Some thoughts on CA membership

CA is currently thinking of revisiting the membership structure and how we can improve the customer service.

1) CA’s service is essential to our residents’ life such that we should keep our membership affordable. Our annual charge billed by CA covers 60% of CA’s expenses each year.

2) The current promotional membership structure is not desirable. Many residents may find the membership fee attractable when singing in. After two-year or three-year promotional period ends, the huge spike on the membership fee just make them unhappy. If we look at the first argument, we should just set a yearly rate, probably increase the rate a little it annually.

3) Two key questions are:
a) What is the expected percentage that CA residents will become CA members? We want an affordable rate for our residents. Right now, we have 20.62% participation rate, i.e., out of 97,000 residents, 20,000 join CA membership annually. It has been close 20% for several years. If we consider families/households rather than individuals, the ratio is much higher. It is around 38.4%.

b) For non-CA residents, what is the proper rate? Right now, non-resident's membership price is 25% over that of the resident. We also want our neighbors to use our facility.