MEMBERHIP DEVELOPMENT
COMMITTEE
Mid Winter, 2000
Membership in USA Water Ski as of November 1999 is at 35,237, an increase of 25.2% over the previous year.� Membership by region is as follows:
����������� Mid West��� 10112
����������� West������� �
8939
����������� South������ �
6642
����������� East������� �
5517
����������� South
Central �
4099
California has the largest membership of any state, 5084,
and Florida is second with 3129.�
Statistical Base
The new membership software has been an incredible amount of
work for the staff, but should start paying off soon.� The first real numbers should begin pumping out in January.� This should be help with making more
informed marketing decisions.
We are hoping, too, to be able to get better participant
information.� We need to know skier
participation rates by age and gender and area.�
NSL
At the Nationals meeting in Bakersfield, the board adopted
the membership committee recommendation for a National Ski League committee to
be integrated into the regional, national council system.� The goal for the NSL committee will be to
support the growth of NSL tournaments, transitioning skiers on into the class C
tournaments.� Steve McDermeit and other
headquarter staff were enthusiastic about the proposal.�
Jennifer Calleri is the headquarters staff person in charge
of NSL.� Although a lot of her time was
spent clerically inputting membership data via the new software, Jennifer says
the NSL did quite well this year.� They
held 109 tournaments; 70 of those included wake boarding.� She estimated an average of 30 people per
tournament.� This coming season, Mike
Siepel has committed to operate clinics in conjunction with many of the NSL
tournaments and WOW is going to lend its considerable support to NSL.
Overall Growth
Strategy
During the Nationals, Rob Shirley (formerly of Master Craft
and now head of Infinity) and Dave Clark discussed their belief that we are
limiting our influence and ultimately our ability to grow the competitive
aspect of water skiing because we concentrate on competitive water skiing.�
Shirley says if there are 2 million water skiers in the US,
then there should be 200,000 members in USA Water Ski.� He used the American Motorcycle Association
as an example.� Very few people actually
race and many years ago, that was the only reason anyone joined AMA.� AMA changed their focus and now several
hundred thousand motorcycle riders are members of AMA.� Members include occasional riders, road
riders, and racers.� He suggested we
talk with the head of AMA for a more in depth description of what they did and
what the effects have been.�
Dave Clark has talked about the concept of taking the word
�competitive� out of our mission statement.�
When Dave did his membership development study several years ago he
pointed out a couple of huge, successful organizations that he felt differed
from us in that one fundamental way.�
Fishermen, for example, may only fish once or twice a year, but a high
percentage of them still belong to an organization.� And they make sure they tell the world they are fishermen by
displaying their logo on their vehicles.�
The AMA is another example of the same idea of being identified with a
sport without being involved to the high degree of most AWSA members.
The difference Dave points out is that our mission, according
to our bylaws, is to support �competitive� water skiing.� He believes taking the word �competitive�
out of that statement would open our focus to greatly increase membership and
consequently increase 3-event skiing.�
Dave says he proposed this to the board in the past and was
run out of town.� USA Water Ski and AWSA
may be able to handle the problem.�
USAWS could concentrate on being all to anyone who ever plays behind a
boat while the individual sport groups emphasize the competitive aspects of
their disciplines.
The membership committee needs input on this issue.
Collegiate Skier
Drop Out Rate
Another great area of concern over the past several years is
the attrition of collegiate skiers following their graduations.� During the Collegiate Nationals in
Sacramento, several of the coaches said the number one dilemma is lack of water
resource for the athletes following graduation.� This is a tough one, but perhaps the redirection committee can
incorporate this need into the goals for the Water Resources Committee.�
Miscellaneous
Tournament operation is another peripheral area of interest
to the membership development committee.�
It could be helpful to have clinics and communications for tournament
chairmen.� Tournament experiences vary a
lot from one region to another.�
Tournament chairmen�s practices and abilities vary.� Chairmen in one area of the country have
little way to know what other areas are doing, what has worked, what has not,
what limits they have and do not have.�
Some tournaments run efficiently, some do not.� Some have awards, media, and pizzazz, others do not.� Some are participant friendly, some are
not.�� While Florida�s �Grand Prix� was
having great success with a �performance based� running order, a tournament
director in another part of the country thought AWSA would not allow variation
in format.
Headquarters continues to refer to the membership
committee�s �platform� developed for during the �98 season.� The principles of that platform are as
follows:
1. A
good statistical base
2. A
think tank and network of people and organizations invested in the issue
3. An
action group of people and organizations invested in the issue
4. Solid
membership services and benefits
5. An
organization structure dedicated to enhancing entry level competition as well
as continuing to refine upper levels.
We appreciate Steve McDermeit�s and the headquarters staff�s
orientation, dedication, and efforts toward increasing and enhancing
membership.�
The membership statistics are due in January.� The committee will provide a more in depth
view at the summer meeting.� In the
meantime, give us as much input as you can.