We have had 71 “new” members join within the last 15 months and also a good number of lapsed members rejoin (who have picked up their old number). The early 2024 numbers cannot be considered accurate as they contain a good number of members who had lapsed but had not been removed from the database. The accuracy of the figures improved across the year as members were found to be lapsed and removed from the total. I’ve recently done a similar sweep within the online database, removing over 400 “awaiting activation” entries of which approx. 1/3 were phishing attempts. This weakness in the system has been successfully addressed by our IT department. I would expect the coming year to give a true reflection of the membership total trend. Also, a snap shot on a given date does not give a true reflection due to,
A) The members re-subbing with any given issue is uneven.
B) A lot of members do not re-sub on time, which means they “lapse” and get removed from the system, sometimes just for days, in a couple of cases for over a year.
Members get a “last mag” slip with Tankette and I also email the digital members and any others I have an email address for. They are given an expected payment date, generally the month end after Tankette is published. At this point I remove “members area access” to all non-payers. Just prior to the next issue, members are removed from the database.
With the help of previous secretaries and treasurers we now only have one MAFVA bank account which has simplified things a great deal.
I still think MAFVA membership is a bargain, what else can you get within the hobby for the same cost. The price for digital subscription should stay as is, certainly in the short – medium term. We will absorb the recently announced rise in postage costs but at the next rise in either postage or printing it should increase to £25 for UK membership. A similar increase will also be needed for European and rest of the world members
Number of paying members subscribing by issue
2024
1-77 2-47 3-86 4-67 5-33 6-115
2025
1-53 2-59 3-73 4-64 5-24 6-122
Colin Knapp – Membership Officer