Chicago Region BMW Motorcycle Owners Assoccrbmw

It was announced yesterday by former BMWMOA president Dave Swider, that the monthly BMW Owner News will be available in a digital format found on the BMWMOA website. The monthly mailing of the magazine will continue. This will be great for browsing on laptops at coffee shops and areas with free wi-fi as well as being able to share articles with friends and potential new members.

Are there any opinions out there as to whether or not this would be a useful tool to have on the CRBMWOA website? It would not mean the monthly newsletter would stop, but would be a supplement to the valuable resource you already receive. Let the discussions begin!

I would be all for it but would also want our advertizers to be included as well. It would possibly interest guests that visit our site, to consider a membership, which in turn means more exposure for advetisers, which may mean we could more easily solicit more advertisers for the needed revenue we use for national rallies, picnics, Christmas parties and charitable causes we support. Let's hear your opinions.

Hmm. I'm an old(er) guy, but kind of a geek at the same time. Not at all afraid of computers and such. But I like having my paper copy. If stuff is being published on a website that is not included in my paper newsletter, that means I have to spend extra time sitting at my computer to get all the information I need or want. Frankly, my eyes hurt enough from all the time I spend looking at a screen. 'MOA has started doing some of this already and I just don't have enough time to sit and read through their web site.

And I am also noticing that the quality of the national ON magazine is decreasing even as 'MOA is adding staff to the publications area -- one can understand some errors in detail, spelling, and usage when you only have one editor, but ON has an editor (oops, editorial director), a deputy editor (oops, managing editor), and now a copy editor! And yet I lost count of all the mistakes I found in the most recent issue. [But they don't want to hear from people like me...]

Uh, sorry for the rant. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Tim C.
Park Forest

Interesting comments Tim. A year ago, I contemplated dropping both my MOA and CRBMW memberships. Jerry comvinced to keep my CRBMW membership going. What set me off was when the MOA decided to raise dues by over 25%. I'm not cheap, as all the farkles on my bikes would tell you, but that increase just struck me as wrong. The MOA is more a business than a club in my opinion. A paid Executive Director, all the newsletter staff you just mentioned, a rather large portfolio and then to feel the need to raise dues to just continue this. This was not for what I joined for. I tried to talk to a MOA VIP at the RA rally a year ago about something that I kind of had a bad taste in my mouth about and I just got blown off. I'm not so sure that the MOA, and some of it's local clubs, has not started to handle relationships with it's members in a manor similar to that used by BMW NA towards many of it's customers, us.. So I dropped my membership. Irony is that the $ 8 dollars I more less quit the club over....well, they got it from me anyhow when I went to the Nationals. And and exra $2. They charge non members more to participate. Great way to encourage new mewmberships. Anyhow, I rode BMW's by myself for about 5 years before joining the local club. I enjoy the newsletter and the meetings when I can attend. Never been a big group rider, so I usually avoid club rides. And I do think the club has done a very good job of growing the club without loosing the original focus most join, and that is to first and foremost the enjoyment of our bikes. I would hope that we don't follow in the footsteps of the MOA.

I'm all for the online newsletter, and I have to admit that I am a bit surprised that articles from the paper version aren't posted online in the aptly named Article Vault.

Our newsletters contain very valuable information that can be useful to long standing and new members alike. Plus, making access to these articles available to members only would be another incentive for people to sign up. I have lost count of how much money I've saved in learning from others' experiences at the local level, but I guarantee it's at least $500.

I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other as to whether or not it should replace the printed copy, especially since the overall environmental impact of zapping out a few hundred newsletters is nothing compared printing a few hundred thousand, so I'd say let's do both.

Besides, it's nice to get something in the mail that I'm actually looking forward to getting.