OSWCC is on the brink of destruction!!!
Posted by: Bill Cable 06.28.06 12:01am
I hate to post something dealing with internal Ohio club business here, but honestly... I think if I do I'll get a lot more OSWCC members who actually read it than if I posted it in the OSWCC forums. I started a thread there on this critical issue... it has 24 replies but only 243 views. That means that there's only about 10 people actually reading it. And that's not an effective way for me to spread my message. Since I have this bully pulpit, I'm gonna use the hell out of it. So here we go...

OK... I have a confession to make. I ruined OSWCC. I joined OSWCC after moving to Ohio in '97. It was a nice little club. There were meetings. We hung out. Traded toys. Sent E-mails out discussing toys and sightings. It was fantastic.

Then I had a bright idea. As good as OSWCC was, I thought it could be better if it got more organized. So I proposed forming a club "Senate," with regional governors and an Emperor. Knowing most of the activities were financed by a few generous members, I thought it would be best if all members shared the load. So I proposed collecting dues. It was nothing... a pittance... $5 a year. When I made these proposals, the members liked the idea... and one guy thought we should take it even further... write up a charter and by-laws and apply for official non-profit org status with Ohio.

I was really proud of myself. This was great stuff... stuff that'd keep OSWCC going strong for years if not decades. All of this went up for a vote and passed. And I knew OSWCC was on its way to even greater glory.

I was dead wrong.

We lost more than 2/3 of our members. The guys who were pushing these changes were the guys most active in the club... the guys who would gladly fork over lots of money and uncountable hours to keep it going. We thought it was such a strong, tight group. And what we were asking was nothing to anybody who wastes money on Star Wars toys.

But that just wasn't the case. 2/3 of our members loved OSWCC when it was free. But it wasn't even worth 42 cents a month to them. I guess in the end, they could get everything they wanted from the group somewhere else for free. OSWCC was a convenience. In addition, recruitment was impossible. You try walking up to a guy at Toys R Us and saying: "We have this great club of Ohio collectors. You should check is out. It's only $5 a year!" Then watch how fast they walk away.

The club suffered badly during this transition... so much so that we established a free trial membership to attract members. That evolved into a free permanent membership, since nobody ever enforced the end of the trial period. Some of those guys even decided to start paying dues after a while. So we had de facto voluntary dues. It wasn't an ideal situation, but it worked pretty well. And membership has grown back to over 200 members. And it's a healthy, thriving club.

Well, for the most part. The other element of my proposed improvements backfired as well. What was once a very free-spirited, light-hearted club is now mired in red tape and all sorts of political infighting. The place has more grudges than... uh... the kind of place that has a whole bunch of grudges. Bah... I don't want to badmouth the place so I'll leave it at that. Especially since I'm to blame for it all. And that's not why I'm writing this.

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." So said some wise person once... I'm too lazy to look it up. OSWCC is in the midst of forgetting history. Right now they're voting on whether or not to eliminate the "free, permanent membership" and "voluntary dues" I mentioned earlier. And they're using the same, exact reasoning I used. "Everyone should share the burden." "This is a strong, tight-knit group." "Anybody who actually cares about the club will pay this, and we don't need anybody who doesn't care enough." These arguments are all being made by the most vocal, active members of the club. They themselves are dedicated, so they incorrectly project that dedication to the rest of the group.

When I made my proposals, I had no idea how they'd impact the club. I thought I did. I thought it would be great. It was the 2nd-largest collecting club in the whole world at the time. We were awesome! I was wrong. But I couldn't have known any better.

The guys voting now should know better! They went through the same crap I went through! What's different now? I'll tell you what's different - nothing. And you're all lining yourselves up for the same exact outcome.

I saw this club screwed up once, and I'd prefer not to see it screwed up again. Even though I'm in Pennsylvania now, I'm still a proud and concerned member of OSWCC. I've learned from my mistakes. And I hope the people who vote on Issue 3 will learn from my story. It's tough to lead in this vote, given that there are two different choices on the ballot that retain free membership and voluntary dues. I've read them (completely), and I'm urging everybody to vote for Option D on Issue 3. We must unite, and not split the vote among two options. Ignore B, Vote D! That's the one that doesn't limit anybody's participation in the forum... treats free members with the same respect as dues-paying members. The respect they deserve. Because every member of OSWCC started out with no dues... and chose to pay them of their own free will. That's a tradition that should continue. It's built a strong club from the ashes of my mistake. Let's not send it back to ashes.

Vote D on Issue 3!