Rituparna Chatterjee – Mumbai
SKAL International Bombay has decided to increase their yearly fee of INR 5,000 to INR 8,000 plus service tax with effect from 1 April, 2014 for renewal of existing membership, and from a yearly fee of INR 6,000 to INR 10,000 plus service tax with effect from 1 August, 2013 for new membership. Through increased membership fees and events, they are targeting at increasing their current membership base from 122 to 200 members by next year end.
The decision to increase their membership fees arose because of a major sum of their membership fees being directed to SKAL International as royalty. Speaking on this, Carl Vaz, president of SKAL International Bombay, stated, “Most of the money we collect through the membership goes to SKAL International as royalty for using their name. We are left with less than INR 500 per member at the end which isn’t sufficient to host many events.” He elaborated that their membership fee is also the lowest in comparison to their SKAL club counterparts throughout India and which has contributed to negligible events being hosted, dwindling membership and dependency on hoteliers for sponsorship among some.
SKAL International Bombay are financing their current events through the club’s corpus amount. “We have a fixed deposit of INR 2,200,000 for guaranteed set of events,” added Vaz which they hope to recover through increased membership fees and an expected influx of members of prominent stature from the travel industry. They are also planning to host a series of events like gazal night and dinner, karaoke night and dinner, charity auction and dinner, and Christmas dinner in the remaining months of 2013 followed by President’s ball, business luncheon, barbecue luncheon, rain dance and Valentine’s day among some for 2014.
