IF the WBCCI was really interested in Growing...

[mistral blue]

The key to a growing membership is to maintain and fortify your base, your foundation. Who comprises the WBCCI's base?

[wheel interested]

These are great comments. It would be good to get them over in Renee's member share area of the WBCCI forums. Renee really has been trying hard to get us heard we could show a little support for all her efforts. C'mon go give them a post!

WBCCI Forum -

[Swanny]

Originally Posted by mistral blue

The key to a growing membership is to maintain and fortify your base, your foundation. Who comprises the WBCCI's base?

My preliminary apologies to all the Airstream MOHO owners but unless it has visible aluminum it's not an Airstream

I love the older AS MOHO's because they look like there's some aluminum on them. Anyway....Someone else pointed out that the membership is shrinking.

The truth is its not about what kind of MOHO or TT you have but how you camp. WBCCI (Bless Wally's heart) was founded on good principles long before the Good Sam group was formed, etc.

Where the problems began is when WBCCI began to exclude people rather than include them. A prime example is Argosy's. Awesome TT's but they couldn't join WBCCI for quite some time. It tooks an almost act of congress to get them in.

I love the Air Forum, I love WBCCI for it's own reason but more importantly I love the big silver trailer that I am blessed to have. If all of these clubs went away I'd still love camping in our AS.

Now we'll all stand for the pledge of allegiance and I'll raise the flag

Mitch

[wheel interested]

I pledge allegiance to the united state of Airstreaming... See my "Live Airstream or Die" flag? Coined by WAM52 Great letter here http://www.airforums.com/forum...6-post285.html

[rideair]

The WBCCI does want to grow as a club. Thoughts on how to go about doing it is another thing. There are those that will say, "I left the WBCCI because of the stupid red jackets, blue berets, etc.." There are those that will say "I did not join the WBCCI because it's a bunch of old people, with red jackets and blue berets". I personally think they are all the wrong reasons to leave or not join. I've also seen "many" people post messages on this very forum staying "I would not join the WBCCI because all you guys do is fight". The bottom line is this, the WBCCI wants to grow. And if you are a member of the WBCCI, you are the WBCCI. It is up to you as a member to make the club the best you can. If you are a member of a Unit that is shrinking and dying out, offer to do a buddy rally, push it here and other places on the web, ask other units to join it, etc... Make it the best rally anyone has ever been too. Do a quick three/four day caravan, etc... Offer to help get a webpage up and running, offer to take votes over the phone and web, step up and do the work.

Example: The WDCU did not have a Unit Flag and our Unit newsletter had all but died out. I took it upon myself to do the paperwork, phone calls, design and $$$ to get a Unit flag passed. It is now being made and should have them ready to sell by our CBR. I took the time to write up a quick newletter back in Oct. After that newsletter went out, I had a member contact me offering to become the Newsletter Editor, she has put out three since Nov.. I'm co-hosting a caravan to International and co-hosting a rally in Sept.

I ask, all that have responsed to this thread to host one rally or caravan this year, work to get your website up and running, or something, anything. We have the chance with this forum in place to bring the WBCCI back to the greatest RV club in the USA. Or, we can use this forum to destroy it. I'll be the first to say the "IBT" has not done everything right(in my opinion) But, we cannot yell about our bad of a job they are doing if we are doing nothing to help.


It's time for us to step up and take on the work. They will not and should not do it for us. There's more to being a member of the WBCCI than just paying your dues.

[WALLY 54]

Originally Posted by streamer23

The 100 thousand question...under the current system,how do you get the proper leadership before the club is driven into the ground.

Begin by:

VOTEing NO on the entire International slate when it comes to your unit in April (THIS MONTH). (They're going to win anyway -- might as well make them sit through a 45 minute roll call and let them hear YOUR voice. Especially if you won't be in Perry!) If they get in through another club-wide unanimous YES election they're just going to fumble around and find another disaster for '08. Then they will all continue up the ladder of self-fullfilling success.

Then take back your club:

In the movie 'Animal House' it was the Deltas against the rules... the rules lost! :

Bluto (John Belushi): What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is!
Otter (Tim Matheson): We gotta take these b#&ta#&s. Now we could do it with conventional weapons. But that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let's do it.
Bluto: LET'S DO IT!

[WALLY 54]

Originally Posted by rideair

--excerpts--
The WBCCI does want to grow as a club. Thoughts on how to go about doing it is another thing. There are those that will say, "I did not join the WBCCI because it's a bunch of old people, with red jackets and blue berets". I personally think they are all the wrong reasons to leave or not join.
The bottom line is this, the WBCCI wants to grow. And if you are a member of the WBCCI, you are the WBCCI. It is up to you as a member to make the club the best you can. If you are a member of a Unit that is shrinking and dying out, offer to do a buddy rally, push it here and other places on the web, ask other units to join it, etc... Make it the best rally anyone has ever been too. Do a quick three/four day caravan, etc... Offer to help get a webpage up and running, offer to take votes over the phone and web, step up and do the work.

I ask, all that have responsed to this thread to host one rally or caravan this year, work to get your website up and running, or something, anything. We have the chance with this forum in place to bring the WBCCI back to the greatest RV club in the USA. Or, we can use this forum to destroy it. I'll be the first to say the "IBT" has not done everything right(in my opinion) But, we cannot yell about our bad of a job they are doing if we are doing nothing to help.

It's time for us to step up and take on the work. They will not and should not do it for us. There's more to being a member of the WBCCI than just paying your dues.

