NAR is using "bundling" like a cable company does with internet, TV and phone and charges you more for the individual components so your only viable options are nothing, internet only, or a full bundle. NAR negates the unbundling choice these days.

My solution would be to increase the size of the market so more people are willing and able to pay a bundle price, as well as having a "crippled" membership as a teaser rate for newbies or BAR's.

It would also be great if an achievement like HPR1 or HPR2 is a lifetime badge that does not expire with the membership itself since it is being used for MARKET ACCESS. Conflict of interest.

I stopped complaining about prices themselves since inflation is forceably caused by government policies and having a product available at some price is better than not being available at any price. I cite as an example the Estes G motor for $27. We sold them for $10-12 for decades, but Estes needs to charge $27 to get them into their particular distribution channel. Fine. That means I can go into a Hobby Lobby or Fry's or whatever and grab one if I want. That is valuable.

Also NAR is missing the boat on an "altruistic membership", where the buyer gets essentially nothing, but supports the cause.

Jerry

"If you can't keep your organization solvent, you won't be supporting anybody's mission." - John Worth, AMA Executive Director

http://www.modelaircraft.org/news/johnworth.aspx

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A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But high above the quiet streets on the 12th floor of the Acme Building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions. Guy Noir, Private Eye.

Fox Valley Rocketeers: http://www.foxvalleyrocketeers.org

Contest coverage? In Sport Rocketry? Really? Other than a yearly NARAM article, there is almost no contest-type content in Sport Rocketry.

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

Just Jerry

A little less anal retentive and a bit more forward leaning.
- Jerry Irvine

Sheesh, the $62 YEARLY cost of NAR membership is less than one MONTH of combined cable TV/Internet. I don't see what you folks are complaining about, I really don't.

Support the NAR. It's good for the hobby, it's good for you if you're in the hobby, and it's a drop in the bucket compared to your other bills.

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Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

I dunno about how you and your family does its finances, but we have a budget...

Hobby and recreational type stuff (unless it's a family vacation or something) comes out of our individual "sock drawer money" that we each individually have for our hobbies or interests... we can save it up for big ticket items, or dole it out little by little for various activities or materials... I made a big purchase of Estes kits on the big sale (mostly for parts) and another from Semroc to get a bunch of building materials and a kit I wanted. That's going to cap my spending on the "space program" for quite awhile...

When you spend between $180-$250 bucks a year on rocketry, $62 bucks is just too much of that hobby budget to spend on one deal, and one for which most of that money is spent on stuff I DON'T need... sorry but just not happening.

For some folks that's chickenfeed-- I get it. For some folks, its NOT... There's HPR guys who are members of BOTH orgs and love it... good for them... they also don't blink an eye dropping several hundred bucks on a single motor and maybe several thousand on a single rocket, in some cases... again, good for them... BUT *I* ain't one of them... (personally, even if I *did* have that kind of money, I'd spend it on other things, but that's just me).

It doesn't matter if that's only 2/3 of the satellite TV bill-- that's totally beside the point... in our budget, the satellite bill, along with phone and internet bills, is part of the house expenses... totally different line item... LOL

"The Emperor" doesn't like it when I come in asking for more "appropriations" for the "space program"... LOL

Later! OL JR

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Which may be one reason why I have internet only.

__________________
Bernard J. Herman Ohio RLS

Starport Sagitta Rockets
email bherman@sagittarockets.com

NAR # 97971 SR

What's your idea on the best way to change Washington D.C.?
Let us know at the Cantina
Sagitta Cantina

We're looking for a few good Catos, please tell us about any you may have had. Survey of Anecdotal Malfunctioning Engines or S.A.M.E.

My concern is NAR membership is "only" about 5700 worldwide. There are far more people collecting foil into balls than being a member of NAR. Thank goodness for Estes there is no requirement to be a NAR member for market access. This gives them access to hundreds of thousands of users of potentially millions.

In HPR with its market access model the entire market is 3500 worldwide. By simply unlinking an active club membership to market access it could double quite quickly and go exponential for a while within a couple of years.

That would incidentially increase NAR membership to a degree. Right now it is stagnant for the most part since the bump it got from TARC.

Can you cite your source for this? I know how to find out how many NAR members there are. Do the foil ball collectors have a website?



Here are accurate numbers from Ted's last Electronic Rocketeer:

NAR membership: 5704

Since last year: +33

Since last month: +36

NAR membership remains near its all-time high, up over 600 members in the last 3 years

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Bill Spadafora
http://www.billsplumbing.com
billspad@comcast.net bill@billsplumbing.com

By comparison, seems I recall seeing one time that the Barbie Doll Fan Club had something like 40,000 members....

Being a long-time NAR member I have been gladened the past few years to see membership numbers back up to 1970 all-time highs.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970