Michael,
Points noted and will be passed along. I'd like to take a quick moment to comment on a few items. ** Reducing the visability of the society now by eliminating hard-copy News would be like a failing restaurant cutting quality of food to stay afloat. We all know what happens then - progressive cuts in staff and quality lead to an irreversible downwards spiral, to which there is only one end. Perhaps the analogy is better made that we would be cutting menu items (not quality), but it trends toward the same end. There is only one long-term solution to this and that is a concerted membership drive. This is especially clear when one examines the demographics of our membership, which year by year is greyer and slower. Attracting people to a failing society will be harder and harder if we choose to continue to restrict what we offer. In my report (https://secure.caves.org/nss-business/reports/1303/PRES-1303.pdf, page 43) you will find a membership analysis by Director Dick Mitchell. A report from several years ago indicates that our membership age-span is still very similar. Our retention of new members in the 1-3 year range is where we appear to be hurting the most. I and others agree that we need to retain membership benefits, and that the best solution is a membership drive. We currently attract ~10% of our size in new members each year. Retention is one of our main problems. ** Every grotto set a goal of concertedly attracting 10% new members in the next year and 20% over the next five years. This would solve our current shortfall, and 20% would put us back to the level we enjoyed for several years. ** Allow new members to designate one person who was especially instrumental in bringing them in, and give a one year membership discount to that person. Multiple new members could result in an especially good recruiter getting their own fees waived entirely. The Marketing & Advertising Committee, with assistance from our Membership Committee, did a reverse of the above - they had Grottos nominate someone who might be an up-and-coming caver that would probably benefit the Society. The above might better option. All of your suggestions are being passed along to the Board. Thank you, Wm Shrewsbury President, National Speleological Society
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