To:NCA Board

From:Steering Committee

Mary Lou Roberts, Chair

Clyde Dunphy

Roger Frey

Chris Plum

Roger Powell

Mary Jane Spackman

Marylou Zimmerman

Date: February 18, 2011

Subject:Resubmission of the “Increase Membership” Goal with Strategies as Requested by the NCA Board

At its fall Face-to-Face meeting in November, 2010, the Steering Committee submitted a revised version of its “Increase Membership” goal (see attached). The NCA Board was receptive, but asked that the Steering Committee come back to the Board with its thinking and recommendations on two issues: 1) Creation of a tiered-membership (Associate Membership) that would allow for different levels of voting capability; and 2) Suggested strategies for implementing an initiative to increase membership.

This document reflects the committee’s work on these two topics.

Although it has been stated several times, it is important to note and keep in mind the following two precepts of the Increase Membership goal:

  1. There is no effort or objective here to increase the ranks of the NCA by numbers alone. The goal seeks to bring into the NCA members who have evidenced a strong interest in and/or commitment to the Newfoundland breed.
  2. New NCA members are expected to be drawn primarily from the following three communities:
  3. Previous NCA members who, for any of a variety of reasons, have allowed their membership to lapse.
  4. Regional Club members who are not NCA members but who have demonstrated an interest in the breed, especially those who have shown leadership and willingness to volunteer their time and efforts.
  5. Second- or third-time Newfoundland puppy buyers or well established dog owners who are recommended by long-time NCA members.

Steering Committee Recommendation on a Tiered Membership

The Steering Committee discussed this topic at length and, in the end, voted unanimously to recommend that the NCA not create a tiered membership for the following reasons:

  1. If the purpose of a “path” leading from Associate Member to Full Member that is based on time (e.g., someone must be an Associate Member for five years before applying to be a full member) is time to gain knowledge of the Stardard and the workings of the NCA, this objective will by no means necessarily be achieved. Many[cp1] people who are long-time members of the NCA are not knowledgeable about the Standard, and many who are only short-time members are knowledgeable. The amount of time that one is a member is not tied to one’s knowledge of the breed or the standard.
  2. Some have said that the addition of an Associate Membership category will allow the NCA to be more inclusive. However, right now the NCA is about as inclusive as any club could be, accepting nearly everyone who applies. In fact, a new category of membership would create exclusivity, at least from the status of full membership.
  3. Establishing a new category of membership that would allow, for example, an Associate Member to advance to a Full Member after some period of time (or other criteria) would create an administrative nightmare, forcing time-consuming issues like who is eligible to “move up” and who can vote on what.
  4. Would the NCA ever want someone as an Associate Member that it would not want as a full member? What will be different from turning someone down for full membership after that individual has been an Associate Member? How would those qualifications differ from the criteria that the NCA currently applies for turning someone down? If you do turn Associate Members down when they apply for Full Membership, aren’t we risking being charged with the exclusivity that a tiered membership seeks to correct? And if we do not turn down Associate Members and the path is simply dictated by a time line, what, then, is the real point of the tiered membership?
  5. Asked another way, who would we want as an Associate Member that we would not want as a Full Member? If the Associate Membership is open to absolutely everyone (no NCA Board review at the Associate level), then we are risking allowing anyone to advertise as a “Member of the NCA,”—and they would be correct.
  6. Would Associate Members be allowed to serve on Committees? On the Board? If the answer is yes, again, there is no real difference from the situation that now exists. If the answer is no, we could conceivably suffer some unintended consequences by cutting off a number of otherwise qualified and dedicated volunteers.
  7. One Steering Committee member made the following suggestion about an Associate Membership: “If there were to be such a membership level, this is how it would look to me:
  8. Dues of $50/year
  9. No application signatures; just “subscribe”
  10. Get NewfTide electronically only and it would not include any of the pages on the Board, Committees, etc.
  11. Cannot vote
  12. To join NCA as a regular member with all the rights and privileges, join as is done today.

This approach, of course, “selects” NCA members on their ability and willingness to pay for the benefits of membership, and is not based on a who-can-vote-for-what basis.

