Re: [AGA SC] Membership Committee Initiatives

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

I would rather "Peramanent Offer" was called "Standing
Offer". [WEll, I had to have something, didn't I? ;-)] 

Other than that, I think we could come up with fifty diff
twists and angles on each one of these, even more if we
wanted to think about it longer.  You know the famous
example of Los Angeles spending more money over the years
on studying mass transit rail options than it would have
cost to build them all?

It's a well thought out package. It's practical and
realistic. It has some flexibility, too. I think we should
go for the whole package. In 6 months or a year, we can
revise as necessary.
 
I think volume is important. 800-900 members might have
been critical mass for sustainability a few years ago, but
I don't think it will be in a couple of years from now. So
lower rates/premiums if they work as incentives are a good
idea (assuming the marginal return is positive which it
should be until membership is much much larger than it is
now). Increased volume and exposure, I think, are key to
AGA's continuing development and growth. I'd rather double
membership and have no net financial improvement for a
couple years than hang out at 800-900 for another year and
have some slight net improvement.

Note that I'm not at the other extreme. I'm not suggesting
that it would be prudent to do what, for exdample, Amazon
did and intentionally lose a large fortune for several
years just to build up market recognition and a customer
base. However, I don't think we will get much beyond are
current condition without the sorts of actions Cheryl and
her committee have developed.

I think there was more to Larry's comment than what I saw
at first sight.  To take the other side of the coin from
what he said, you only have to look to see the hobby is
growing and there is a role for AGA to play.  We need to
grow with the hobby or eventually be seen as a less and
less important element. Also, note that I'm not talking
about, for example, Karen's place in the hobby, which is
unquestionable. But *AGA's* role -- if AGA doesn't do more,
than it's doing it will be seen as less than it is. And it
will become much less than it can be. 

Those are not eloquent words but *I sticks by 'em*.

I vote yes on all 5 motions before the Board.

sh
--- Cheryl Rogers <cheryl@wilstream.com> wrote:
> Okay, enough keeping you all in suspense. They aren't
> *that* special! We 
> all had a lot of great ideas and I had to stick with the
> ones that I 
> thought *I* could implement, this year sometime, without
> much trouble.


=====
-  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
AGA 2004 Annual Convention
Designing The Nature Aquarium -- demonstrated by Takashi Amano
Paludarium design  -- Mike Senske
Planted Aquarium Ecology  -- Diana Walstad
Cryptocorynes -- Jan D. Bastmeijer 
Field Trip, workshops and more, Nov 12, 13 & 14; 
Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington, VA, USA
Details & Registration at www.aquatic-gardeners.org  & www.gwapa.org

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