By OIL Commissioner Justin C. Cliburn
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"Pay your dues" — Benjamin Franklin

This is always a difficult discussion to have, but I want to be as transparent as possible. In the near future, you will be asked to vote on alterations to the league bylaws. One such change is the inclusion of dues in our governing document. How dues were never included in the bylaws in the first place is my fault, and I am aiming to remedy that.

In the GroupMe chat, the question was raised: what actually are our dues and expenses? Unofficially, I've been asking everyone to pitch in $15 per season, which doesn't sound like much. It covers all our expenses except for the draft party. Those expenses are: ​
Total: $506 per season. And that does not count the expenses I incur creating, publishing, and shipping the Book of OIL to the new champions. It also doesn't count the money needed for the OIL in Action images. I eat those costs, and I'm okay with that to an extent. Nor does it count our big ticket item, which is funding what I hope becomes an annual tradition: our Labor Day retreat and draft party at the Roberts Retreat Lodge north of Ada, which totals $3,800. How I've dealt with the draft funding in the past is to ask for dues to cover the operating expenses ($15) and draft party donations separately. Invariably, what happens is that a handful of guys donate more than their share to cover guys who can't and we make the goal at the last minute. But that's not the most responsible way to get it funded, and I hope we can move to a more proactive model.

I've added a PAY DUES button in the sidebar of the website, and it has two options: $8.50 monthly; or $102 annually. That total would cover everything. At $8.50 per month, it wouldn't be incredibly difficult to maintain. As one OILer put it, "if we each eat two less quarter-pounders each month," we have everything funded. I understand that $102 per year is a bigger number to some than others, but it is the goal based on our setup. The dues have not been memorialized in the bylaws yet, so do not take this as an edict to pay up or leave. In fact, I would hate to see anyone leave the league over financial issues or otherwise. I know that some guys will always step up to make up for other guys, but, if you can, it would help if we all start pitching in $8.50 a month right now. 

I would argue that our league is certainly worth it. Whenever strangers email or message me asking how much dues are for a league as amazing as ours, I always get disbelief that they're so low. I truly don't believe any of us could have a better fantasy football experience in another league. It's beyond anything I ever imagined. But it takes money to keep it up. Like any good leader, I wouldn't ask you to do anything I wouldn't do. To that end, I've set up my monthly PayPal draft of $8.50 to go into the OIL treasury.

On that note, I'd like to propose a Treasurer position be added to the bylaws in the interest of maximum transparency (and to take just a little off my plate). More on that in the future.