One member of the Steering Committee suggested that the real concern that seems to be triggering the entire discussion about a tiered membership is a fear that some people have about who can and who can’t vote on the Standard. While the Steering Committee does not share that concern, one committee member suggest that if that is the real problem we are trying to solve, there are other ways to accomplish this. For example, in its coming revision of the Constitution and By-Laws, the NCA can dictate that, perhaps, only those who have been on the Breeders List for 5 consecutive years can vote on the standard, or only those on the Breeders List and AKC Judges can vote on the Standard, or only those who have bred 10 or more champions can vote on the Standard…and so forth. Alleviating the concern many people seem to have about who can vote on the Standard can be better achieved by coming at it from the other direction rather than creating an unwieldy tiered membership structure that does not directly address the concern.

Please note that the Steering Committee is NOT recommending the approach suggested in the previous paragraph; we are simply mentioning it as an alternative put forth by a member of our committee.

Our sole recommendation regarding Associate Membership is not to implement a tiered-membership strategy.

Suggestions Regarding the Membership Application Process

Note: a few of you have indicated that you find the process itself intimidating and unnecessarily long and drawn out. I don’t see it that way, so I’m having trouble writing this section. If we are going to ask the Board to consider streamlining the process, this is the place to do it (in this document, I mean. It could go here as a separate section of this document, or below as one of the strategies). Can some of you help me with wording for this section[cp2]?

Suggestions for Strategies to Increase NCA Membership

The Steering Committee recommends implementation of the following strategies in order to achieve the “Increase Membership” goal.

  1. Identify through Regional Club listings those regional club members who are not NCA members but who are active and/or long-time members at the regional level. Pull together a group of people who will talk to these members and encourage them to join the NCA.
  2. Have a Regional Club/NCA member available at Fun Days and Membership meetings to talk about the NCA, its programs, the Charitable Trust, and the membership process. For Annual Membership meetings, ask for a five-minute spot on the agenda. For Fun Days, set up a card table with NCA information and some copies of Newf Tide. For both, have membership forms available.
  3. Encourage NCA member breeders—and give them the tools—to inform their puppy buyers about Regional Clubs (first-time buyers) and the NCA (multiple-Newf homes and/or long-time Newf owners).Just as willingness to educate the public is a requirement for appearing on the NCA Breeders List, distributing information about and encouraging membership in Regional Clubs and the NCA should also be a requirement.
  4. Identify from past membership records what people have dropped their NCA membership. In instances where it is not known why the individual dropped, put together a group of people who can contact these individuals and invite them to return.
  5. Make it known that there are some real benefits to NCA membership. These benefits should include: (Note: new benefits that should be implements are starred *)
  6. Receive the NCA Membership roster and the Annual of Titlists
  7. * Have access to “member-only” information on the NCA Web site
  8. * Have access to “member-only” information on the NCA database
  9. Receive awards for titles and accomplishments
  10. * Get priority over non-members for room reservations at the host hotel at National Specialties
  11. * Receive a reduced rate and preferred placement for grooming space at National Specialties
  12. * When NCA working tests require a lottery for entry slots, give priority to NCA members over non-members
  13. At National Specialties, have the ID badge from the registration packet indicate either by color or other special designation whether or not the registrant is an NCA member so that we can identify and talk to non-NCA members to determine their level of interest in the breed and the club.

There are, of course, other member benefits that can be established, but the list above should be a good starting point.

Increase Membership Goal as presented to the NCA Board of Directors by the Steering Committee in November, 2010

NCA Steering Committee Revised Goal – Increase Membership

Last updated October 12, 2010

Introduction:

More than a year ago, the NCA Steering Committee submitted to the NCA Board a recommendation to make increasing NCA membership a goal of the club. At that time, the Board rejected the concept.

The Steering Committee has revisited this objective and continues, more than ever, to believe that an increase in membership will be fundamental to the ability of the club to deliver over time on its purpose of serving and protecting the Newfoundland breed as specified in the NCA Constitution and By-laws. Increasing membership in Regional Clubs should also be addressed.

