By Michael Grossberg
Don’t be surprised when you go to renew your LFS membership in August or September. You’ll see new dues listed on the LFS website’s Membership page.
The Libertarian Futurist Society hasn’t increased the cost of its different levels of memberships since the 1990s. But as we head into the next membership-year cycle of renewals coming up this fall, dues for all six levels of LFS memberships are going up.
The LFS board of directors approved this belated increase unanimously during its May meeting – primarily in response to the rising cost of the gold coins we present annually with the Prometheus Awards.
The dues increases will apply to all long-standing membership levels – Basic, Full, Sponsor and Benefactor – as well as to the new higher levels of Silver Benefactor and Gold Benefactor approved during the same board meeting.
The new rates and levels go into effect immediately, and apply to membership renewals and new memberships for the next 2025-2026 cycle:
* Basic memberships, previously $30, are now $40/year.
* Full memberships, previously $60, are now $80/year.
* Sponsor, previously $120, are now $150/year.
* Benefactor, previously $240/year, are now $300/year.
These rate increases were designed to be roughly proportional, within and between the levels, while not raising dues too drastically at one time.
THE NEW GOLD AND SILVER BENEFACTORS LEVELS
In addition, as previously reported, the LFS Board has established two new, higher membership levels – Gold and Silver Benefactors – that give supporters additional ways to show their support and help sustain the Prometheus Awards.
* Silver Benefactor membership is $500/year.
* Gold Benefactor membership is $1,000/year.
We want to recognize our major benefactors and thank them publicly, unless they prefer to remain anonymous. Thus, the two new Benefactor levels will have the option of annually receiving public recognition for their greater support.
Both Silver and Gold levels will be acknowledged (with their consent, of course) by name in a special blog post annually, while Gold Benefactors will be named and thanked during our annual Prometheus Awards ceremony.
OUR RATIONALE
The board agreed this dues increase is necessary because the awards’ gold coins are our biggest single budget expense – and the cost of a one-ounce gold coin has increased from $250-$300 during the 1990s to almost $3,300 in May – a rise of more than 1000 percent.
Yet, we also wanted to keep the increase reasonable, and well short of the rate of inflation. Our new dues rates fall considerably short of the increase in the Consumer Price Index since 2000, so we hope existing and new members will consider the new dues a relative bargain.
By offering six membership levels with a wide range of higher and lower dues, LFS leaders hope that all freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans will be able to continue to support and be an important part of our all-volunteer non-profit international network of LFS members and Prometheus voters.
Once new members join the LFS, they renew their memberships with everyone else according to our annual cycle: October 1 through September 30, which matches the cycle of each year’s Prometheus Awards judging process, culminating with our annual awards ceremony.
MEMBERSHIP RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES
All LFS members may nominate works for all categories of the Prometheus Award and receive the members-only quarterly email newsletter, LFS News.
Basic members have the right to vote for the annual Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction and occasional Special Awards.
Full members, Sponsors and all three levels of Benefactors have the right to vote for the Hall of Fame and Special Awards as well as the annual Best Novel category. That top prize comes with a one-ounce gold coin, whose additional expense is covered by these higher membership levels.
If you enjoy science fiction, fantasy and other imaginative, speculative and fantastical genres that explore libertarian and anti-authoritarian themes, dramatize the value of freedom and the dangers of tyranny from the extremes of Left and Right, and are excited by the possibilities for peace, prosperity, progress, justice and respect for other people’s rights that a free society unleashes, then we invite you to become a part of the LFS.
If you are intrigued by libertarianism and futurism, and the cross-pollination between these two dynamic fields, consider joining our decentralized coalition of free spirits working to inspire a free-er future.
Those who wish to join the LFS, or to renew their current membership early, are invited to visit the LFS website’s updated Membership page, which includes convenient PayPal buttons to pay for different membership levels.
ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
