PCA motors on!
In the past couple of months, two well-known monthly printed car magazines have announced that they will no longer exist, or will be offered only in digital form. That got me thinking about trends in PCA. It is a pretty common trend across PCA regions, including regions in this zone, for newsletters that used to be in print monthly to move to a less frequent print schedule or to stop print completely and move to digital form. There are lots of reasons for this. Print advertising commitments are on the decline as it is easier to measure digital advertising effectiveness by using “click through” data analytics. At the region level, finding the time and skills of PCA volunteers capable of chasing down members to write about club events, and then assembling and laying out a pre-formatted page count newsletter, is getting to be a more difficult proposition. Thank your newsletter person at your next region event. And if you had a fun time, volunteer to do a write up!
That brings me to PCA’s Panorama Magazine. To the best of my knowledge, it is healthy, improving all the time, and appreciated by PCA membership. Here’s some insight as to how is it bucking the trends in the first paragraph, First, a fairly fixed portion of your $46 annual membership is dedicated to publishing Panorama. That budget is a big help, but is not the full picture. Following that, the magazine is unique due to the very targeted audience that it reaches. This allows advertisers to continue to place value on the less measurable results of print advertising compared to more measureable digital advertising methods. Next, PCA is growing. It may not be so obvious, but each time a member joins PCA, that person adds another few dollars to the next year’s Panorama budget, while at the same time increasing the ability of PCA to “market” the growing circulation. So help protect Panorama by supporting our advertisers and also by getting your friends to join PCA.
This month, all zone representatives and national committee leaders met for a winter national staff meeting, led by the Executive Council. I’d like to highlight some of the initiatives underway that you are likely to hear more about in the next year. Here’s a list-
-the National Tours Committee has now finalized standards for off-road tours. It’s good progress.
-the EC, has now appointed a TRSS (Tire Rack Survival Skills) program liaison to help regions pull together teen survival skills programs in regions as well as to feed regional input to the EC.
-the Club Racing Committee has made changes to mitigate some of the financial burden of traveling staff on regions that host PCA club races.
-the National Autocross Committee has formalized rules for a “Taste of Autocross” program to generate more interest and participation in autocrossing.
-the EC has approved increased subsidy levels for regions who participate in new member welcome, multi-region, charity and other types of nationally subsidized events.
-Training sessions for region leadership by national committee member now fills a full 12 month calendar of “Region Focus” webinar events.
There’s actually a lot more to cover, but I’ll stop here for now. I’ll be sharing lots more details with your region leadership in our annual Zone 9 region President’s meeting at the end of March.
And here’s an update of the key events that I mentioned in last months “In the Zone” newsletter.
– PCA’s Treffen program remains on solid footing as a relatively new program. Treffen at the Broadmoor, led by the Alpine Mountain Region, sold out in 13 minutes. Registration includes 293 attendees from 60 regions, representing 12 of the 14 PCA zones across North America!
-Fiesta New Mexico, hosted by the Roadrunner Region over the Memorial weekend is nearing capacity. This multi-region event MAY still have room, by the time this letter gets to you, so check it out at www.FiestaNewMexico.com.
-And finally Phase 1 hotel registration is well underway for the annual PCA Porsche Parade event, held this year in Palm Desert, California. Phase II activities registration opens March 31st at noon EST. By now, we are probably approaching 1000 car registrations, on track to make this one of the best-attended Porsche Parade events ever. There is not a limit on rooms, so there’s still time and space for YOU! Go to www.porscheparade.org to complete your Phase I registration now!
I guess the final point is to say that PCA ran an analysis of all major car clubs. We’re the only one that is growing. All others are remaining static or shrinking. On top of that, PCA membership growth, both nationally and within this zone, is faster than the U.S. economy. It’s not just the Cars, it’s the People.