P3D Re: Stereo Clubs

[Tom Martin <tlmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all. I am sorry for the late response. Not wanting any sympathy
(well, maybe a little) between jury duty, a new project that we are
starting at my day job, a video teleconference series that I am
consulting on, both of my daughters' having school concerts, a NSA
regional newsletter to put out, meetings with my builder on a house that
we are constructing, and a few other activities, this has been a very
busy week for me. 

Anyway, to answer George's question:

>I would still like to know if these regional meetings are
>financed in any way by NSA...

The meetings are official meetings of the NSA. We ask for donations from
those attending to help pay expenses. If we come up short, the NSA
reimburses us. Any amounts we collect over our expenses are sent to the
NSA General Fund. It usually averages out over the year.

I believe the point that you are trying to make is that a well organized
club, with members who are enthusiastic about its activities will make
any club work. Specifically, there are a lot of people around the
country who are interested in stereo photography and are looking to join
other people with a common interest.

My perspective is that there are three kinds of people in all groups:
members, active members, and contributing members. Regular members are
people who are interested in the activities of the group, perhaps in a
newsletter or magazine that the groups produces (like Stereo World in
the NSA), and that is the limit of their involvement. An active member
is someone who is interested in the activities of a group and will
attend regular meetings or activities. They participate through
attendance, but do not contribute to the organization of operation of
the group. Then there are contributing members. They are they people who
have enough interest in a particular group to do what it takes to make
the group work.

What I have found is that it is difficult to find large numbers of
contributing members to start and maintain a group or club. Many people
have interest, but are not willing to make the commitment of being a
contributing member. And that's O.K., as long as you have enough core
people who will get the club going and keep it going. Just remember
those original contributing members are going to develop other
interests, have different life activities occur, or just burn out. The
longevity of the club will be determined by how many of the
noncontributing members can be change into contributing members when
they are needed.

This thread has been very interesting, especially when we have seen that
even the long established groups can have the same problems with finding
contributing members as some new groups have. I think it is just the
reality of life. George mentions how many groups he belongs to. I have
to assume that he is not a contributing member to all of them on a
continuing basis. I am not a contributing member to all of the groups
that I belong to. Nothing wrong with that, just reality.

Without boring the list to tears on how some hypothetical club should be
run, my advice would be if you would like to start a club, do it. See
what happens. If you are lucky enough to find enough people who are
willing to commit to the group, you will have a fun club. If there just
isn’t enough interest to sustain the group, then at least you tried and
hopefully meet some interesting people. Maybe even some new friends. I
know that I have.

Tom Martin
NSA UMR Director
mailto:tlmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


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