Membership consultation

Would you have paid a small membership fee to be an active member of the A2OC?

  • Yes - through a voluntary annual donation

    Votes: 43 47.8%
  • Yes - through a fixed annual subscription

    Votes: 44 48.9%
  • No

    Votes: 12 13.3%

  • Total voters
    90
  • Poll closed .
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I have ticked the box for a fixed annual subscription as it is fairer to all and should be pitched at a level that pays all the costs/expenses of the club.
It could also be added that the annual subscription was the minimum to run the Club but....." if you felt that you would like to add a small donation at the same time as you pay the annual charge it would be appreciated and in the interests of keeping collection costs to a minimum".
The donation monies could be used when needed to meet any unusual or non-recurring costs, improvements etc.

A2OC is the best club that I have ever been a member of. Thank you all.
 
An annual fee seems good to me.
Suggestion: For non-paying members some topics could be not available.
Such as the "how-to-guides", or other "valuable information" could only accesible for paying members (the German forum does this also)
 
If we were to have subscriptions, would it then be possible for the club to purchase some special tools fro hire to members? I'm thinking of the front wheel bearing tool, for instance. Very easy job for a DIY'er to do with the right tool. Impossible to get right without it. Cost to buy - maybe £200. Rent out for £25 a week (plus postage). A place on ebay hires these out for £35, so there must be a market. They insist that you pay £200 deposit in case the tools never get returned - good idea.

There must be other similar tools, this would then be a real benefit to membership, and also might generate surplus funds.
Geoff
 
If we were to have subscriptions, would it then be possible for the club to purchase some special tools fro hire to members?


Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions folks. The response has been excellent and we have much to ponder over!

In response to the above suggestion, this matter had been debated as part of lengthy discussions over the last year or so; however there has already been a decision that the club will not enter into the purchase of tools for hire.

As we are an online community the logistics of this would be very difficult with the owners and moderators spread across the country. In the early days of the club there was some investment in tools which were loaned out; however these went missing. Such risk would be inevitable with such an arrangement.
 
This is always a tuff one, the age old question, how do we pay for it all? Whichever way you do it there will be people upset.

I myself have been a member of various car forums over the last 20 years. TTOC (excellent club) - pay a yearly subscription and get stickers, badges, tax disc holders, pens and a quarterly magazine full access to all of the website, included a special members area where they post how-to and buyers guides etc… the RSOC runs a similar model, but as someone has already stated, they have a massive following (not so much the RSOC anymore as it’s been spoiled by inside “management” fighting) and its demise is really quite sad 

As “we” are a smaller club I can only see the voluntary donations model actually working, but it’s sad that only a few will pay for the masses free use, but isn’t that a fundamental part of what a club is all about? The few that can and care promoting their beloved cars to the masses that aren’t familiar or don’t know about them? What I would hate to happen is that we force away and potential newcomers by making them pay from day one.

Having said that, I for one would be more than happy to make a yearly subscription of £20+ to become a full member and have a full members signature or avatar, I would also be happy to do the August fund raiser (excellent idea by the way) as I sadly have to admit I have also missed the thread/banner asking for donations. What about setting the site up so that guests or none members would get advertising and pop ups, or is that a lot of work to develop?

The member’s only area is a good one, as is member’s deals, maybe an insurance area if we can get any of the insurance companies to give special discounts for club members etc…

I also think that enforcing an “inability to list in the classifieds unless you have 50 or so posts of have been a member for more than 12 months” is a very good idea that is used on many other forums. You could also change the model so that A2OC members get to see new posts before guests, maybe a calendar week before guests can view? Or maybe charging none members for posting in the for sale area?

Either way I am happy to help as long as I don’t have to actually move from my comfy chair :rolleyes:
 
It seems to me that the bottom line is we're going to have to pay something in some way or other.
Having paid to continue the "Club" in its early days I'm more than happy to pay again in whichever way the "Real Workers" who run the club decide.
I therefore voted for voluntary & fixed subscriptions.
If the choice is voluntary then the idea of a message to all registered members at one point during the year is really good.
I do think there should be some limitation on free access/rights to "non-payers". Many clubs have a members only area for technical info, sales etc.
 
