I'm a huge fan of the ACA. I'm a member as well. Actually, I think I need to renew my membership this month...
This site promotes the ACA and believes in its goals.
I wouldn't say the ACA would need to "overhaul" in order to grow. It would need to make some changes.
I expect that the ACA will continue to be the great organization it has been. I also expect that it will keep the same steady size in membership that it has had for years, around 1,200, I believe. Being a larger organization does not make you any better.
I like
Mr. Firemouth's spirit. Forget this site's almost 40,000 members, it has had over 140,000 visitors in just a single month. This being said, it's only the smallest sliver of this group that are members of the ACA. Think about it. Take 1% of 140,000 and you get a number larger than the current ACA membership. So if the ACA can appeal enough to 1% of the cichlid hobby that it would fork over $25 each, it would grow.
I think that the ACA could grow and keep its current mission if it was better at touting its benefits and accomplishments. Getting someone to join because the ACA has "helped the hobby" is probably not going to be very effective.
Want one example?
If I go to the ACA website and I click on the link "Benefits of Membership, it takes me to this page:
http://www.cichlid.org/Membership_Benefits.html . I'm sorry, but that page doesn't do a good job touting the benefits of ACA membership. The ACA is so much more and better than this page. This page does not get me excited about joining the ACA. This is just an example. But what do
you think?
I hope no one at the ACA is insulted by me answering Lisachromis' question. I'm not a critic.
