<VV> Was - Membership poll - Now - 21st Century communication

[Bruce Schug]

On Mar 12, 2010, at 3:06 PM, Jamie & Tanya Reinhart wrote:

> All, Thank-you very much for the responses to my poll to estimate  
> the number of chapter members that have e-mail. I now have 39  
> responses from all sections of North America and various sized  
> clubs. This is approximately 1/3 of all CORSA chapters and in my  
> opinion a fair representation of CORSA as a whole. I unfortunately  
> have not received a response from any overseas
>


Jamie,

There is no doubt our society is in the process of a huge change in  
the way we communicate with one-another.  CORSA is not the only group  
experiencing this change; I have had this same conversation with other  
groups I am involved with.

I have recently had reason to put several announcements in our church  
newsletter.  Our secretary could not get all of them in, so she only  
put some of the announcements in the printed newsletter.  But, the e- 
mailed newsletter had all of them in.  Obviously, this was very easy  
to do as she didn't have the constraints of so many pages to contain  
things.  I told her of my disappointment that all of my announcements  
didn't get in the "real" newsletter.  She replied that the church e- 
mails over 500 newsletters and only mails something over 200.  We are  
one of the few that get both.  Most younger members only get the e- 
mailed version.  The hard copies go mostly to older members.  Further,  
many of the hard copies go to out-of-town members who have moved away  
or are in retirement or nursing homes.

Anyone who has paid attention to the news is aware of the pain being  
felt by the US Post Office.  Is it 16% that their business is down?   
Surely, Saturday delivery is in serious jeopardy.  Not only are people  
not writing letters and mailing them but companies are sending more  
bills via e-mail, etc., and people aren't mailing checks, they are  
paying on-line.

Apple has introduced the iPad.  Yesterday they accepted pre-orders  
with limits of two per customer.  Even corporate accounts could only  
order two.  They accepted 50,000 pre-orders in two hours (http://tinyurl.com/yduhbvc 
).  I am reading of all kinds of deals being made between publishers  
and Apple to have their content available to iPad owners.

We are all aware that the demographics of CORSA members and Corvair  
owners in general is older.  We are fortunate in a way, because we  
know that change will come slower to our members and can look at what  
is happening to the general public, knowing there is some time to  
implement this type of change to our group.

I think your reasoning and ideas are appropriate.  As the USPS  
continues to work their problems out, postage is only going to  
increase.  As more and more communicate electronically, that type of  
communication will be accepted more and more.

Still, many will still value printed material, as many have  
commented.  Publications with beautiful pictures, well-written stories  
of interest, etc., will continue to be valued by many - not all - but  
many.  Remember, some CORSA members see little value in the  
Communique.  Some read what interests them, then discard it, having no  
interest in collecting it or archiving it.  I bet some iPad users will  
read a book on their iPad, then decide it was something they'd like to  
have, to possess and have occupy some of their shelf space, and  
purchase the actual book.

There have been some comments about calenders.  One thing to keep in  
mind is that up-to-date items like this as well as event announcements  
can easily and quickly be e-mailed to thousands.  Is it feasible to  
have someone e-mail timely CORSA news, perhaps as often as weekly?

A few days ago, I received, what was said to be the last printed  
"newsletter" from Michigan State.  It had instructions on how to sign  
up to receive news via e-mail.  I already am on a list and receive a  
weekly e-mail with all kinds of links to articles on the MSU web page,  
as well as on other web sites.

I love my collection of CORSA publications which is complete with one  
exception.  But few value them that way.  The widow of a member  
donated stacks of old Communiques to the club.  The board decided to  
give them away, one year at a time, at our monthly raffle.  So, at  
every meeting, there's a stack of old Communiques as one prize.  Other  
prizes are things like a bag of candy bars, a roll of shop towels, a  
baseball cap, a six-pack of Coke, or an oil filter.  There is one  
member who keeps taking the Communiques.  He's getting quite a  
collection, as they keep getting older and older.  I think we're  
giving away those from about 1993 now, a year at a time.  But other  
members, leave the Communiques on the table opting for one of the  
other prizes.  Now, of course, some already have those Communiques,  
but others just aren't interested in them.  It will be interesting to  
see if this lack of interest continues when we get back to the older  
publications, such as the Quarterlies.

Who was it that said, "The times, they are a changin'"? Bob Dylan?

Bruce

Bruce W. Schug
CORSA South Carolina
CORSA member since 1980
Performance Corvair Group
Stock Corvair Group
VirtualVairs
FastVairs
'67 Monza, "67AC140"
bwschug at att.net