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LI Pets · 06-08-2010, 11:59 AM

It costs about 3 cents each

It can be marketing in the sense of damage control.

RickDavis · 06-08-2010, 12:06 PM

Here is a link to Constant Contact.
Email Marketing Pricing Plans - Constant Contact
At a glance it looks like about $50.00 per month, but I haven't read the fine print.

LI Pets · 06-08-2010, 12:31 PM

That's not the way it works I think there's two different factors

1 number of email recipients 100
2 number of emails sent 5000

It's not 4,000 email addys for that price
So it's 3 cents when all the is said and done

Buttercup · 06-08-2010, 12:35 PM

Looking into the breakdown of the costs for Constant Contact, I am quickly discovering that the cost of this service alone could be used to pay for the club web site hosting AND the cost of the club's domain name fees (and the club would be able to send out messages to the members for free).

A non profit rate for 2501 to 5000 email messages is $35 per month - $350 per year to send out a few email messages to the members. This is a cost that could be done for free, without having to depend on any 3rd party entity to manage. It could be done by the membership, for the membership.

BUT that is not all. The costs to the club may actually be higher. IF the club is sending these messages out via the "Marketing Committee" AND IF the marketing committee is using the services of "Richardson Media and Publishing" to send out these messages (a firm previously owned by marketing committee chair Fred Richardson and now owned by his son) the cost is likely to be higher as "Richardson Media and Publishing" is likely NOT doing this on a pro bono basis.

My big question - are the things the marketing committee is doing costing the club more money than the members they should be bring in? Thus far we have seen a few things come out of the "Marketing Committee" that have nothing to do with marketing:

BlueBeretOnline.com - a feature which completely devalues a membership in the WBCCI by making one of the major benefits of membership completely free to anybody - the club newsletter.
Messages sent out by Contact Contact - a service that could and should be done for free with club owned and operated infrastructure rather than using the additional services of a 3rd party entity.

Quote:

I am asking that all Region Presidents/representatives, contact their webmasters of your individual Region websites and ask that they place a link on the home pages where visitors might click on to read the Blue Beret online, or download it to their computers. There is also a tab that they can click on at this website to download a membership application immediately.

The link is: www.blueberetonline.com

Also, would you contact and or forward this request to all of your Unit Presidents and ask that they do the same thing on their websites. This is a milestone on getting the word out to folks who are potential members that own Airstreams. This is also an added benefit to potential marketing partners in the Blue Beret. (Important!)

Sincerely, Fred Richardson, Chairman Special Marketing Committee.

Looks like the marketing Committee has their heart in it at least and want it to work out....

LI Pets · 06-08-2010, 12:47 PM

Tim I think with the additional hands involved which must make a profit the email may cost about 4 or $500 each.

Wait till they see how many bad email bounces they have
and how many unopened

dwightdi · 06-08-2010, 02:34 PM

Cindy sent me a note saying she saved 30% off the regular rate because we are non-profit. From their website, it looks like we paid $35 for the two e-mails they have sent out so far this month. That amounts to $0.005 per email delivered. Fred is handling it but Jackson center knows about what he is sending out.

Lily&Me · 06-08-2010, 02:37 PM

Unless something has changed in the last few months, the marketing firm formerly owned by Fred Richardson but then given to his son was the targeted recipient of the WBCCI funds allocated for marketing purposes.

One of those things that needs to be looked at closely.

Maggie

dwightdi · 06-08-2010, 06:28 PM

At $.44 per mile, they could have traveled 80 miles round trip and maybe seen 10 members. That presumes they did not camp along the way or pay the rally fees, which are frequently gratis for Region and National officers. Getting the message out via Internet is cost effective but one directional. It is not like a news conference where the members get to ask questions. The forums is a great communication channel the other way and a great opportunity for the membership to ask unedited questions, but no one in a leadership role replies. The questions to the editor that are chosen to be published and answered in the Blue Beret are carefully selected to advance the leadership's agendas.

RickDavis · 06-08-2010, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 65GT

Did any EC7 member make it to one of your Unit Rallies this year? Any idea how much the club's membership reimbursed that officer for their attendance?

__

We did get a region VP at our unit rally. guess that is not EC7 though.

My guess is we got the VP because the region 6 prez only had $2.00 left in his travel budget at the end of march

wkerfoot · 06-08-2010, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwightdi

...

The questions to the editor that are chosen to be published and answered in the Blue Beret are carefully selected to advance the leadership's agendas.

But there was no letter in the last issue, but apparently a library of letters to be used in future issues.

Bill

HowieE · 06-08-2010, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 65GT

Can you believe I only got ONE copy of the IP's newsletter today. Others got FOUR -- I only got one...

__

Interesting Leo.
Only members got that Newsletter one per membership.

And I did not get one.

LI Pets · 06-08-2010, 07:49 PM

That was payback for being a bad boy using their list

Buttercup · 06-08-2010, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwightdi

Cindy sent me a note saying she saved 30% off the regular rate because we are non-profit. From their website, it looks like we paid $35 for the two e-mails they have sent out so far this month. That amounts to $0.005 per email delivered. Fred is handling it but Jackson center knows about what he is sending out.

