Decline in NAFA membership
Before the recent thread on 'Beebe and Webster', I had became aware of a somewhat related issue, NAFA membership. Since I joined this forum in late 1997, ever so often individuals have expressed dissatisfaction with past NAFA leadership. It is my guess that such criticism has increased the past year in response to how the current NAFA leadership has dealt with the two controversies of 'Private Property' (of falconry birds) and the 'Petition' issue.
So the question becomes, has this dissatisfaction resulted in a further erosion of NAFA membership? The reason I mentioned 'further erosion' is because over the past 10 years (Nov. 1998 - Jan. 2008), a highly significant loss in membership has already been documented. In my search for the facts in the 'Private Property' issue, I came across an article in the August, 2008 issue of Hawk Chalk entitled "Vanishing Membership--Fact or Fiction". The article was authored by NAFA past president Darryl Perkins who is now the NAFA Membership Secretary.
Somewhat puzzling is why Darryl chose that title as he amply demonstrated as FACT, that a very substantial decline in membership occurred over the prior 10 year period. Darryl
indicated an unknown amount of drop in membership occurred from 1997 to 1998 and as of November of 1998, membership stood at 2933. So it is not unreasonable to assume that the 1997 membership would have approached about 3000 +/- members.
Then from the information provided by Darryl in the 'Petition' controversy (see link in 'Beebe and Webster' thread), membership as of mid Jan., 2008 stood at 1959. Thus, in a 10 year period, a whopping loss of approximately 1000 members had taken place. That represents a 34% - 35% decline in just 10 years.
I do not pretend to know just what factor or combination of factors may have contributed to the large decline in membership. One person I contacted believes that one contributing factor has been the increased use of the internet with this forum being a perfect example. In years past, I have not followed NAFA goings-on usually leaving my NAFA Journals and Hawk Chalks unread so have little to no knowledge of past NAFA history.
Perhaps others on this forum have some insight as to what transpired, and in particular, what may have happened during the two year period from 1998 to 2000 when a precipitous decline occurred of about 700 - 750 members as shown by Darryl's graph on page 22 of the August, 2008 Hawk Chalk. I find it a stretch to believe that use of the internet could result in such a steep decline in membership over just two years. And I believe that decline occurred before the annual membership dues were increased from $25 to $35.
Another manner of looking at the situation is as follows: It is my recollection that in the late 1990s, there were about 3900 licensed falconer in the U.S. As of last year, there were approximately 4500 licensed falconers in the U.S. These figures are based in my recollection of information I read from USF&WS sources but may be off. If anyone has better information, please set the record straight. At any rate, in spite of an increase in licensed falconers in the U.S., instead of maintaining or increasing membership, NAFA has been loosing members during the same period of time.
Keep in mind, I am not taking into account Canadian or other non-U.S NAFA members which possibly might alter the picture to some degree. But if the above figures are close, what has occurred is as follows: As of Nov., 1998, NAFA represented 77% of licensed U.S. falconers (3000 divided by 3900). Then 10 years later, as of January, 2008, NAFA's representation of U.S. licensed falconers dropped to about 43.5 % (1959 divided by 4500).
So some questions come to mind. As of right now (mid June 2009), what is the current NAFA membership? In the past year and a half since Jan., 2008, has NAFA membership increased, declined, or held steady? Has the recent handling of the two controversies had any effect on membership? The individual that mentioned the internet as being a probable factor for some of the decline over the past 10 years also suggested that the recent discontent with current NAFA leadership has likely resulted in a negative effect on membership. But at this point, I don't know that to be the case.
Beside a decline in representation, one can surmise that the resulting loss of revenue quite possibly complicates the NAFA budgetary process. At $35 membership dues, a drop of 1000 members translates into an approximate loss of $35,000.
I could be in error but it would seem that any continued loss in membership is likely to damage the organization and its ability to claim it represents U.S falconers. Having become a member of NAFA in 1962, I am saddened to see what has taken place with NAFA over the past decade and instead of continued to grow, it has instead shown signs of decline.
Again, I a not a follower of NAFA affairs. So I do not know if the current NAFA leadership has examined this problem and if so, if they have proposed anything of substance to stem the tide. And if they haven't, they have their heads in the sand. Hope I am wrong.
Richard F. Hoyer
Originally Posted by Hawkmom
