Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!willett!ForthNet
From: ForthNet@willett.UUCP (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Category 1,  Topic 2
Message-ID: <226.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jan 90 03:10:45 GMT
Organization: Latest Link in ForthNet Chain
Lines: 29

Message 20        Sun Jan 07, 1990
D.RUFFER [Dennis]            at 20:43 EST
 
I appreaciate your comments Frank, and anyone else who is willing to speak out
instead of just dropping out.  We are trying to stay the decline as best we
can, but we sincerely need your feedback to help guide our efforts.

Looking strictly at the numbers, I too was convinced that raising the
membership fee caused the decline in membership.  I'm sure it was a factor,
however, it was not the only cause.  Our membership peaked in 1984, but at $15
we were loosing money on every subscription.  We raised the rates to $20 in
1985 and lost 9% of our members and another 15% in 1986.  We were still not
breaking even on subscriptions so we raised the rates again to $30 in 1987 and
that drove another 30% of you away.  Since then, we have been just about
holding our own, but with only 1/2 the members we had in 1984.

These numbers show a reason (the higher rates) for the declining membership,
but they don't show the whole story.  We also have a declining industry in
about the same time frames being reported by each of the vendors.  I also have
to admit to other internal problems that have contributed to the fall, and I
am not convinced that all of those problems have been resolved.  However, this
is history and we can only change what we will do in the future.  All of your
input is indespensible for us to identify the problems inherited from the past
and correct our course into the future.

Thank you for the input.   DaR
-----
This message came from GEnie via willett through a semi-automated program.
Report problems to: 'uunet!willett!dwp' or 'willett!dwp@gateway.sei.cmu.edu'