franklin_m

I missed that, but it doesn't surprise me. I think there's a couple factors at play.

Remember earlier last year they reported positive things about memberships? By the end of the year, they had to admit that things had changed. I think they're so desperate to report good news that they jump on it early and report w/o waiting to see if it holds or is a momentary spike. The other thing that's happening is playing with language. When they say "memberships" w/o qualification, that includes everyone. Open adult, senior, park flier, and free youth. But where the rubber meets the road is membership revenue, and I can't even conceive how that isn't going to fall given EVP's admission that the open adult are declining, senior declining, and not converting free youth to open adult or park flier. Even the growth in park flier memberships is a mixed blessing. Yes, the numbers may be up, but there's a lot less revenue from each membership.

They also hinted in the minutes about possibly raising life membership cost. Add that to mention of looking at impact of the new anniversary date impacts, and I'm more convinced than ever they're facing a real revenue crunch. The more I think of it, the switch to the anniversary date method probably complicated their budget planning. Before, they knew that after a certain date, the revenue could only grow. Now, just because they got a good renewal rate this month means nothing for next month's numbers - especially if some big new negative regulation hits the books in the interim - which might affect whether someone renews or not.

I don't remember which Knight of the Round Table pushed changing to the anniversary date method, I think it was the EVP that pushed it, but I do recall that it was done to make it easier on the staff at HQ. I can't help but wonder if they'll regret that decision. In the process of trying to avoid a few weeks of harder than normal work, they've created a mess.