Hi to all 18,009 members of the NHL Fans' Association and welcome to
those who have recently joined our team.
Without a doubt, this is most difficult members' note we have ever
prepared and distributed.
Since 1998, we have been working very hard at developing an advocacy
association for fans of NHL hockey. We have had tremendous
success on many fronts, including the following achievements:
- attracting over 18,000 people to our group via a Web site
- establishing non-profit status with the Canadian government
- generating media attention for our cause
- meeting people in NHL circles including League officials
- preparing and distributing annual Fan Reports as well as mini-polls
- signing a royalty free license agreement with the NHL for the use of the NHLFA mark and domain name
- organizing an Ottawa NHLFA Chapter
- organizing an arena promotion with the Washington Capitals
- organizing a cross promotion with The Hockey News.
We have had less success in other areas, including the following:
- involving members in NHLFA decision making capacities
- establishing a better Web site that has excellent content and a members' profile self management tool
- securing a corporate sponsor for our Association
- developing additional local NHLFA Chapters
- organizing an NHLFA Advisory Board of current and former hockey professionals as well as NHLFA members.
We attribute the failure of these initiatives to not having enough money to tackle additional programs. To date, we have already contributed far more money and time to the NHLFA than we ever expected. We feel it is critical to undertake new endeavors in order to keep the organization growing and, quite frankly, we cannot afford to do it ourselves. Being at this crossroad leaves us with difficult decisions to make: Do we continue operating the NHLFA on financial fumes? Do we ask members to
pay a small annual fee? Or do we close the NHLFA entirely?
In order to successfully implement the above programs, we have
determined that $6,600 (all figures USD) of seed money is required to
continue the NHLFA.
Before making any rash decisions, we have decided to let our 18,009
members make this crucial decision for us.
We believe a reasonable amount of money you could pay as a membership
fee is $33/year (or approximately $50 CDN per year). We would
divide our existing members into two categories, paying and non-paying.
We would immediately begin referring to all paying hockey fans as
"Members" and refer to all non-paying fans as "Subscribers" of the
NHLFA.
As paying "Members" you would be actively involved with the NHLFA and
help drive the strategic operation of the Association. Members
would participate in regular online NHLFA forums that tackle organizational
issues such as the following:
- suggest and select appropriate Web content/features for Subscribers and Members
- suggest and select the new NHLFA Advisory Board
- suggest and select the NHL players for our annual NHLFA Awards
- assist in the content creation of ALL polls
- suggest and select important, specific issues where NHLFA Members and Subscribers' opinion is required
- suggest how heavily we push specific issues to the media and/or communicate through advertisements
- assist in the development of NHLFA special events including the creation of an annual NHLFA Conference
- assist in the development of NHLFA promotions for existing and prospective NHLFA'ers
- assist in the development of NHLFA local chapters
- assist in the development of NHL arena promotions.
For those of you who do not want or cannot afford to become NHLFA
"Members", we would continue to provide you, as "Subscribers",
monthly updates on our NHLFA activities as well as inviting you to
participate in large and small polls. However, once our Web site is
redeveloped, you will not have access to the "Members" area of the site.
So the long and short of this note is that in one month from now (March
15), if we have not reached $6,600, we will close the NHLFA.
Hopefully, many of you will agree that the NHLFA is worth continuing.
We need 200 of you to become Members in order to continue. The
Membership fee is equivalent to a cheap seat at an NHL game.
If less than 200 people become Members, we'll refund 85% of your $33
fee, allowing us to cover bank and postage costs related to repayment.
Please become an NHLFA Member by visiting this page
http://www.nhlfa.com/thestore/membership.asp for credit payments. We
also welcome cheques and money orders sent to the following address:
Payable to: NHLFA.com
Attn: NHLFA Memberships
56 Glendenning Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K2H 7Y9
Sincerely,
Jim Boone
boone@nhlfa.com
&
Jim Spendlove
spendlove@nhlfa.com
P.S. We have created a discussion forum on the NHLFA Boards for you to
chat with other NHLFA'ers about this proposal. Please feel free to
visit http://www.nhlfa.com/boards.html to communicate with other folks.
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