In case you haven’t perused a recent edition of the glossy BMWMOA News lately, the club’s business plan is pretty obvious… Noting that BMW is making some some healthy profits selling overpriced motorcycles, BMWMOA figures that the well heeled owners of those new BMWs should head straight on over to their littler corporation and it’s overpriced rallies and spend a bunch more $$$. But it appears that a lot of the local clubs that founded the MOA either haven’t gotten the memo or are outright rebelling, as they persist in holding these low budget weekend rallies offering maximum fun for minimum bucks.
Thus after the previous weekend’s $20 bargain on the banks of the Missouri, I blew all of $33 for a couple nights camping, saturday night supper, a couple continental breakfasts, and all the coffee, etc. we could drink and firewood we could burn at the Great River Road Rally. The folks in the Minnesota and Iowa clubs haven’t gotten into compliance with the MOA business plan either, as they’re offering similar bargains in the coming weeks… Meanwhile, MOA expects even members to cough up $50 just for some dusty ground to sleep on at their rally!
Now one would think that MOA HQ in suburban St.Louis would just lay down the “law” and pressure these poverty rider enabling local clubs into line… Problem is, they can’t (and that’s a “good” problem). MOA is running scared, losing a mere few hundred members a month while the internet makes their “farkle guide” monthly rag obsolete. That means less ad revenue, which may explain why the MOA rally fee keeps risin’. That reduces MOA’s reason for living pretty much down to bulk purchasing of liability insurance for local clubs, and they can get that from AMA should MOA fold.
But MOA has a staff of ten or so and requisite payroll to make, which probably explains a lot of the desperate moves MOA is making. Â Meanwhile, the local clubs are powered by volunteers who happily keep on doin’ what they do best- puttin’ on affordable events while MOA tries to keep their bloated beauracy alive and paid. MOA, get the message: You’re pricing yourself out of a shrinking market!
GearheadGrrrl 