Membership....is it me?.......

[Bill Rutter]

.....or is the differential in price for a year's "Internet" membership and "Newsletter" membership a little strange? When you consider that the Newsletter will now be available online, can you blame folk for choosing the cheaper option. Personally, I think £14 is excellent value for this club and if you don't get your money's worth you've only yourself to blame. I am of the opinion that the loss of £8 in revenue might be a bit of an "own goal".

[Andy M]

I think it depends on the take up and the costs. I trust the club won't be out of pocket if we all chose to go electronic?

I prefer the electronic option as I can read it wherever I am. The "insignificant" cost of internet membership makes us the most value for money club I know, so hopefully lots of new members from Stafford etc. stay with us.  The more members we are, the more active we will be. I'd bet in miles per member terms we beat a lot of other clubs.

I for one have stopped my membership of most clubs (including the BMF) as £20 annual fees can be converted into a lot of beer or petrol vouchers. When the meets are "read the last comittee minutes" jobs and the clubs discussion area is similar to Yahoo, these clubs glossy magazines suddenly seem expensive. Please don't take this as in any way an attack on the people who put all the effort into the club mag, it's appreciated, but I think the clubs need to appreciate the "market place" too. The Pay-as-you-go option offered here is very much more attractive and I think the £6 plus rallies is way better for everyone than the big fat zero those other clubs will be getting.

Andy

[squirrelciv]

Bill, I think I'm right when I say the desision to offer a discounted membership for those that didn't want a hard copy of the newsletter was offered because it didn't seem right to charge for something that was (erm!) infrequent. Remember, the club is a non profit making set up and only charges what is needed to keep it going. As we put on rallies, attend shows, and offer affiliation to a major association, we need to recover those costs. Newsletter costs when they appear, are considerate and so those that wish to chance their arm for one need to pay a bit more.
It must be stressed that one of the problems with the newsletter is content. If people want a quality read more of us will have to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and give GC something to print :-)

[guest7]

It must be stressed that one of the problems with the newsletter is content. If people want a quality read more of us will have to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and give GC something to print :-)

Amen
GC

[andy230]

I prefer the electronic option as I can read it wherever I am.

Yeah, but my missus will be mighty suspicious if i start disappearing off to the bog with my laptop...



a

[Steve H]

At Pat says the two levels were intended to address the feeling that the club was not offering value for money. The newsletter is the only 'tangeable' benefit of membership and this was proving difficult to deliver on a regular basis (see comments elsewhere), it was decided to provide a no-newsletter option, the newsletter is expensive to print and distribute, so we could obvioully reduce the cost of membership. I have carefully costed it and £6:00 was the lowest option the club could afford. It includes Third party insurance, MAG affiliation, web-site hosting, PayPal costs and a few other incidental costs. There is very little buffering in this so any increased costs will change the price. The Rallies have to be self-financing so were not considered, that said the successes at Stafford have provided us with a buffer large enough to cope with any significant losses at the Annual Rally.
I'm also hoping the low cost will increase membership numbers.

[guest27]

Being as the newsletter will now be pdf'd and on here can I have the difference back? 

R

[Bill Rutter]

I don't want any kind of refund. As I said, £14 is excellent value. But a differential of £8 seems a little excessive. Look a what the club offers: BMF affiliatiation for a start, then rallies and a font of knowledge thru' this foru and more besides. Add to that some of the nicest people you could wish to share a pint with and there's not too much to gripe about. Okay, some other clubs/forums might "seem" better value but, like for like, the TC is hard to beat. I want to see it (deservedly) prosper.

[guest18]

Hear hear!! Well said Bill.

[tony#270]

I don't want a refund either.  The stalwarts do a great job and if they aren't careful they'll end up subsidising the club.

[Steve H]

The other thing to mention is that those that subscribe to the newsletter will receive it around a month before it appears on the site.

[Steffan]

Up until this morning I had let all my bike related memberships lapse. As the wise Mr Metcalfe pointed out too much beer and fuel and tax and insurance and consumables and shiney bits money and tokens. Now at six quid, well, I could get tipsy on six quid so, being a tight git, I clicked clicked clicked and payed up my subs.

well done chaps,

Steffan (the tight)

[guest27]

Couldn't find the imoticon with the tongue firmly planted in a cheek - sorry for misunderstanding.

R

[Richard 003]

The other thing to mention is that those that subscribe to the newsletter will receive it around a month before it appears on the site.

So the classifieds will be only 6 months out of date instead of 7? ;-)

[beeman]

And as some members got there hard copy a month after mine, they will not notice the months delay anyway.