Our continued commitment to this goal has been reinforced by several recent examples. First, we understand that the committee that is planning the 2011 National Specialty—hosted by the NCA— has had difficulty in staffing some of the major jobs, and that even the members of the Specialty Show Committee have not taken on some of the tasks. When one considers that in the past, regional clubs have seemingly had little difficulty in staffing major tasks, it is a concern that problems should now arise when the entire NCA is available to choose from.

A second and even more important example of how lack of resources is hurting our dogs is in Rescue. While the money keeps coming in at a reliable and predictable rate, human resources continue to dwindle. Three Regional Clubs that had previously been quite active in rescue have now dropped it altogether (two because of resources and one because of concern about liability). And, according to the Rescue Chair, “appropriate foster care is very difficult to find now, i.e. NCA members with appropriate facilities & dog experience.” The Rescue Chair has also stated that “the service that NCA Rescue can provide in the future might be limited to referrals – referring appropriate adopters to current owners and shelters.” It is reasonable to assume that some resources might exist in the form of Regional Club members who do not belong to the NCA.

At the regional level, clubs are also losing long-time members and resources. Within the past several months, New-Pen-Del, for example, has lost two of its active breeders and workers. For many reasons, they will be sorely missed.

Some people have also commented on a decrease in entries at working tests, with the majority of entries that are exhibiting being long-time members. (For example, entrants at a recent water test on the West Coast were all judges.) Certainly there are a few new faces—but not enough to fill the tests in the future. Tests that were full with alternate lists just a few years ago are now not filling. And some tests have even been cancelled for not meeting a minimum entry level, though in a few cases, to avoid having to cancel a test, some long-time working people have agreed to requalify their dogs. In at least one situation this fall, an east-coast draft test had one entrant (a long-time member, but the way). The test may still run because other club members are willing to step in and requalify their dogs, or enter dogs who may not be quite ready.

Other signs of the times indicate changes as our active members age in accordance with the demographics of the entire country. NewfTide now carries an Obituary column—a sad but necessary addition to the magazine.

Resubmission of the “Increase Membership” Goal:

The Steering Committee is unanimous in its belief that this goal is so fundamental to the long-term health of the NCA that we request reconsideration by the NCA Board.

  • While membership in the NCA has recently been stable (a good thing, at least in the sense that people are not cancelling their memberships), our volunteer base has also been static (not a good thing). There is little turnover in leadership. The same people who have been active in leading the club for years (even decades), are, for the most part, the same people who are in leadership roles today. Where will our future leaders come from?
  • Numbers alone are not sufficient to ensure a solid base of future leaders (and followers too). Not-for-profit organizations of all types seem to be noticing a decrease in willingness on the part of younger people to volunteer at the same levels that previous generations did. Several factors indicate that we will not necessarily be able in the future to rely as much on the same level of commitment from a limited number of individuals: an increasing number of two-income families; growing concerns over the economy; apparent lack of interest in breeding, showing, and training pure-bred dogs, and more.

New Member Base:

New members can be sought from several already-vetted sources. The Board should not have any concern that the Steering Committee is recommending sweeping a tide of new members without concern for their knowledge of and commitment to the breed.

We recommend the following as the bases from which to attract new NCA members:

  1. Past NCA members who, for whatever reason, have not renewed their memberships.
  2. Established regional club members who do not belong to the NCA.
  3. Second- or third-time Newfoundland puppy buyers or well established dog owners who are recommended by long-time NCA members.

Strategies:

If and when the Board approves the concept of this strategy, the Steering Committee will be happy to present some tactics which we believe will achieve this goal.

[cp1]“We do not believe that duration of membership on its own guarantees breed knowledge.

[cp2]The process may not be as bad as It seems, but here is an impression:

1. Figure out who the membership secretary is and request an application.

2. Get that after a few weeks

3. Fill out the application and send to one sponsor for signature – another week

4. Get the second signature – another week so it has now been 6-8 weeks from the suggestion “why don’t you join the NCA?”

5. Send in application, which gets published in the next NT – 4 ½ months later (average)

6. About 6 months after publication – a year after the process started, see your name in NT as “welcome new members.”