Hi to the 3,500 members of the NHLFA.
We want to take this opportunity to update you on what we've been doing
on behalf of the NHLFA recently, to let you know you can now get your
own NHLFA ball cap, and to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Membership Boost – Thanks to all who have encouraged friends and family
to join. The returns from word-of-mouth have been very good. We're at
3,500 members now but we want to increase that significantly. If each of you speak to two NHL-loving friends and encourage them to join the
Association we'll be at 10,000 members and the NHL will be more likely
to listen to us.
As you know, we charge no fee for NHLFA membership. However, Jim and I
cannot continue to fund this organization ourselves. We're looking for
a sponsor, so please let us know if you have any leads. In the interim,
you can support your Association by buying a cool new NHLFA baseball
cap. Available in black or white, with the NHLFA logo embroidered on
the front, these top-quality hats will demonstrate to everyone that you
are a proud member of the NHLFA. Check out the Web site to see the hats and details of purchase (http://www.nhlfa.com/thestore/thestore.asp). We need you to support this effort and our objective is to sell at least 300 hats.
(In case you're wondering, here are some examples of the costs weave
incurred on behalf of the Association: we've issued three news releases this year via a wire service – $700 a pop; our Web page is $90 a month
to maintain, and that excludes development and translation costs. We
now have a post office box (address at bottom of message); and rarely a
month goes by when we do not have Association-related long distance
charges on our phone bills.)
Letter to Bettman – We will be writing another letter to Gary Bettman
requesting a meeting. We want to meet to reinforce those issues which
you, the members, stressed through your answers to the Fan Report poll.
We will certainly let you know if this ever comes to pass. We've also
had discussions with the NHL Players' Association but there's nothing
significant to report.
Special Advisor – We are actively searching out an ex-player or
executive to serve as Special Advisor to the Association. While the
position is largely symbolic, we feel such a person could help open
doors for the Association as well as providing some excellent advice. We are awaiting a response from a high-profile ex-player who we feel would
be great in this role. The catch is, we can't pay him, and with these
guys, that's usually the kiss of death.
Media – The Fan Report poll results were released to media last month,
and we were picked-up by The Hockey News which generated over 1,000 new
members. Feel free to review our media contact list
(http://www.nhlfa.com/media/) and if you are inclined, try to locate the e-mail address of media people in your area who are missing from our list. This will be a great asset (and a significant saving) in providing our news to those media in future.
Finally, if you or anyone you know ever wants to contact us by regular
mail, here's our address:
National Hockey League Fans' Association
Box 70040 – Place Bell RPO
Ottawa, Ont. Canada
K2P 2M3
Bye for now.
Jim Boone
boone@nhlfa.com
Jim Spendlove
spendlove@nhlfa.com
The Jims
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