user_617905
Member
MilSurpDan, SmokeEaterPilot, and myself were able to present your thoughts to the Maryland Arms Collectors Association (MACA) board members.
The board's concerns were on increasing membership, particularly of younger members, while still maintaining an active social environment where members contribute and participate. The purpose of the mandatory meetings was to ensure that the club does not just have members by number, but members which actively participate in the club. They do not want to be a club with thousands of members who are only members for the gun show.
The three of us were meant to represent the younger perspective of the club on these concerns. There were also members who presented their thoughts from the older perspective. We mostly came to the same conclusions and were in agreement on problems and possible solutions.
The following are the main hinderences to new members which were identified during the meeting.
Here are some solutions that the board seemed open to:
Thank you everyone who contributed to the suggestion box thread.
Please feel free to comment with any more ideas/suggestions.
Also feel free to send a PM with any comments/questions, or if you're interested in joining MACA.
The board's concerns were on increasing membership, particularly of younger members, while still maintaining an active social environment where members contribute and participate. The purpose of the mandatory meetings was to ensure that the club does not just have members by number, but members which actively participate in the club. They do not want to be a club with thousands of members who are only members for the gun show.
The three of us were meant to represent the younger perspective of the club on these concerns. There were also members who presented their thoughts from the older perspective. We mostly came to the same conclusions and were in agreement on problems and possible solutions.
The following are the main hinderences to new members which were identified during the meeting.
- Mandatory meetings can be difficult to commit to, especially when they compete with other priorities like work and family.
- The location of the meetings causes MACA's sphere to not be able to extend far beyond central Maryland.
- The time of the meetings causes most people to have to commit all of their evening to attending the meeting when there are also other pursuits that take priority.
- Misunderstanding/misrepresentation of the club's focus. The naming of the Baltimore Antique Arms Show which MACA runs causes many to believe that the club itself is solely focused on antique arms. Given the general treatment of firearms in central Maryland the naming of the show was chosen to be less alarming to outside observers. The club itself welcomes all things collectable arms related. This is not restricted to antiques and C&R items. If it's interesting and has some history it'd be welcome.
Here are some solutions that the board seemed open to:
- Allowing satellite chapters around Maryland.
- Moving the meeting times earlier.
- Moving the meeting times to a different day.
- Introducing varying levels of membership which would have different requirements and associated benefits.
- Implementing means of facilitating remote membership. Examples that were brought up were allowing members to attend meetings via something like Skype, or hosting a forum where members could participate. The main concern was facilitating online participation while not opening members' collections to risk.
- Updating online presence to add more information about the club itself rather than the Baltimore show.
- Increasing online presence. An example given would be to allow the club to be a venue for members to share their items/collections online (e.g. videos or articles) while protecting their identities.
Thank you everyone who contributed to the suggestion box thread.
Please feel free to comment with any more ideas/suggestions.
Also feel free to send a PM with any comments/questions, or if you're interested in joining MACA.