Thanks Paul, your ideas are stellar. And yes, you are right the IBT doesn't make the club, we, the members make the club.

Since I'm a new member of your unit I'll step up to the plate. Tell me what you need and I'm on it! Oh, and we're going to be in Arkansas at Bull Shoals in mid-October. Anyone interested?

I agree that the 'stupid red and gold coats have to go,' but the berets (older felt-style ones) have to stay! They are the most recognizable symbol of the AS genre next to the trailer itself.

The IBT doesn't make the club, yes, we the membership make the club. BUT, the IBT, merely by the authority it has, can make or break the club on any whim they choose. Providing mis-information and knee-jerk reactions and un-quantitative solutions to supposed problems.

The membership on a large scale doesn't have as much ability to combat these issues and it dissuades them. [As a relatively new member of the WBCCI, 3rd year, I've often felt that I'm powerless to effect things. One example is my experiences as a delegate at the Int'l Rally in Salem last year, and another is the responses that I received last year when I voiced my concerns with the higher-ups about the name change issue.]

I do think that for the IBT to work, as it was intended to, the group has to stop making knee-jerk reactions to fix the exposed weaknesses of the WBCCI.

IF the WBCCI was really interested in Growing... I think that they would:

1. Re-read Wally's Creed.
2. Make a one-member, one-vote, online system, so every member has a voice.
3. Develop a solid marketing plan that includes membership goals.
4. Create a standard 4-5 step operating procedure and guidelines for graphic standards for all units.
5. Give units the marketing tools that they need to recruit new members.
6. Introduce themselves and roll up their sleeves.
7. Stop loosing members and listen to the membership as a whole.
8. Acknowledge new ideas that are simple-to- and quick-to-implement.
9. Work with the membership to invent programs and events that are reachable by all members.
10. Allow the members to take more active participation in running the club.
11. Stop waisting time and money.

just a start...

[moosetags]

Wally54's #1 and #2 would be all that was necessary to save WBCCI. #1 (re-read Wally's Creed) would keep the Club focused on its reason for its existance. #2 (one member, one e-vote) would change the entire fabric of WBCCI overnight. The whole IBT would be ousted, and replaced by members who do not suffer from cranial rectumitis. This is why #2 is so feared by the IBT. If #2 was adopted, Board Members might actually have to run for their office. This would require them to explain their position and state their goals.

I think that we should fight for "one member, one e-vote". If this were adopted by WBCCI, all the other problems would solve themselves.

[85MH325]

Originally Posted by airstreamers

i think that originally it was intended as a club for airstream owners and airstream lovers, so what is at issue here.

I am a former long-time member of WBCCI. I dropped my membership a couple of years before I sold the last Airstream I had. Your comment was a common misconception of most new members to the club. What most new members miss is in the name: Wally Byam CARAVAN Club International. It was not chartered as a "marque" club, or an Airstream owner's association. It was chartered by customers and friends of Wally Byam's for Airstream owners to group together in caravans and take trips.

That most of the new membership was interested only in having a "marque" club, not caravans to somewhere, confounded the club members and leadership who had been in the club since it's inception, or learned the management of the club from charter members. They continued to run the club as a Caravan Club and it was chartered well into the 1990s, and lost members in droves (me included) who were, in fact, looking at it more as a "marque" club.

Now it appears that the leadership has even lost THAT direction, and still don't know how to transform WBCCI into a "marque" club.

I used to defend the WBCCI leadership and club. Now as a former member and disinterested observer, it will be interesting to watch whether or not the club can even survive with so many factions pulling it in so many directions.

Roger

[jimmickle]

Perhaps we should look at how SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) is governed. It is a member oriented club like WBCCI, with local regions which are like the units in WBCCI, and nine Divisions which are like the regions in WBCCI. The club is run by a Board of Directors consisting of one diector from each Division. Three directors are elected each year for three year terms, resulting in a good mix of new and old. Vote is by mail ballot conducted by a national accounting firm, so one member, one vote. There is almost always a contest with two and sometimes three people, both male and female, running for each open position. There are usually spirited campaigns. The directors elect the Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, etc. The also hire the COO. There are a number of boards that govern various areas of the sport. All are volinteers that are not paid and have few expenses reinbursed. The boards typically meet monthly by conference call, and face to face at the annual convention in February. The BOD meets more often by conference call and face to face a couple of times a year.

The result of this system is that you have a director who listens and replys when contacted. There is no good old boy system. Each director has to run for office in his/her division every three years. If you don't like what your director is doing, you can "throw the bum out" at the next election.

If you are interested, the web page is Sports Car Club of America

[Safari64]

[quote=airstreamers]i think that originally it was intended as a club for airstream owners and airstream lovers, so what is at issue here.


Oh, it's NOT a club for airstream lovers.
I tried to join back when I was "just an Airstream lover". Just wanted to learn more about them and find out which years/models I would want to PURCHASE.

They wouldn't let me in!! I wasn't an Airstream OWNER.
I asked for a sample of their Blue Beret newsletter and was refused.

Ok, it's your club and that's their rules. fine.

But, if now they let SOBs that aren't "Airstreams" in, I could have joined?? Hmmm..

Now I AM an Airstream owner and get all the help and advise I need (and REALLY appreciate), share parts and sources, and meet up with really nice folks through the forum and get to read all about them in Airstream Life.

Still never seen a Blue Beret.....and loving it.

Would like to join VAC, but apparently have to join the big "Owners" club first.

I'm up for a Silver Aluminum Travel Trailer Club.