Free Membership to the ACPN
After much deliberation as of the 25th of May all memberships to the ACPN have been opened up and made free.
*Deep Breath* Here is why …
So… there are a number of factors that have impacted this decision, the main one being that the ACPN was always about providing and supporting the Australian Coloured Pencil community and in the past year we have seen (some of which are related to website problems) a decline of use of our online forums / community and moving of that community over to facebook, it has meant that our members have not really being visiting our website, which has mean there are to not many people contributing to the community…and so it goes.
Another part of this is I have personally has been responsible for handling the financial accounts of payments and registrations of ACPN but also physically and mentally driving the site. Due to some health reasons of the past year some of which you can read about here as well as trying to support my own little family on my own, it has been difficult at times to deliver newsletters etc on time as well has various technical problems that the site has had I have had to solve (not wanting sympathy as I asked for all of this myself) but it has now come to a time for me to step back a bit and see where to go next.
I believe in the online space, it constantly evolving as time, technology and people goes on. I personally was always about providing value to the members and at this point I believe removing the fee and revisiting where we are at is just another part of the evolution process for the ACPN and the online world in which is exists. I will still continue to support the ACPN, and I am passionate still about building the community, however, I believe that the current format we had was draining and not supporting us, so it’s with that I feel the best way forward was to remove the payment whilst we are in a pause period.
To answer some of the questions, there is no need for past or current members to do anything.
I have cancelled all subscriptions on my end in paypal. I have refunded all any new members or renewing members that have paid in the month of May, and anyone who has previously signed up with the website can now login. If you have been thinking about becoming a member I would to invite you to become a member, afterall, there is no cost to you so why not? 😉
If would like to help contribute with the ongoing costs associated with the website and grow our community OR would just like to buy me a virtual coffee so I can work harder 😉 there is a donation button on the bottom of this page, its not required but every little bit helps.
So what’s in it for you? Why become a member of the ACPN:
Members are able to connect with one another in closed community facebook group (just ask to join and if your a member you will be added) or in a open group which is open to everyone.
I invite you to help out by sharing our website to your like minded friends and would love to have help in the form of articles, editors, people who would like to become featured members or just sharing your artwork in our members gallery. For professional artists, tutors or industry suppliers, i will be updating our directory as i will be purchasing some new software to make this better (again) very soon and i do also invite you to please share your information with us on what you would like to put to our members we have a number of avenues to allow you to do this for example on our workshops page or that i can highlight through our newsletter (which currently goes out to 274 people) or via our blog.
I do hope to continue with our online exhibition which will happen towards the end of this year, as well as developing some collaborative projects with some of our members. There will be some changes on the website soon, to refresh it and make it easier to use and more intuitive. Ofcourse I am open to any suggestions or comments via email should you have any 🙂
So with that i will leave it here, please make any thoughts heard in the comments section below, I am excited about this with renewed energy.
Happy Penciling – Belinda
