EARLY FORD V-8 CLUB 2021 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE RESULTS By President John Caldwell
experienced in 2020. It is a fact our Club is facing the dilemma of a declining membership due to its aging member demographics. Moreover, our Club’s 2020 end-of-year membership was negatively impacted by the Covid pandemic as well as a Christmas season where massive USPS mail delays created havoc in our renewal process. Last year ended with a loss in membership of 426 persons, or 5.6 percent, equaling 7,062 members. With a goal of offsetting these impacts, it is favorable to report the Drive resulted in a gain of 81 new or returning members to the Club over the 3-month contest (renewals were not considered as new or returning members). As of September 30, 2021, third quarter membership results show that the Club’s yearly membership has grown compared to last year, with a net gain of 67 members or a membership total of 7,129. In summary, although overall membership is a moving target given constant renewals and expirations and we have not yet reached yearend, the drive posted 81 new or renewed members who had previously dropped out of the Club.
Director Rick Claybaugh and President Caldwell present commendation to RG 115 Dallas President Jim White representing the Large sized classification.
The Club’s first V-8 Membership Drive, in recent memory, concluded with positive results to the national Club as well as the nineteen regional groups who participated. As year 2021 began, the Board realized fresh, new activities were needed to spark interest among Regional Groups who felt stymied climbing out of a pandemic year where no meets and few gatherings happened. In addition to a “virtual” 2021 car show, the Board decided to introduce a challenge to RGs by initiating a 2021 Membership Drive to spur some competition as well as potentially earn some monies for their local treasuries. The drive, held from May 1st through July 1st, brought positive results in several ways. First, the 2021 Drive enabled the Club to remain stable, with respect to its overall membership count, without a significant erosion in membership as
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Second, a positive and unanticipated benefit was that the Drive provided an opportunity for participating RGs to analyze and update their rosters with accurate data provided by Cornerstone, our registration company. It was surprising to learn that RGs had national members they were unaware of, clerical errors in misspelled names and addresses, deceased members still listed as active and a discovery that many members were not national members. All participating regions reported that obtaining corrected and validated rosters was a positive benefit. Third, as outlined in the Drive rules, winners in 3 categories were to earn $1,000 prizes each for their treasuries. Each of the three winners were determined by size of the Regional Group measured by the resulting percentage of growth. The categories were: small RGs (1-19 members) medium RGs (20-50 members) and larger RGs (51+ members). A total of 19 RGs chose to participate in the 2021 Drive. Drive results were as follows: Large RG: Dallas Ear ly For d V-8 Club - RG 115, led by President Jim White and membership drive leader Les Kelton. Les lead the increase in the RGs overall national membership by adding 16 additions to their roster. This resulted in a 35%-member
V-8 TIMES MAGAZINE
