Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00220)

As early as 1998, when John was the GS in the USA, one of the members
pointed the issue of membership decline, which I quote below, and the
statistics no better now:

====xxx====
"From 8000 members in 1980 when I joined, to less than 4000 today, how could
you let this happen?"

The full letter is at:

http://theos-l.com/archives/199804/tl00056.html

It is to be noted, that two of the recent leaders of the American Section
are John Algeo and Betty Bland. The above letter was sent to John Algeo when
he was the National President (Secretary).
====xxx====

This is just in the USA which has the largest membership next to India. I
have not seen any one looking in the membership and retention statistics and
discussing what is the real trend and what could be the causes and what are
possible solutions. Obviously rule changes is  not going to fix it. Due to
the autonomous nature of the TS, the blame or credit lies squarely at the
Sections not in the rules and at Adyar.

I am sure that in many countries, the situation may be similar and none of
the GC members want to talk about it. They want to whine about the Sectional
rights and how the rules should be changed and we all should disenfranchised
and the whole operation developed in great secrecy and but for internet they
would have succeed doing so by now.

If we do not see increase in membership and active and enthusiasitic
membership support of the elected officials, no organization can survive.
With the current financial crisis, the situation becomes more complicated
with sections with a lot of money in the bank.

mkr


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