling and posting
a single De Postbode© takes more time than to e-mail 400 De Postbode©s and De Postbode©
would become a bi-monthly in stead of a weekly.
The smart thing to do is to ask a nearby-living member of the DCA to print
De Postbode© for you and have them drop it off in your mailbox on their way to
the supermarket.
That depends who you consider a member. If we use the by-law phrase members of good standing, i.e. paid up memberships there about 100 family and 75 single memberships for a grand total of approximately 275 adult members if everyone pays in time. But add about 10% for members with a lousy track record when it comes to cheques, they usually pay when the year is almost at its end. The mailing list of our very successful electronic newsletter De Postbode© is much larger and is sent to about 400 email addresses around the world.
It so happens that in the fine print of our by-laws there
is an age limit for the children of our members. When they pass the age limit
'moeten ze hun eigen broek ophouden' meaning they themselves become
paying single or family members. So when you buy a ticket for
our annual Oranje Boven Bal for yourself and your daughter, her ticket will
be priced at the non-membership rate even if you have a family membership.
We don't tend to be all to strict: "als ze maar met de pot mee eten" we
usually will consider them family members, but for those of you who didn't
know the daughter in question wasn't sweet 16 but 61 years of age.
Our 'pricing strategy' for these major events is to break even, quite often entrance fees total less than the actual cost of the event. When making arrangements for a large event as Het Oranje Bal we make price agreements with the catering based upon an estimated number of guests. But we don't know the actual cost per ticket of the event till the day after it took place also because we have fixed costs for musicians, staff, rooms etc. neither do we want to complicate life with ticket prices like $32.41 and we actually round down the entrance fee to a nice round figure like $30.
Therefore, as a rule the ticket price for members is less than the actual cost. Non-members are charged at least the actual cost and to be on the safe side we charge the rounded up amount of the estimated ticket price, also considering the higher price an incentive to become a member.
Some find the prices for our major events to be at the high end but they they are quite simply put the going rate. If you believe you can cut out a better deal please step forward and help us out, send in your suggestions or join the DCA board.
Money, money, money, time, time and time. Any hardcopy we mail you costs at least 75¢ and is a tremendous effort if done for 100 or more attendees. If you believe it is the decent thing to do, feel free to volunteer for the job.
As the saying goes: There is no such thing as a free lunch (or dinner).
For most of our activities no entrance fees are charged for the simple reason that there is nothing to pay. To participate in our free of charge picnics, cycling tours or koffie klub all you have to do is arrive on time. Of course you bring along your own bicycle, picnic basket and if you 'drink jezelf een stuk in je kraag' during the happy hour borrel you should take care of your own tab on your way out.
For some activities we charge you nothing but you settle for example park entrance fees for maintaining the cross-country skiing trails directly with the rangers. Sometimes you can sign up for soup or sandwiches one of the members prepared or purchased in advance and we may ask you a few dollars for these amenities. But the common situation is somebody just happened to have a gallon of 'erwtensoep" in their backpack. Sometimes our activities are (indirectly) sponsored by the host who doesn't ask a penny for the conference room (but may charge you for the cleaning crew). An other example is the Governor General who lets us use her skating rink for free each year. In some cases the DCA will even pick up the bill, for example if you want to organize an event you can ask the board to help out with a "koffie en koekjes bijdrage".
We do work by the rules but rules can sometimes be interpreted in different ways. If there is more than one way to apply a rule we choose to go by the spirit as apposed to the letter. You could ask if the board is allowed to do that and the answer is: yes, the charter and by-laws empower the board to do just that.
The DCA is a non-commercial, not-for-profit association. Anything that would be in your advantage means other members will be chipping in for the difference, after all we are in this all together. The DCA is a social club and not like the anonymous CAA (for the uninitiated the CAA is not the Canadian chapter of the AA but is the Canadian equivalent of the ANWB) that offers services and where members have entitlements.
This is a recurring request and no we do not have a shuffle or hospitality service or anything like that, nor do have we have the intention of operating one in the near future. However we will do our best to find a member to assist you but your best option is to place your request in De Postbode©
