Define "pay," Bob.

Tonight was part one of my "financial management for dummies" class, which I'm taking to fulfill a requirement for Cal State's Non-Profit Management Certificate program (and also to help me in my day to day job). Not to imply that non-profit managers are dummies. But me, personally? I'm a dummy when it comes to non-profit management.

So far the class has been way more interesting than it probably sounds to you, dear reader, and it's definitely practical as well as way more interesting than I anticipated.

But by far, the best part tonight was when the instructor was defining "membership-based" organizations versus "non-membership-based" organizations. Someone asked whether a church would be considered "membership-based."

The instructor tried to explain... "Well, would a church charge a fee for any services it provides someone who attends church regularly? What types of services are you thinking of?" The questionner gave the example of Catholic church marriage classes, and threw out a couple other Catholic class/service examples I wasn't familiar with.

The instructor's reply started with, "If you don't have to pay to be a member of the Catholic church..."

He had to wait a few minutes for the giggles to subside before continuing.