Iota
regular
Reged: 03/10/2002
Posts: 698
Loc: Devon
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I unfortunately will be travelling when the conference takes place. I was an RYA member for many years but did not renew a few years ago. My perception was that the RYA had a committee structure that meant that the average cruising yachtsman could not input easily to the organisation, end preamble. !!!
1. What is the RYA going to do about the unwieldy committee structure?
2. How is the RYA going to make itself more responsive to members?
3. What is the RYA going to do to attract disaffected members back?
4. Will the old attitude / culture of 'you should be a member of the RYA as a duty ' disappear?
5. Will the cruising fraternity both motor & sail have greater visibility.
My 2 cents worth.
Thanks in advance
Iota
Courtesy is an iota but makes the world go roundEdited by kimhollamby on 14/01/2003 16:11 (server time).
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**DONOTDELETE**
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Our work in 2002 with McKinsey and co. have led us to reduce both the number and size of the committees.
With the exception of the RYA Council where the majority of members are elected,
other committees will comprise af approximately six people who will be experts in their area and be chosen primarily for their competence.So as to facilitate good
communication with other associations and interested parties, a large number of
corresponding members will be encouraged.They will have the facility to put issues on the agenda for debate and attend as necessary.
One advantage of having a large number of volunteers serving on committees is that they act as the eyes and ears of the Association.Given that this number will reduce, we will be making an extra effort using face to face forums and IT to garner opinions.You should be aware that we get thousands of emails and telephone from our members every week. So we are in touch even though every policy we espouse doesn't light everyones' fire.
Last year, 2002, we recruited more members than ever before. There are currently about 98000 people in membership.We have also just returned from our best boat show ever in membership terms.
Of course we want to reduce the dropout rate, we conduct an exit survey of non- renewals and review our strategies and benefits in light of their input. The reason for people joining is varied, many people do join because they think "we are a worthwhile cause" and fight to protect the freedom of navigation and yachtsmans rights. Others because of one or more of the benefits package. It would be arrogant of us to decide, on their behalf, the main reasons for a persons
subscription. At the end of the day it is their choice and there has been a steady rise in membership over the last 30 years...so we must be doing something right!
On the question of more visibility for cruising [motor and sail].We have increased the number of pages in the magazine, created a section in the website, and held regular well attended cruising seminars.
The majority of people on council are active cruising sailors, as I am.Specifically, what else do you think we should be doing to create more visibility.
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Twister_Ken
regular
Reged: 31/05/2001
Posts: 14636
Loc: k, stock & barrel.
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>Specifically, what else do you think we should be doing to create more visibility.<
How about RYA rallies?
RYA-sponsored boat swap schemes - like Solent sailors swapping with Cork or Clyde sailors.
RYA cruising guides
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**DONOTDELETE**
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Good idea.
We are actually planning our first (pilot) sailing cruise in company, which aims to encourage people to widen their horizons and improve their cruising confidence in July this year.
We already run a well supported motor cruise in company.
We like the idea of the boat swap schemes and will discuss it further.
Cruising guides - we do produce two foreign cruising books (together with the Cruising Association). But actually the CYCC member clubs produce excellent guides, pilot books etc and we wouldn't want to compete with them.
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zefender
regular
Reged: 09/07/2001
Posts: 1684
Loc: quacious
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Given that there are an awful lot more boats (of all types) on the water than 30 years ago, do you think membership has kept up or fallen behind this growth? Surely membership penetration against all participants is the better measure?
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**DONOTDELETE**
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Good point.
Unfortunately the stats aren't that good in this area...we had approx 30000 members in 1970 and now have 98000...I suspect we have marginally increased our "market share."
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Twister_Ken
regular
Reged: 31/05/2001
Posts: 14636
Loc: k, stock & barrel.
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Is that 98,000 individual members, or does it include those who are members by virtue of being in affiliated clubs?
And have you any breakdown between various types of memebers, eg,
Dinghy cruising
Dinghy Racing
Keel Boat Cruising
Keel Boat Racing
Motor Cruising
Motor racing
Windsurfers
Jet Skis
Inland waterways
Lake sailors,
etc
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**DONOTDELETE**
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The 98,000 are personal and named family members of the RYA. You can expect that many will also be members of affiliated clubs (which number some 350,000 members between them). To clear up a frequent source of confusion, members of affiliated clubs who have not also taken out RYA personal membership are NOT members of the RYA and we don't include them in our membership figures.
We do now ask personal members for their main boating interests, so we can break down the overall interests of our membership fairly accurately. It's not a perfect picture, though, as some longer-standing members were never asked for their interests when they joined and haven't responded to invitations to tell us since. I'll arrange for the latest breakdowns to be pulled off our database and posted later.
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zefender
regular
Reged: 09/07/2001
Posts: 1684
Loc: quacious
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Yes but...
SInce 1970, the RYA has opened its doors to Windsurfers and PWCs. As it now wishes to speak for all non-commercial boating, I'd doubt very much if it is really as representative as it was 30 years ago. Also, I'm not convinced membership is a very good indicator of member affinity/satisfaction. People remain members for all sorts of reasons - inertia being a major one. I'm not convinced that just because people aren't (yet) voting with their feet, is an indicator of RYA service performance to its members.
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kds
regular
Reged: 21/11/2002
Posts: 1478
Loc: Somerset
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Zefender - you do seem very negative - you ask for membership details and when the response looks pretty good, you deny that they have value. Would anything have satisfied you ?
I do feel it is sad that so many of us are negative about the RYA. It is a bit like those members of sailing clubs that always moan, no matter what the committee tries to do - but never go on the committee.
Isn't the Sea for Sailing - and isn't it just an indulgence for most of us ? I am most appreciative of people who are prepared to spend their time and effort trying to preserve that.
Check out some pictures of my boat at;
http://www.canongrange.co.uk/boat
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