Bummer -- add the Manitoba Unit to the mix. Two units dissolve with many joining the North Dakota Unit instead.
I'm sure the remaining members are happy, the newsletter demonstrates as much, but our overall focus just has to be off.
http://nodak.wbcci.net/files/2009/12/nd-newsletter-12-09.pdfRegion 7 is now down to just THREE Units, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota Peace Garden. FEWER than 200 members. Do these three units, these ~200 members actually qualify as a region any longer?
The problem isn't Region 7 -- we see this going on everywhere. I've had discussions with folks in both Region 2 and Region 3 from units that claim their units will age out over the next couple of years, it's aging out that is the real problem here. It's not that today's youth aren't joiners (first define youth), it's that many of these units have failed at recruiting from a broad pool of Airstream owners for so long, that youth doesn't see anything familiar to them when they're looking at some of these units, and it is these aging members from these units that raise that point precisely.
There are proud members of some long term historic units (and the two that just terminated were long term units) that would love for youth to come in, take over, carry the ball, but their membership is so close to retiring from the RV lifestyle that they know they have very little in the way of attracting and retaining youth -- it's a FACT.
So if they're going to age out, then it's going to take both programs and efforts to get a wide variety of active Airstreamers to congregate in those same territories, to either pick up that historic charter, or simply start anew.
If leadership is content with this club's entry level being retirees, if they're not able or willing to modify the structure, making it financially responsible, then all they need do is modify both their mission statement and vision. Youth will happily move along to something fresher, more relevant to the overall Airstream ownership experience, something that equally targets ALL age groups and each and every conceivable family unit that might come along.
Otherwise every unit has a responsibility to continually recruit new members from ALL age groups and family status, and the activities should be targeted towards youth and fitness.
We're watching too many units age-out with the root cause being a failure to recruit, and current members no longer willing to pick up the ball and run with it. We have many aging units that have their Past Unit Presidents coming around for another term as Unit President. Airstream owners on the outside aren't interested in coming in to a demographic that looks nothing like they do. Diversity is the key, but
where is that emphasis from leadership?
What responsibility does the Region and International take for these events happening under their watch? What are we paying them for, exactly?
Where are the educational programs, are they readily available to Unit Leadership, or does one have to travel cross country to attend an International to get that information? What role does Region Leadership play in helping units remain viable and growing?
What are we getting for $125,000.00 of annual International Officer Reimbursements?
Just - what - are - we - getting?
Where is our North American
Membership Recruiting Initiative, one that focuses on identifying and recruiting
new owners of used Airstreams? We think we have new Airstreams covered via postcard but what is that truly yielding - where are the numbers?
Surely annual used sales outnumber new unit sales 5:1 or more, no? Has anyone tracked how many Airstreams sell through Ebay a week, a month? Is anyone contacting those sellers, making sure that they're using OUR club as a recruitment tool? How about Craigslist? Where's the national plan for that? Where does our International Membership Chair stand on these matters?
So, we can already paint two units gone for 2010. No idea what the real membership fallout is, just yet.
The inaction continues, and each and everyone of us can clearly point our fingers to the top. It is they that have violated the first opening line in our Code of Ethics. Through their lack of ability to manage a club, to see it grow and operate profitably, to do what is right both financially and respectfully to the entire membership of this club, it is leadership that fails us, daily...
"
To be ever mindful of our responsibility to Wally Byam Caravan Club International, Inc..."
Retiring Class of 2010
Manitoba
South Dakota
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Author
Topic: South Dakota Unit Disbands - a continuing trend (Read 1388 times)