Hi Drew, thanks for being a TLCA member!
We don't have events that people want to attend? If so, then what events should we do that we aren't already?
Which issue of Toyota Trails hasn't been covering events?
We don't have enough event coverage on the web site?
People join TLCA for a lot of tangible reasons other than events.
Did you know that 3/4 of TLCA membership are not members of chapters?
Did you know that 3/4 of TLCA members do not participate in events, and most of those never will?
Did you know that some people join TLCA for their discount on parts from their participating Toyota Dealers?
Did you know that a large fraction of TLCA members join because they really like Toyota Trails, but will never wheel their Toyota 4x4?
In the big picture, events are very important, but they are not the most important thing for the majority of TLCA members. Can we change that? Of course.
In the real world, event income for TLCA has historically a very small fraction of TLCA revenue. Let us use Cruise Moab as an example. I have been on the committee for many years, and we are hugely successful from both a participant experience standpoint (most important in my view) and from a revenue standpoint. Cruise Moab typically has around a $30k budget each year. Out of that, we might clear $5-10k. TLCA gets 10%. That's $500-$1000 to TLCA. The rest gets donated to land use, and some is reinvested in the next year's event.
Best case, TLCA might have 6-10 events per year. Most events aren't as finacially successful as Cruise Moab, but let's play with numbers. If we had 10 events that netted $1000 to TLCA, that's $10,000 out of $250,000 budget. Nothing to sneeze at, but still only a small fraction of our revenue.
That's the math.
Jim's done a hell of a job, and has always been a huge TLCA supporter. But look above and do the math.
I can not disagree with you more on this point.
One can have tech questions answered by web wheelers and armchair amateurs with no screening or professional qualifications, or they can ask the pros at TLCA. On the free web, you might get the right answer, or you might get a completely wrong answer.
T4WDO is for a different demographic. The Peterson's type kiddie crowd. You want a bunch of fluff and hype, if that's your cup of tea, have at it. TLCA has always been for a more savvy audience.
No doubt, OJ is a nice non-Toyota specific magazine, and appeals to yet another segment of our demographic.
No doubt, Woody has created a nice community here and he has always been a huge TLCA supporter. At TLCA, we are not interested in competing, but we exist side by side with IH8mud and help each other out. Drew, I don't know if you were a Land Cruiser enthusiast and online back in the 1990s when when Woody was a frequent contributor to the Land Cruiser Mailing List and forums didn't exist yet. That was the internet age, and the archives were easily searchable...
As I mentioned above, we have a diverse membership in TLCA. The majority of TLCA members agree that our dead-tree publication, Toyota Trails, is enough to keep them. For those that don't, we have been offering member's-only content online, as well as the entire publication online.
Web sites are quite dynamic. When was the last time you went there? You might find a lot of changes we have implemented over the last couple months.
Thanks for being a TLCA member, and happy cruisin!
