Because the math finally stopped working. Postage, paper, toner, envelopes, and hosting costs have all climbed sharply since the last fee change in 2016, while award fees stayed frozen. The result was several deficit years and a gradual drawdown of the treasury. The new rates simply keep the Club solvent so the awards program can continue.
Effective March 1, 2026, the fees are:
All free awards remain free, including the First 100-Point Award, Masters plaques, Old-Timers Award, NCS Award, and the Clint Wise 48 and Reginald Fessenden 13 plaques, as well as endorsements submitted with other endorsements or with the initial award in the same application.
PDFs save paper and postage, but they still incur PayPal fees and volunteer time. If every award were effectively free, there would be no revenue left to pay for Club operations such as hosting, domain registration, and net infrastructure. Printed certificates are also part of the tradition many members value.
Baker's Dozen Certificates of Appreciation will now be issued by e-mail as PDF documents at no charge. If a printed certificate is desired, it can be requested for the standard printed-award fee ($6 regular / $5 senior).
Those services do not provide the reporting, audit trail, or integration needed for a national nonprofit. Payments are harder to tie to specific applications, and there is no straightforward way to connect them to our existing award process. For now, PayPal remains the only practical, trackable option.
The new structure is designed to hold for about five years. The Board plans to review the numbers in the fourth year and adjust if necessary. If we ever see Argentina-style runaway inflation, the Board can act sooner but under normal conditions, frequent changes are neither expected nor desirable.
To give everyone time to prepare. Volunteers need to update forms, web pages, and instructions, and members deserve clear advance notice. Until March 1, 2026, the current fee schedule remains in effect.
Financial stability, predictability, and the ability to keep doing what we do: issue awards, fund nets, and maintain our online systems without running the treasury into the ground. The update is about preserving the Club's long-term health, not chasing short-term cash.
Please contact your Area Director or the Awards Committee at awards@3905ccn.org.