[Talk] AUUG'S Declining Membership

[Frank Crawford]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 02:39:42PM +0930, david.newall at auug.org.au wrote:
> The recent discussion on AUUG and LUGs prompted me to write this:
> 
> SUMMARY
> 
> How do we reverse declining membership?
> 
>  o Mailing lists should be available to everybody

Unfortunately, mailing lists are only relevan to those who use them, and
every group I belong to has their own.  In reality AUUG was probably too
late to make use of its mailing list so it hasn't really attracted
enough people to be a major force.

>  o Conference CFPs sent to all Asia Pacific universities

Agreed.  The conference is a big drawcard for membership, and for
promoting AUUG.

>  o AUUGN on web, not on paper

Like David, I find the printed copy the most use.  Every organisation
I've seen that tries to have only electronic newsletters have dropped
membership, not increased it.  Of course as an extension to the current
AUUGN it would be good item.

>  o Exec to meet electronically

The cost of management is an issue, although, as David said, it hasn't
worked for AUUG in the past.  However, there are a few other groups it
has seemed to work for (e.g. ISOC-AU), but it is very much dependent on
the styles of the people on the committee.

>  o Can we afford a business manager?

Financially AUUG is hard pressed to afford a business manager, but from
an organisation point of view, AUUG can't afford to not have one.  Of
course if numbers keep dropping then eventually finance will win over
organisation.

As someone who was around on the committee before a permanent business
manager, Liz (and her predecessors) have continued to keep things
running when everyone else is otherwise distracted.  Before them, there
were lots of plans but no action, now there are lots of plans and some
action. :-)


The things that AUUG does well are conferences and AUUGN.  Unarguably,
there are no user group organised conference like our annual conference
and tutorials, but in the current economic climate it is not as much of
a draw card as previously.  I was considering this item the other day.
When I first joined AUUG, people were willing to go to conferences, and
having a number of people going, leaving a skeleton staff in the office
wasn't considered unusual.  Today, even I'm reluctant to let more than
one person out of the office at a time, as multiple attendees will leave
us too exposed.  (And that doesn't mention the financial issues.)

The other item we do well is AUUGN, it is and has been more than a
newsletter, it is supposed to be a journal.  Again, it is seen as amoung
the better ones available.  Again most other groups aspire to produce a
comparable journal (although there are better elsewhere).
Unfortunately, it isn't something that will attract members either.

I'm not sure what will really attract members.  In fact, what group is
attracting members, and how are they doing it.  It is fairly obvious
that the thing that attracts members is not the things AUUG does well.
So offer can we reasonably make to people to join AUUG?

Frank