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« on: January 10, 2016, 01:41:12 pm »
We tried promoting the club and the guide in a single sheet, double sided flyer back in 2008. I handed these out to people to give out/leave around on the various ferries that year - see image below. Sorry, I can only display the Front as the whole flyer is too big for the forum s/w. The back had a few more topical pics and explained the Guide in more detail eg a pic of the table-of-contents.
There was no significant surge in membership - in fact in the 3 months June/July/Aug, there were 165 new members in 2007 but only 137 in 2008.
In any organisation there will be a small minority of members who are active, and in the current membership of 2300, many are totally inactive, and the majority have signed up and made less than 5 posts. I know some of that 2300 are no longer with us, and others have signed on simply to try to buy tickets being sold by members.
Personally, I do not think that the Guide is the core of CA, nor does it sustain CA. The core and sustainability is the friendships and relationships (yes, even marriages) that have been made over the years, whilst the guide is a service provided by a few of the members.
I do agree, however, that the guide is (now) the only 'public' face we have, but to use it to actively promote the club and attract new members - I do not think so. What is the purpose of CA?? In its heyday (in the noughties), CA was the social networking between like-minded people. Unfortunately, other systems like FB came on stream, and many people now use that as the 'audience' is a lot wider than the sportscar-oriented folk on CA. Having said that, some people post the same information on both CA and FB.
To me, CA is still the hub of information regarding endurance racing, and is the main contact and reference point with the many people I have got to know over the years.
Very few of the new members actually 'stay' and get involved - you, Aricus, are an exception, and more power to your elbow. New, active members are more than welcome, but the main question is what benefit does the club get out of increased membership?
Del