Might I suggest that you charge people to sell their cars. Not sure how you would administer it though.

any traders could also pay a fee to advertise and have there own slot

Doubt this would raise much because nearly everyone here already has an A2. And if you're going to pay to sell your car you might as well pay eBay or Autotrader etc. given the much bigger audience on there.

Cheers
 
I'm happy to pay a small annual fee (as anything too much would surely decrease the membership) whilst at the same time keeping voluntary donations (with the forum indicating which members have donated to encourage others to do so too) and charging to use the marketplace (a quid or two for each new for sale thread)

I have donated to this forum, something I've never done for any other forum purely because it has such valuable information and some great members. (my paypal addess is different to the one I registered on here though)
 
It is a difficult topic...
I guess in many ways an annual subscription would be easiest to administer but I like the idea of voluntary donations more.
Sometimes interesting questions are raised or problems solved by occasional posters that are beneficial to the whole community.
It is important to try to keep the forum as active as possible and to engage with as many A2 owners as possible.
It is always tricky to run such a site without creating too much work/expense for either the admins or the users.
It would also be sad if the forum were to lose knowledgeable contributors who remain but have sold/disposed of their A2's and so may not feel willing to subscribe any longer.
 
Its a strange thing when someone is asked to pay for something that has been free. When the motor cycle club im in asked members to pay £12 per year for club membership, a few said they would not pay, but then when I said, "work it out guys, that equates to a pound a month, 25 pence a week " suddenly it didn't seem to be an issue.

Im up for a membership fee of £12 per annum or slightly more if need be.
 
I usually take the Groucho Marx stance of 'I wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have me as a member'.

I think We first need to consider the value people put on the resource as it stands and more importantly their ability to access it. The resource will exisit whether anyone can access it or not and my understanding is that this is about ongoing running costs.
The big difficulty is being able to value something which has historically been free. A charge is fine if it is low and enough people consider this trivial or value for money but will always exclude some and limit entrants.

If the lookup resource is maintained at 'free' what incentive is there to pay as, 10+ years in, most issues have now been discussed and people would just have to try a bit harder using the search facility rather than just posting the same issues again.

We also need to look at the return for the owners. Clearly a few brave soles got together when the site became available some years back and have invested time and money nurturing it into what it is today. How do they value it and where would they like to take it?

Apologies for the thinking aloud.

If the intention is to keep things as is then "donation month" is my prefered option

If the owners were inclined to broaden the remit of the club rather than just the forum then income should be drawn from new activities. Whether this is advertising other services or providing them in house.

The third way could be a cooperative/capitalist hybrid. With a share issue where those who wish to see the club continue are also able to take a stake in its future.

Good luck with what ever decision is made.

Kind regards
Jonathan
 
I'd strongly favour voluntary subscriptions while increasing the awareness of the need and maybe some suggested amounts relative to members' use of the board. I'm afraid I can't remember if I have contributed in the past (I shall now!) but that is purely because I've not considered the running costs. Had I received an email or message via the board then I would have. I feel that boards such as this have a critical mass of members, below which they can turn stale and die very quickly. Compulsory subs would, I think, be risky. G.
 
Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. Please keep them coming.

So as not to influence or colour the views of other contributors, the team thought it appropriate to leave any discussions to the end of the survey so please don't think we are not listening or your ideas are being ignored.

Cheers Spike
 
Thanks everyone

The announcement of a decision to introduce a donations based structure plus a fee for marketplace access brings this membership consultation to a natural close.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed and voted on the poll for the helpful feedback and also thank those members who have contributed to the running and future security of the club by making donations during this time.

The donations model will be reviewed annually to ensure this option is going to be sustainable in the longer term.

In hoping that this preferred option proves to be successful, we also trust that those members who favoured a fixed annual subscription or to raise funds by advertising will be supportive of the decision taken by the club committee.

Whilst the club will now continue to be funded by the minority for the majority, we hope that this encourages new membership, and when people feel that there has been benefit in being a member of the forum, future donations will not only be from a small group of regular contributors.

It's been a difficult road to get here, with much work in the background before we opened the situation to the wider membership for comment. Once again, we are grateful for the feedback and donations received.

As for the future, we aim to ensure that the A2OC remains a friendly, inclusive and helpful community which celebrates and protects the enthusiasm and knowledge base for the fantastic piece of design and engineering that is the Audi A2.

Best wishes,

The A2OC team.
 
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