Yes, but how much did we pay REALLY? IF Fred sent that message out himself, that would be one thing. BUT, If Fred forwarded it to his son's firm to produce graphics and format it and THEN send it out, what was THAT cost?

I, for one, find it disturbing to potentially see another example of someone benefiting from the club - but in this case, not directly like the WBCCI Forums owner but the family member of a Committee Chair (and former owner of the business).

At want point can the members take this stuff over and contribute without the need to get some kind of benefit from WBCCI in return as a compensation.

dwightdi · 06-09-2010, 04:35 AM

Send Cindy an e-mail (with carbons to Tom and Norm) directly asking her to supply you with the total cost of the two ads. The agency did not do much to reformat Tom's letter. They used the same graphics & Word file and just rearranged it into one column instead of two for easier reading on the net. I could have done in in less than 15 mins. I am not aware of what Cindy supplied them as original material for the trailer ad, but it would have taken me less than an hour to put it together.

Lily&Me · 06-09-2010, 05:23 AM

We and many others had already received this letter last week through our Unit, as was the direction on the newsletter that it be distributed to every member.

Maggie

RickDavis · 06-09-2010, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doug&maggie

We and many others had already received this letter last week through our Unit, as was the direction on the newsletter that it be distributed to every member.

Maggie

Some units are more with it than others. The TN unit has yet to forward one of these letters. of course to be fair I don't know if it was ever passed to them from the region prez.

I did get a link to it from the TCPC airstream campground, and of course the mass mailing.
The mass mailing makes a lot more sense than expecting the region and unit presidents to distribute it. Why have over 100 people involved in what one can do?
Could the Defend Wally mailing have given a wake up call??

Lily&Me · 06-09-2010, 06:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickDavis

Some units are more with it than others. The TN unit has yet to forward one of these letters. of course to be fair I don't know if it was ever passed to them from the region prez.

I did get a link to it from the TCPC airstream campground, and of course the mass mailing.
The mass mailing makes a lot more sense than expecting the region and unit presidents to distribute it. Why have over 100 people involved in what one can do?
Could the Defend Wally mailing have given a wake up call??

Our concern with this coming through the Marketing committee is the funneling of dues monies to a member, who then funnels it on to his son's agency--which he used to own and may still derive financial benefit from.

We were at the mid-winter IBT meeting in January, and it was not a secret that the motion Fred Richardson made for allocation of marketing monies was targeted for his son's agency---which had formerly been Fred's. He asked for it formally and then received it, as simple as that---all the discussion had occurred behind the scenes.

And this within the context/current state of affairs of WBCCI, where there are many talented members who could do this same task without compensation.

This is all rather disturbing to us, having worked for a state bureaucracy for 25 years.

Maggie

RickDavis · 06-09-2010, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doug&maggie

Our concern with this coming through the Marketing committee is the funneling of dues monies to a member, who then funnels it on to his son's agency--which he used to own and may still derive financial benefit from.
Maggie

Maggie I agree with your concerns.

I am not particularly concerned about the nepotism aspect as long as the marketing people in the firm are competent and I have no reason to think they aren't.

What I question is whether there is a need for a professional marketing firm at all.
The club had managed to put the Blue Beret in .PDF format at wbcci.org and it worked fine. Why do we have to pay for another web site and all the fancy page flipping stuff.

I am sure the club could use member talent for other marketing moves also.
The best marketing tool the club has would be the members themselves. If they are satisfied with the club they will talk it up and bring in new members.

This is a #5k expenditure this year and $15k next year.

The problem is NOT attracting new members. It is keeping the existing members.
I think it was Frank Yensan that said they should ring the bell at the international for 2nd timers instead of first timers.. Something to think about

Coloradobus · 06-09-2010, 01:51 PM

From:
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2010 9:06 AM
To:
Subject: Changed my mind and removed what I wrote.

dwightdi · 06-09-2010, 02:12 PM

On the average, people can expect to be campers till they are 75. Currently the club principally provides activities that can be be utilized by newly retired people. Therefore, we can expect the average life expectancy in the club to be 10 years. Even if the members were satisfied with the current benefit package and activities the club should expect to lose 5 -10% of our current members each year. If they have a profession such as teachers that get the summer off and join at an earlier age, we can expect them to last 20 years. We need to attract replacement people in the same amount. We need to offer a benefit package and activities that will attract these newer generation RVers. Since we have never conducted a survey of what these potential members might want to join the club, our leadership is at a complete loss as to what to do to stop the continual shrinking of the club. We are now reaching a tipping point in our membership and our income can not keep up with the benefit costs all our leaders expect to collect for their years of membership, plus the $200,000 cost of maintaining our Headquarters staff. If we do not find a way to provide a new benefit and activity package to attract this newer generation of RVers, we will be bankrupt in five years.