Hi,
We've been putting our newsletter on the web for a while, about 6 or 7
months. What we have found, interestingly - is that this seems to have
attracted some new members. Prior to the new round (of "pdf"'d
newsletters) we tried putting the contents of a couple of sample
newsletters in raw HTML. Not very attractive at all. e can't say if this
electronic newsletter has driven any members away, not enough data yet. I
can say that we haven't lost any more members that usual during our
membership drive this year.
But our club does "calendar year" memberships, and out cutoff date is
April. So, if you visit our site (isis.mit.edu/~triumph) you will see
newsletters 'till then. I won't post the newer ones 'till they're a bit
older (if at all). After all, they are just samples.
The key to get/retain membership is to provide some value to the
membership. In some cases this is social in nature, in others it is
technical. There may be other reasons. But for most of the clubs that I'm
aware of, the context of the organization is fairly clear, e.g. they meet
every 4th Tuesday at Joe's Bar and Grill in Freehampton or they have a
technical session at Andre's Tranny and Storm Window Repair once a
month...
I have thought that some other "stuff" (like classifieds or calendar
entries) in the newsletter could be blanked out for the freebie visitors,
possibly enticing them to join. But frankly, I'm not sure this would be
incentive enough to join.
As for e-mailing the 'letter, quite a few clubs seem to do this. Our club
created an e-mail list for a similar purpose. So far, less than 10% of the
membership has signed up for it. So in our case, going "electronic" would
probably be a bad thing for the current membership. We'll visit the topic
again in a while, but right now, we're still hacking down trees to get the
word out.
But the bottom line is "value". If membership in the organization has some
value to an individual member - then they will join/renew etc. If there is
no perceived value, they will not join/renew. It's really that simple.
So the mechanism (e-mial vs hardcopy) is not the issue - content/value is
the issue. Create value, and you'll have a "healthy club".
Well, that's enough for now. Time to go home and work on the Triumph!
rml
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