CIM Events

I have spent the last two days trying to sort out paperwork for our Sept-Dec 2008 events across the North of England.
I don't think many of our members realise the effort the branches go to to put together a varied calendar, or the long lead in that we have with our schedules.
But, that isn't why I am focussing on events this week - I am more interested to have your feedback on the proposed roll out of the pricing policy in the North West to the rest of the UK.
For some 18 months now North West have charged £25 for non members to attend their events but they have been free to members.
A number of reasons -

1) to provide an obvious member benefit
2) to give a perceived high value for our events
3) to encourage non members who are attending 4 or so events a year to join

As I said, CIM are looking at rolling this model out across the UK as at present pretty much anything goes. What are your thoughts on this? I know in a recent survey we did in South Yorkshire our members said they didn't like having to pay extra on top of their membership to attend events, so that does add weight to the arguement.

In addition to what North West does we are considering introducing a £10 charge for members who fail to turn up on the night and fail to let us know. This has caused quite a stir among the teams and it is a worry that members might decided not to book in the first place. There is always going to be no shows, I appreciate that, and in North West we calculate in 20% specifically for it, but do you think this would address the problem?