AMCA Membership fees to increase to $40 in July

[rwm]

Let's all hope you are joking.

no joke bob. look at the cost savings. insurance for swap meets must be through the roof. Also by doing away with these advents there will be no expense for board members travel. All board meeting can be done by skype. If you want your bike judged list it on ebay with a crazy high price. skype can be used for judging also. walk you camera around the bike.
Print media is dead. Cost of paper and ink are to much these days. toss in shipping cost and delays. I'm willing to bet you the magazine is all ready in digital format. It's probably sent to the printer by email. So why not email it to me and others all on the same day. This solves the problem of not everybody getting the want adds while an item is still for sale. digital magazines will help with the younger crowd we keep trying to land. They all have kindles, smart phone or ipads. The magazine can be right in their back pocket. Not having the hard copy of a magazine will help when it is time to downsize your home. There will be nothing to get rid of and you'll be able to keep all those years still on you iphone.
Back to the swap meets. If we have none nobody will complain about them moving or where they are held.Plus this week at Rhinebeck everything i wanted had been on ebay the week or so before.just now it was twice as much at the meet. Thought i'd never say things are cheaper on ebay but they are for me. Here is one that is starting to brew into anger Denton. fun time great people sounds like they are getting #$%@&'d.
If the amca hires me to cut cost i'll get everybody a $10.00 rebate. Now to face book it's free. we can sound like teenage girls instead of quilting old ladies.
Keep the oil dripping on the road Rob....

[Keith Kizer]

.... Also by doing away with these advents ... skype can be used for judging ...
Print media is dead. ... I'm willing to bet you the magazine is all ready in digital format. It's probably sent to the printer by email. So why not email it to me and others all on the same day. This solves the problem of not everybody getting the want adds while an item is still for sale. digital magazines will help with the younger crowd we keep trying to land.
...swap meets. If we have none nobody will complain about them moving ...
.

Geez Rob, things are not as bleak as you say. First I want to comment on Facebook. Of the nearly 17,000 FB members many of those are overseas third world country people from areas where motorcycles are the main form of transportation. They ride and love old bikes and this is what draws them to our site. But, most of them are not membership candidates.

Doing away with meets and the magazine are simply not the answer. One of the big draw to the meets is being around friends and other like-minded individuals who share your interest. And, it is still a great place to find the perfect illusive part for your motorcycle or a customers. If AMCA did away with National events, swap meets would not stop, they would just keep going, but the common thread of consistency with AMCA members, promotions, judging, etc. would be lost and eventually the events could die. And, no you can't judge a bike via camera phone. Besides, what fun would that be.

In regards to the magazine, you do have a few correct thoughts in the digital version. No, we don't have it but we easily could, and this is a subject in other areas of the forum that I have openly discussed giving the benefit of everyone getting it at the same time. Yet, going fully digital is a long way off, if not decades. People want their glossy coffee table magazine. I doubt we would even offer a digital only membership because that would force the death of the printed magazine and we are just not ready for that. Maybe the next generation, but not us.

Remember, at the end of the day, its all about the bikes and the comradely of those we share them with. Facebook will never replace that. I for one am not ready for a virtual motorcycle. I prefer to ride the real thing.

[fillibuster]

I think Rob knows this well enough, Keith, but he's also right about some too.
Can't get your paws greasy on the keyboard, and sometimes it takes that to help a guy, or sell a part.
The grandkid wants to show my peers he can ride, wants to see their smile, and he wants to hear the noise. ... the NOISE! hey, that's something the digital age has not reproduced for us, and I doubt it will soon. Gotta have that noise at the meet! rooster tails too. races.
When do we get our drag races??!! Waaa!

[Keith Kizer]

Please note no disrespect intended here Keith,... I noticed Richard showed you how to answer a question of a negative nature with only positive comments.

Second problem was the great success of the AMCA recruiting program, Paraphrasing here Bill Woods reports 80% retention rate for magazine last two years, and Richard sees an upwards curve with the program. Since all members receive the magazine that means we are losing 20 % of our members per year. My experience with the membership of the Cherokee Chapter when I started our reach out program with Steve Klein and other members the first one we signed up had # 20688, this week our last new member had 27098, a loss of 6,300 members while membership is still 10,500. We have over 16,500 on face book. Not all must be current members.

I am only pointing out here that using only positive words, ignores discussing the problems in a professional manner to solve challenges, not problems? Shelby

Shelby, to tackle the first point, No offense taken, but Richard did not have to teach me anything about diplomacy, I learned that the hard way, through 30 years of being in business. I despise political correctness, but diplomacy is a tool of the trade.

In regards to the membership numbers, I do need to explain how the numbers work. Your calculations are basing the number of AMCA members solely on the AMCA Member Number. The member number has absolutely nothing to do with the number of members. This number is arbitrarily assigned by Cornerstone's system when someone joins the AMCA. It is no longer a sequential number as it was in the past. Furthermore, even people who simply REQUEST an AMCA membership application, get assigned an AMCA member number, even if they haven’t joined yet (or ever join).

There are a number of existing AMCA members who join as “new” members on the web site rather than renewing their existing membership. When Cornerstone hears about this happening, they cancel the new number and transfer funds to the old existing membership. This also artificially bumps up the member number.

Again, no one should use the AMCA member number as an indicator of the number of AMCA members.

[rwm]

How many members in the amca? what is the bottom line loss with the departure of the davenport meet? Why increase magazine printings if a financial crisis was looming? I know most will say it's only $10.00. but it's also 33%. At some point people say that's it.

[T. Cotten]

How many members in the amca? what is the bottom line loss with the departure of the davenport meet? Why increase magazine printings if a financial crisis was looming? I know most will say it's only $10.00. but it's also 33%. At some point people say that's it.

