JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Important Open Discussion for 2006 and Beyond: Please Chime In!

Gypsy,

Hmmm.. membership just passed 38,000. 26,000 people sent a CD in for the awards this year. The last roadtrip this summer had 1000 different artists perform. The website traffic has doubled in the last 6 months. I am not sure what you are referring to that our membership is ebbing or even the participating. The Chapters have been a struggle on various levels for years. It's not related to membership or growth or even participation. It's more of a change in what folks need now that the internet has changed the playing field on nearly every level. People used to go to org. meetings to get info, feedback and network. Now you can do all that on a zillion message boards and websites any time you want. Add to that that people aren't going out to do anything these days. Concert attendance is way down. Movie attendance is way down (only ticket price increases has kept business flat there). Clubs are half empty or worse most of the time. Even major rock stars are losing their butt on tours that used to sell out. Folks are staying home.. surfing the net, watching movies on demand and listening to a zillion free songs on their iPods. Rather than give up, we've tried many approaches. But the #1 issue is always getting people out in person to participate. The Roadtrips never fail to bring out the masses. But I can't be everywhere every year like I used to. So we keep looking for formulas to find out what people want and what would interest them enough to come out in person rather than surfing this message board or waiting for me to come around. I think you got negative responses to your posts because your posts were negative to start with. I wasn't even aware that there were factual problems with your post (which Stu pointed out). And I had already moved past it. But I did point out that the people who are showing up and doing the work would likely be offended by your post and obviously they were.

I have no idea who you are (I actually thought you were a female for some reason but Stu seems to think you're a male). If you have something to add and share.. please do. But you have to realize that if you insult people, especially without giving them a chance to show you otherwise, they are going to be offended.

Brian