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

[Vairtec Corporation]

Bruce Schug raises some thoughtful questions.

Bruce first noted:

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?

I then replied:

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.

Bruce has since asked:

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

I now reply:

The harm done to my chapter, which is a strong and healthy one, would 
not be dire.  As with the example you gave (see Bruce's original post), 
the chapter would survive such a loss.  But it is a loss nonetheless, a 
loss in dues revenue, a loss in human resources, a loss in fundraising 
potential, a loss of participants, a loss of Corvair owners in the fold.

Still, I think these losses could be "sold" to the chapters if there was 
a reward beyond the altruism of helping CORSA survive.  This is why I 
begun pushing reciprocity, the notion that as CORSA asks for all chapter 
members to be members of CORSA that it also asks all CORSA members to 
join a chapter.

Admittedly I may have clouded the issue by floating two distinctly 
different trial balloons.  One of my trial balloons was this, that a 
100% membership requirement should be a two-way street.  The other was 
my recommendation that we define those clubs that require 100% 
membership as "chapters" and that we define those clubs that do not 
require 100% membership as "affiliates."

Bruce continued:

I'm struck with how much money some of [the chapters] 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.

I now reply:

Wholly irrelevant.  Chapters are financially autonomous, and as a result 
you can see across the landscape chapters that are fiscally sound and 
chapters that are teetering on the financial edge.  No chapter's 
financial standing makes it right for CORSA to implement a policy that 
may cause a net loss of members at the chapter level.  Here again is a 
reason why I have suggested that a 100% membership policy should be 
bi-directional.

Bruce wrote:

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 would result in no 
CORSA).

I reply:

I do not think that sacrificing local members is any way to save CORSA.  
The way to "save" CORSA is for CORSA to find the right mix of membership 
services at the right price point and for the size of membership that we 
are going to have -- which is going to be fewer than we have today 
whether or not we institute a 100% membership requirement.

Quoting Bruce again:

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.

And my reply:

Generally speaking, I try to see ways to ensure that the Corvair hobby 
remains one unified hobby, and I think that a 100% rule, even if imposed 
reciprocally as I have suggested, has the potential to divide us into 
local clubs associated with CORSA and local clubs not associated with 
CORSA.  In truth my preferred route is that of my other trial balloon, 
to require 100% CORSA membership from "chapters" and to maintain all 
other clubs as "affiliates."

Thanks for the food for thought, Bruce.  Regards to all chapter 
representatives --Bob