Creative Fab
January 19th, 2005, 04:15 PM
I just recieved the winter issue of the Trail Mix news letter for the Southern Fourwheel Drive Assoc. And needless to say I am a bit jealous of the membership numbers they have.
Granted they are drawing folks from states all over the south with several member clubs represented. They are sitting at around 1000 members and have dues of $25.00 each. There membership sec. is also Uniteds membership sec. and he has put together an online memebrship program like the one we discussed at January's meeting. In his article for this issue he also put into words what he feels to be the benefits of joining an Association. I will put a few of them as well as some of mine in a future post.
They also have an excelent publication with a ton of pics and good articles with several folks working on lots of different topics and events.
They still however still suffer from some of the same dilema's we have in GL, insurance being one of them, they are currently paying $25.000 a year. You read that correct twenty five thousand dollars! However they say that they can only afford that amount for 12 to 18 months before the ins. funds dry up.
Southern also has several clubs that have yet to renew there 2005 dues and those were up in Nov. 2004. Like we discussed at the January meeting they pay their dues at the same time each year. And then pay their United dues in January like the rest of United's Associations.
They also hold their quarterly meetings wherever a memebr club wants to host it, and then they make it an event with trail rides and dinners and such. These meetings happen all over the south in a few different states. I do not know if that is something are membership would go for but at this time we do not need to worry about different state becuase all of our membership is in MI.
Southern like us is also looking to fill board positions due to the fact that they have made their past presidents board members and those folks were doing board positions and know have to relinquish those to be past president board members.
In the land issue arena Southern has a land use director position who tracks what is going on with the Fed's and with the state governments.
This has been just a little insight into another Assoc. and how they are curently working.
I do know that this message, like the rest of the posts here will only be read by a sliver of our membership but if you can, please pass along any highlights of things discussed within this post and any other post for that matter, to others that might not be here reading this stuff.
It might just be a stepping stone for our future.
Respectfully,
pat Kinne
Granted they are drawing folks from states all over the south with several member clubs represented. They are sitting at around 1000 members and have dues of $25.00 each. There membership sec. is also Uniteds membership sec. and he has put together an online memebrship program like the one we discussed at January's meeting. In his article for this issue he also put into words what he feels to be the benefits of joining an Association. I will put a few of them as well as some of mine in a future post.
They also have an excelent publication with a ton of pics and good articles with several folks working on lots of different topics and events.
They still however still suffer from some of the same dilema's we have in GL, insurance being one of them, they are currently paying $25.000 a year. You read that correct twenty five thousand dollars! However they say that they can only afford that amount for 12 to 18 months before the ins. funds dry up.
Southern also has several clubs that have yet to renew there 2005 dues and those were up in Nov. 2004. Like we discussed at the January meeting they pay their dues at the same time each year. And then pay their United dues in January like the rest of United's Associations.
They also hold their quarterly meetings wherever a memebr club wants to host it, and then they make it an event with trail rides and dinners and such. These meetings happen all over the south in a few different states. I do not know if that is something are membership would go for but at this time we do not need to worry about different state becuase all of our membership is in MI.
Southern like us is also looking to fill board positions due to the fact that they have made their past presidents board members and those folks were doing board positions and know have to relinquish those to be past president board members.
In the land issue arena Southern has a land use director position who tracks what is going on with the Fed's and with the state governments.
This has been just a little insight into another Assoc. and how they are curently working.
I do know that this message, like the rest of the posts here will only be read by a sliver of our membership but if you can, please pass along any highlights of things discussed within this post and any other post for that matter, to others that might not be here reading this stuff.
It might just be a stepping stone for our future.
Respectfully,
pat Kinne