Mike,
Very much on target too.
Cheers,
Bill Sohl
Mike Cook wrote:
> To everyone concerned with the sad state of club membership in the USA.
>
> I was at Triumph as Executive Secretary of the TSOA when it was in its heyday
>- 1958-1965 or
> so. Yes, when you bough the car you were entitled to membership - you did
>have to send in the
> application form enclosed with the car but there were no dues. You got your
>membership card
> and we sent the TSOA Newsletter. The mailing list got up to 14 or 15 thousand
>at one point but
> the only ones who were real, active TSOA members also were dues-paying
>members of one of the
> individual clubs started by peoplelike Bill Sohl. The rest may or may not
>have read the
> newsletter and didn't care.
>
> Trouble is, a membership that costs nothing is often considered to be worth
>nothing by the
> recipient. The people who join a club and pay the dues are the ones you want
>to attract and
> keep, whether they are active participants or not. If they want membership
>enough to pay for
> it, they are real. The ones who get it free drop out as easily as they came
>in.
>
> People have to WANT to join. Any club that wants members has to figure out a
>way to persuade
> the propsect to want to join. The fellowship is often touted as the big value
>but you can get
> that without a club. The insurance? The magazine? There has to be a reason.
>
> When we finally started charging a pittance for annual TSOA dues (3 bucks or
>5, I can't
> remember), the mailing list got a lot smaller in a hurry but we knew we were
>keeping the
> people who were really interested in the club.
>
> I'm not saying that club membership has to be valued in dollars only. I am
>saying that if a
> person has to invest in a club he will value it more. Free membership is like
>getting a
> mailing from Publisher's Clearing House.
>
> Mike Cook
>
>
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