# about the membership fee

Every member of USE-IT Europe pays a membership fee of 1200€ before publishing the map. Of course, the people working on the map don’t pay this themselves, but include it in the budget for their map project. The membership fees are what keeps USE-IT Europe running, we carry the project together and make it possible that honest, no-nonsense tourist information reaches the people who want to get to know our beautiful cities. Even though the amount could seem a bit of a hurdle at first, remember that for municipalities or cultural organisations, this is not a number that sparks a lot of stress, usually. Below, we give some more information you can use to explain why we ask for this money.

Of course we want to be transparent about what we do with it. So here is an overview. If you have any questions, you can always contact the Editor-in-Chief or the Board.

#### 💁 **Pay the Editor-in-Chief to help you make the best map possible**

This is the most important task, of course. The Editor-in-Chief is here to help you every step of the way, proofread all the text, give directions and keep up the quality of our publications.

On top of that, the Editor-in-Chief helps to keep the day-to-day of USE-IT running. She talks to other parties who want to work together, helps cities organise the annual meeting, does a lot of copywriting, and many more day-to-day tasks. We do this to keep someone attached to the network for a longer period of time and make sure we will always be able to offer a minimum baseline of quality.

From the fee of new cities, 60% goes to the Editor-in-Chief. For cities that have published a map before, 30% goes to the Editor-in-Chief.

#### 🌐 **Pay for the website**

We have to pay for hosting, domain names, and other online tools to make sure our maps get the best online presence as possible.

#### 🏗️ **Pay for people on a project basis**

Sometimes, we need to hire people to do a certain, specific tasks for us. For example: roll out the survey and analyse the results. Or write an application for European money. Or, in the future, fix specific parts on the website. With a bit of budget, we can hire people who are qualified and skilled and can get the best results.

#### 🎡 **Organise an annual, in-person meeting**

We think it is really important that every year, people meet each other, follow workshops and get inspired by other members of the network. We try to save enough money to help a member city to organise a great meeting and maybe even hire some speakers or panel members from outside to give us insight.

#### 📝 **Pay for administration**

Our organisation is based in France and sometimes we need to pay things like changes to the structure of it, or pay taxes, or things like that.

#### 🎲 **Miscellaneous things**

Sometimes, things happen. We need to send post, or we get the chance to send someone from the board to promote us at a tourism meeting and want to pay for a ticket. We save a small bit of money for things like this, so we never get in trouble. 


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