Rob!

The Meet of All Meets was "lost" for the AMCA no doubt.
But most of the Chapter members still pay their dues, probably.






Like I do.


....Cotten

[rwm]

Rob!

The Meet of All Meets was "lost" for the AMCA no doubt.
But most of the Chapter members still pay their dues, probably.






Like I do.


....Cotten

I believe they pay their dues Tom. Do you believe they graciously hand over the table rent,camping, tee shirt sales and a portion of the race gate?

[larry]

Current dues are $30. $20 is for the magazine, leaving $10 to run the organization. When dues are increased in July, $20 will go to run the organization. Did the cost of doing business go up by 100% ?

[AFJ]

Current dues are $30. $20 is for the magazine, leaving $10 to run the organization. When dues are increased in July, $20 will go to run the organization. Did the cost of doing business go up by 100% ?

While that may have been the case years ago, looking at the 2013 financial figures on the AMCA website it looks like in 2013, the last year of the quarterly magazine, the cost of publishing and mailing those 4 issues was just over $24. Say $6 per issue. Now there are 6 issues per year so if they each cost the same to produce and mail as previously that cost alone is going to be around $36. Leaving even less to run the other parts of the AMCA.

AFJ

[larry]

I got the $20 figure from page six of the current issue.

[T. Cotten]

I believe they pay their dues Tom. Do you believe they graciously hand over the table rent,camping, tee shirt sales and a portion of the race gate?

I'm not in the "know", Rob,

But camping fees go to the grounds, the races appear to be a separate promotion, and the rest is what you expect a club to do, in order to hold a banquet with a speaker, provide security, etc.

Years ago I swore I'd never join another club. Suddenly I belong to two.

.....Cotten

[jwl]

Current dues are $30. $20 is for the magazine, leaving $10 to run the organization. When dues are increased in July, $20 will go to run the organization. Did the cost of doing business go up by 100% ?

It probably has gone up more that 100% since the last raise in dues. We now have paid positions that we didn't have before. My personal opinion is that the dues are still a good value.

[exeric]

It probably has gone up more that 100% since the last raise in dues. We now have paid positions that we didn't have before. My personal opinion is that the dues are still a good value.

I agree. The dues at $40 are fine. If they go up to $100 next year I'll bitch

[shelbyinparadise]

Shelby, to tackle the first point, No offense taken, but Richard did not have to teach me anything about diplomacy, I learned that the hard way, through 30 years of being in business. I despise political correctness, but diplomacy is a tool of the trade.

In regards to the membership numbers, I do need to explain how the numbers work. Your calculations are basing the number of AMCA members solely on the AMCA Member Number. The member number has absolutely nothing to do with the number of members. This number is arbitrarily assigned by Cornerstone's system when someone joins the AMCA. It is no longer a sequential number as it was in the past. Furthermore, even people who simply REQUEST an AMCA membership application, get assigned an AMCA member number, even if they haven’t joined yet (or ever join).

There are a number of existing AMCA members who join as “new” members on the web site rather than renewing their existing membership. When Cornerstone hears about this happening, they cancel the new number and transfer funds to the old existing membership. This also artificially bumps up the member number.

Again, no one should use the AMCA member number as an indicator of the number of AMCA members.

Hello Keith, again you explained how my rough estimate was wrong, by not smart enough renewing members and those with nothing to do but request from cornerstone an application they may or not use, but I think my numbers are close. You did not dispute my main point, only I was using un reliable data from Cornerstone.

Your discrediting of Bill Wood's reports for the last 3 years to National Board and all Members should not go unchallenged. As Membership Director I have tried to work with Bill Wood and Fred Davis to understand how the system works.

To Quote Bill Wood in Operations Manager Report in Board minutes Oct, 11, 2013 "Bill Wood presented the membership trend report based on two years of information from the new tracking system he instituted. Membership numbers vary each month , but there is a slow growth rate each year of about 1/2% with a total membership of just over 10,000. The tracking system appears to confirm that Cornerstone's record of AMCA membership is accurate and reliable"

Although the above quote was before you came on duty, us mere mortals must rely on the Board Minutes to base our understandings. Now instead of being positive with the 80% number I used before I will use the following Quote from Bill Wood one year later board minutes Oct, 9 2014

"The standard membership reporting system that Cornerstone Registration put in place has allowed us to accurately track membership from month to month and year to year. The reporting for this year shows a growth curve that appears to be related to the ongoing Membership Recruitment Sweepstakes promotion, which will be confirmed as the promotion dies down. Bill states that the AMCA has a high retention rate at 75% to 80%. Membership at the end of September was reported at 10,481"

Using the 2013 number of 10,000 members we retained 7,500 to 8,000 old members while getting between 2,981 and 3,481 new members to achieve todays number of 10,481 as of Oct. 9 2014.

Am I the only one that sees losing 2,000 to 2,500 of our old and new friends each year is more of major importance than the Net Gain of 481 new members, while doomed to repeat the loss of 20% to 25% of the new total? The Cherokee Chapter is proud of our approximately 200 new members in the last 2 years, and struggle to keep them because of non local issues. A National Retention Rate of below 95% is un acceptable for such a narrowly focused group dedicated only to old motorcycles, in my opinion, that is the Goal of the Cherokee Chapter. Shelby www.cherokeeamca.org not as still listed wrong in latest National Magazine

[Shaky Jake]

I'm coming in late, this may have already been discussed, but I was just thinking today what a quality magazine the AMCA puts out. Better than any club I've been in. Id probably still join if the mag wasn't so good, but it's one of the things that justifies the dues.



Kevin


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