<CORSA Chapters> Membership question -- 100% vs Not

[Bruce Schug]

On Dec 16, 2009, at 11:09 PM, Robert Marlow wrote:

> At 04:02 PM 12/16/2009, Bruce Schug wrote:
>
>> I'm amazed at those who think mandatory CORSA membership would  
>> destroy their chapter. I can't fathom that. What's wrong with this  
>> picture? Why wouldn't their members support CORSA?
>
>
> First, I don't think such a require would "destroy" my local chapter  
> -- but it sure would hurt it!  Why?  Simply because we would lose  
> members.  Roughly a third of our local membership does not belong to  
> CORSA; if it became a requirement a good number of them would choose  
> instead to drop out of the chapter. End result, CORSA has more  
> members, chapter has fewer.
>
>

Bob,

Serious question for you: What harm would it do to your chapter if you  
lost several members?

I've thought about it. We try hard to get members and to have events  
that they will participate in because I think that if they don't  
participate, sooner or later, they'll drop out. I assure you, we want  
as many members as we can get. We have a variety of events and a good  
newsletter. We try to have something for everyone.

At the same time, we have several members that are not active. They  
never come to anything. A few we might see once or twice a year. This  
might sound mean, but if they left, as they do, we wouldn't really  
miss them.

We have other active members that participate and maybe even put on an  
event or hold an office. Those are the members we need more of. We do  
our best to move new members into that category. Some do, some don't.

As much as I wouldn't like to see it happen, I believe we could lose a  
good part of our membership and suffer little or no loss. I don't mean  
60% of them, but maybe as high as 40%, including a few active members.

We would still have our monthly dinner meetings where we eat and visit  
and raise money for the club by raffleing donated items. We would  
still have our weekend events, our autocross, tech sessions, our  
rallye, and tours. We might need to find a new newsletter editor or  
board member, or possibly even raise dues, which have been $15 for  
years, but we'd get by. I really believe this.

I read several chapter newsletters. I'm struck with how much money  
some of them have. Are we non-profits or what? Based on what I see,  
the chapters are in much better financial condition that the parent  
organization. Have you ever seen these chapter financial reports  
showing their CD's and so forth? If CORSA folds, I hope those chapters  
have fun with all their money, which, if some of it were donated to  
CORSA might have saved it.

Here's my point: I'd sacrifice a few of our members to save CORSA if  
that was what it came to. We're not talking about a weakened CORSA,  
we're talking about no CORSA or a prohibitively expensive CORSA (which  
wold result in no CORSA).

I ask this in regards to your feelings about chapters losing members  
while CORSA gains, in relation to the situation about all CORSA  
members belonging to a chapter. But I also mean it in relation to a  
100% CORSA membership rule, if that's what it would take to "save"  
CORSA, and the members that would be lost from such a move.

Please think about this in relation to your chapter. Don't give me a  
knee-jerk answer, really think about it.


Bruce

Bruce W. Schug
Treasurer, Membership Chairman
CORSA South Carolina
CORSA member since 1980
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