Class Politics Class dues

pez

Member
Are class dues to be paid by the sailor or by the boat? I have two boats, and for the good of the class I wish to keep current. I dont participate in any district or other ILCA events.

Also, I noticed a boat last summer that had an ILCA membership sticker (was far out of date). I am curious if those are provided with membership, or if I have to purchase them. My interest is such that when others see my boat I might be able to tell them about why they should keep current with the class etc.

Also, I do appreciate the ability to opt out of sharing my name with other advertisers, however frankly I question the practice of ever sharing such information with advertisers. One of the greatest aspects of laser sailing to me is that it's fun on the water without burning gasoline or oil; a green alternative to jet ski's or beer swilling pontoon cruisers. I find that the class' desire to sell mailing lists of it's members to advertisers such that those advertisers in turn can kill trees on our behalf to be discouraging.
 
Not sure in the states, but in the UK its personal membership, not per boat. The stickers come with your membership card etc and you do not have to pay for them. If you change boat through the year you can get a new sticker for that boat if you want one.
 
Pez, class membership is for the person, not the boat. I haven't ever gotten an ILCA sticker with my membership card, so NA must not be doing that right now. Maybe you should contact the office on the advertising issue.
 
I think its important for me to point out that The Laser Forum and our sister sites are independent of the class and your forum membership information and email address will not be sold or distributed to third parties in any way.
 
They quit doing the transom stickers a few years ago. Membership is by the person.

Selling mailing lists is just a quick way to generate income. I'm still trying to figure out how I got on the list for Playboy Magazine, (so is my wife, DOH!).
 
k... thanks for the responses... not looking for concrete info here, and I understand that TLF is not affiliated with the class in any official capacity... just thought it was an interesting topic...
 
Alan Broadribb ( NA CLass secretary in the 7000 class member seventies and again from 1992 until 1999 had a policy which I totally support for all small sailboat class organizations.

He provided mailing lists to anybody who he honestly believed was sending information to our sailors that our sailors would be happy to receive.

The conditions to receive a mailing list were simple.
1. You had to ask for a list
2. You could only use ot for the ONE TIME use you described whan asking for that list.

NO ONE abused the system because the most up to date lists are theh most profitable to use and a list was always mailed within a day opr two when anyone asked for a list.

( with Email our paid staff could provide same day delivery in most cases and we could require the labels be printed by the users in a specific format so the delivered information would be easily identified as coming from the NA Class)

No one abused the system because people who serve the world of small boat sailing are almost exclusively doing it more for love than money. (There are muich better ways for greedy slimebags to make money so they don't waste time on Laser sailors)

Allan provided lists to folks like APS, Layline, Pearson, Sunfish /Laser, regatta hosts, fleet secretaries, district secretaries, and as I wrote above...

anyone who Allan believed would put something Laser sailors wanted to find in their mailboxes in those mailboxes.

I believe Allan was 100% correct in his use of the mailing labels he used to print and mail at class expense..but only for for those who passed his personal filter process.

He knew very well who was right and wrong for our free labels. Anyone qualified to be Class secretary can make decisions like that in his / her sleep.

In fact, back when the Class supplied the actual mailing labels, the sailors easily recognized the labels, which came complete with the membership expiration date on the label. When a sailor opened his mailbox and found an APS catalog, that sailor knew the Laser Class ahd helped put it there.

If I have already overstated the explanation I apologize but..

The concept was part of Allan's overall view that the Class job is first and foremost to gather and disseminate information. The more Lasering information the class puts in potential sailors hands, the more people will be able to decide to come play with us.
 
Gouvernail:

I'm just of the opinion that in these days of the Internet and such we have as much information as a semi-targeted catalog could provide me. eg. I have learned more from scrothfiberglass about lasers than I have from LaserSailor...

Just thought it odd...
 
I hope you didn't think I was disagreeing wth anybody...

I was just communicating my impression of a "good use" system for using our mailing lists.

The Broadribb theory ( to which I subscibe myself) was "sailors need to know things like where to find parts, where to sail, who else wants them to sail; and" ...well I am not really sure there is an "and" here..

He wasn't sending our contact lists to credit card companies, Land's End, or anybody whose use of the list was not, in his opinion, likely to cause a Laser sailor to smile when the resulting mail was found in his/ her mailbox.

Yes, it includes the assumption Laser sailors would like to receive catalogs from APS, Layline, KO Sailing or similar compaines.
In my three years as "controller of the mailing lists" I had only one sailor ask to never have his contact info sent out and no complaints from anybody else.

I don't like junk mail or spam either so I suppose my filteering system was adequate to make sailors happy with what they receievd ..
or at least not sufficiently pissed off to complain.


I believe, like this forum, anything that makes sailors think about lasers will generally help put more boats on the starting lines.

I trust teh folks who manage our email list to understand, "we do not want you to ever consider selling our privacy for money."

There are lots of other much more acceptable ways to get money if the class needs more dough.
 
My own opinion about selling mailing lists (not related to what US Class might or might not do) is that I am less concerned about my postal address being given out that my e-mail address. When somebody posts you something they have to pay for the printing, materials, postage costs, etc. and thus they will try to be more targetted as mail going straight in teh bin is a waste of money (and profit) by teh sending company. These costs act as something of a restraing against abuse. However, giving out an e-mail address can quickly be a disaster. More SPAM = more missed e-mails (SPAM filtering is not always great) and depending on how you get your mail, changing e-mail address is at best a real pain. Spammers share e-mail addresses they capture so once out your address will quickly be circulated. As the spammers can send e-mail at virtually zero cost there is no benefits from them being targetted and the send everything everywhere does not affect them - so there is no natural restraint.

Ian
 

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