<CORSA Chapters> CORSA CORNER

[Jamie & Tanya Reinhart]

All, Here is the CORSA Corner for Feb. Thanks

Jamie

CORSA CORNER

There has been a lot of talk lately about increasing CORSA membership and the future of CORSA, so I began to formulate a membership concept and a plan for the future, using ideas from many members. This is a quick overview of the end result. If you are interested in the complete plan, you can contact me at jtreinhart at omnitelcom.com and I will send you a copy.  

Here is the first piece of the plan. As a CORSA member and Central Director I would like to be able to communicate and provide valuable services to as many people as possible. These services need to be paid for.  This has been done two ways in the past, by members paying CORSA dues, and for chapters that don't have 100% CORSA membership, a chapters filing fee. The dues have been rising to offset the cost of services, but the filing fee has not. The fee is small and fixed, so it does not cover the CORSA provided services, mostly administration and insurance fees, for all of the non-CORSA members in some chapters. This has been a point of contention for many years, but I believe all members, CORSA and chapter members alike want to do their part and pay for the services they receive. There are three obvious ways to solve this problem. Raise the dues, change the filing fee to a per person fee, or mandate 100% CORSA membership from chapters. A better solution would be if we added more value to CORSA membership by adding a choice of three separately priced membership levels, and more services. Here is a short description of the membership tiers and the added services.      

   Tier 1 should be priced to make it cost effective for those who wish to participate in CORSA events, pay for their portion of CORSA insurance and administration fees, utilize the benefits of the CORSA website, and have a vote in CORSA business, but have no desire to receive a Communique. Tier 2 members will opt to receive an e-communique, instead of a printed issue, at a lesser fee than tier 3, with all the normal CORSA benefits, and Tier 3 members will receive a printed Communique and all the benefits they do presently. 

This three tiered membership concept could eliminate the chapters filing fee, and help non-CORSA members become members. Chapters could add the minimal tier 1 dues onto the chapter's dues of their non-CORSA members, as a service fee. The member will automatically become a tier 1 member and receive the extra CORSA benefits. Or they could use the money slated for the chapter filing fee and some discretionary money, to sign up a few, or all their non-CORSA members.       

To add greater value to all membership tiers, the CORSA website is being redesigned, and additional services are being added, namely a Corvair Wikipedia section and the Commscan Project. The Commscan project is a group of individuals dedicated to scan and create electronic PDF files of all CORSA publications from the last 40 years. It will include a word searchable index so members can find specific articles, or they may choose to use the files for just plain reading enjoyment. The Commscan project will take a considerable amount of time to complete, but will be well worth the wait. The Wiki will be available soon on the CORSA website for members to start downloading information into. Both projects will more than likely be placed behind the membership benefits area of the website, and only available to CORSA members. There will also be selected excerpts of each, on the public portion of the website, to act as a promotional tool and demonstrate the value of CORSA membership. 

Because of the additional content, and the change in behavior of society to use more and more electronic communication, the CORSA website will become the most important piece for future communication and recruitment.  Each piece of this plan creates a section of a large circle that will continue to link us together for many years, even if familiar services like the printed Communique or the International Convention cease to exist. 

This plan includes changes, but they are needed to sustain CORSA. I have always been leery of change, but not afraid of it. Are you?

Please feel free to contact me or any CORSA Director with your comments or concerns. Our contact information is in the Communique or on the CORSA website. Thanks

Jamie Reinhart

CORSA Central Director

jtreinhart at omnitelcom.com or 563-547-5282       
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