It's helpful to look at old subscription prices when trying to set new subscription prices. The current price for admission to a single Tuesday dance is $2 for students and $4 for non-students. For the summer of 2007 and before it was $2 and $3.50. (The increase was to include early rounds.)
Class members get their first class free, so to be sure there's a financial incentive for class members to buy a subscription, the subscription period starts the second week of class and finishes the last week of class. This exactly determines the dates of all of the subscription periods. The dates for class are determined by the PE calendar which is related to the academic calendar.
We don't dance when MIT is closed, and prices need to reflect that. MIT is closed:
- 4th of July
- Christmas Eve/Day
- New Year's Eve/Day
Students rates should also reflect a discount for weeks when they are likely to be out of town or not dancing, for example:
- During finals (fall and spring)
- Winter break (between finals and IAP)
- Spring break
MIT undergrads, grad-students, non-MIT college students, children younger than college age, adults in night school who ask for it, and unemployed non-students who ask for it all get the student rate.
Starting in fall 2011, we agree that MIT students (grad and undergrad) would get in for free. That way PE students finishing the class wouldn't have to suddenly pay money, and MIT club members wouldn't be tempted to sign up for the PE class but attend infrequently, just to get in free when they do pay. And the hope was also to further encourage student participation. Other "students" will still pay the student rate.
In semesters where we're only giving PE credit for one quarter and are charging MIT students for admission, we need to have a subscription rate for ex-PE students. In fall 2010 we charged them $6 for the 7 weeks. In spring 2011 we charged $6 for 8 weeks (including spring break). We also offered finanicial aid for that (sponsored by individual club members and not as a general club policy) such that they could instead pay any amount they could afford, down to $0. The financial aid needs to be offered early enough that people hear about it who would otherwise drop-out of the class due to the cost.
For a time ending Spring 2008 there were two prices for subscriptions -- a small discount for paying on time, and a further discount for paying extra early (the chart lists the lower price). Sara's theory is that the only reason people don't pay early is that we fail to set the prices far enough in advance, and the dual rate meant that the only slightly discounted rate was barely worth it financially which meant fewer people bought subscriptions and gate workers had to do more work, and so she advocated to get rid of it. (The one time she had a non-student class member show up two weeks before the class started because they were unemployed and needed the extra discount.)