Why do members pay a membership fee? What happens with the money?
In our benchmarking efforts with other neighbourhood or block watches we learned that the most successful block watches are those where members pay a fee to belong to the blockwatch. Paying a fee imposes co-ownership and leads to members being more serious about the fight against crime. In addition, running an effective and well-coordinated neighbourhood watch does cost some money, e.g. the purchase and maintenance of patrolling equipment, the erection of signs and boards in public places, plaques for houses and other administrative and coordinating costs. Our single biggest expense is the reimbursement of petrol expenses to our patrollers. They already offer their time to serve the community. The least we can do is to help them with their petrol cost.
