Membership Report for Calendar Year 2012

[Origami]

Our bylaws require that the Membership Director prepare and submit an annual membership report to the Board of Directors. There's nothing that says what has to be in the report, so I've adopted this format in past years. I'll share the stats with you here since I know that some of you have interest. Overall, our numbers are up in most areas. Forum numbers often climb at a higher rate than other areas because, unless we take action to delete inactive accounts, they remain in the count. We last scrubbed our rolls about 2 years ago when we deleted over 3,000 accounts of bulletin board members that had not signed in in over 24 months.

 

Membership Report for Calendar Year 2012

 

Membership

 

– 2,259 on the forum (up from 1,916)

– 558 are WAMAS members in good-standing (up from 520)

– 48 are Vendors (up from 38)

• Of which 8 are Premium Sponsors (down from 10) and

• 10 are Sponsors (up from 6)

 

Forum Activity

 

–374 new registrations last year (up from 369)

–577 new topics per month average (up from 500)

–5,068 posts per month (up from 4,000)

–159,661 views per month (up from 130,000)

• 64,017 in General Discussion Forum (40.1%)

• 33,447 in For Sale/WTB Forum (20.9%)

[Minh B.]

That's great news that the org is growing & evidence that the hobby is gaining popularity. Perhaps signs of an economic recovery from an otherwise pricey but rewarding hobby.

[Coral Hind]

That's a nice set of metrics. Thanks for sharing that! This club and forum has grown a lot in 13 years.

[mr.x-ray]

+1 on both comments. How many renewals?

I was just wondering how many people are paid on wamas as I just renewed my membership.

I think a lot if it has to due with people are finding ways to fund this addiction. I know first hand how much of a draw it is and how it will suck you back in. I got out after my divorce and moved around. I could not wait to settle somewhere and find a new tank. I drug a couple boxes of gear around for two years just hopeing.

[Origami]

+1 on both comments. How many renewals?

I was just wondering how many people are paid on wamas as I just renewed my membership.

I think a lot if it has to due with people are finding ways to fund this addiction. I know first hand how much of a draw it is and how it will suck you back in. I got out after my divorce and moved around. I could not wait to settle somewhere and find a new tank. I drug a couple boxes of gear around for two years just hopeing.

I don't know. That statistic is not available. Since I hand process every membership card, I only have a "feeling" about how many renewals versus joins there are. That feeling is that we probably have about 10% turnover per year when things remain static. That is, about 1 out of 10 cards is for a first-timer. That's just a guess. This year is different in that the increase in membership is fairly substantial. It's normally been fairly flat from year to year in recent years. This may point to a fairly high retention rate for 2012, though I'm not sure of that.

[Chad]

With WAMAS increasing in size, is the current size of the executive committee and active members properly supporting the educational charters of the community?

 

Can we have an update of the activities of this community?

[Origami]

With WAMAS increasing in size, is the current size of the executive committee and active members properly supporting the educational charters of the community?

 

Can we have an update of the activities of this community?

Boy, is that a loaded question. Are the members properly supporting the charter? I couldn't say how each and every one of you is supporting the charter outside of these four virtual walls. However, it's clear that we have a lot of members that offer their expertise and experience here, so that's supportive. My interpretation of the forum posts/view numbers is that this is one reason why people come here. Another, obviously, is to get good deals on livestock and equipment.

 

We bring speakers in at quarterly meetings. The meetings are well attended. The officers and Copps work together to identify, contact, and make arrangements to bring speakers in for these meetings. Sometimes members of the community suggest speakers (like Christine Williams) and we work to bring them in. All of this activity supports the charter. Members' annual dues supports the financial aspects of getting this done, too.

 

We have a grant program. Last year, we budgeted $3,500 for grants. These grants support tanks in school or special settings, marine research, and public aquaria exhibits. 2012 Grant recipients included: SECORE, Montessori Academy at Belmont Greene, Cedar Lane ES, GJBarord to attend the Eastern Fish Health Workshop, and the NADC (lighting upgrade). Of course, we have a Grant Committee that helps evaluate applications. It's staffed by both officers and volunteers.

 

The Executive Committee is dynamic and serves at the leisure of the Board. We presently have 2 members on that committee and 3 President Emeritus that we can consult.

 

This is off the top of my head. I'm sure that there's more we do and have done. Hopefully this suffices.

 

Oh, we recently got TOTM up and running on a regular basis again. A lot of good support from the community to get that going and to make it sustainable. We're working to get POTM going again in 2013.

[Chad]

 

Sorry for the loaded question, Tom! That wasn't my intent, but thanks for the great answer!

 

Mostly, I wanted to raise awareness a bit of all the "other" cool stuff that WAMAS supports (i.e., grants, travel, research, etc.). But I am also curious if the effort of the largely "behind the scenes" membership that puts in genuine and needed good work to support that stuff is large enough.

[Origami]

 

Sorry for the loaded question, Tom! That wasn't my intent, but thanks for the great answer!

 

Mostly, I wanted to raise awareness a bit of all the "other" cool stuff that WAMAS supports (i.e., grants, travel, research, etc.). But I am also curious if the effort of the largely "behind the scenes" membership that puts in genuine and needed good work to support that stuff is large enough.

 

No need to apologize. Our community is definitely stratified. There's a core that give freely of their time and talent - both with and without formal recognition - performing services, giving advice, and helping other members. These are the community members that define the best that WAMAS has to offer and are the glue that binds us together. There are those that, quite honestly, use WAMAS mostly as a pass to an exclusive garage sale - everybody pretty much can figure who they are pretty quickly. And, of course, there are the lurkers who read but, for the most part, don't post for whatever reason, but sometimes come out once they find this is a pretty nice place to be.