Thoughts on the Official Club.
Since there has been a lot of criticism lately towards the Official Transformers Club not offering enough of an incentive for foreigners to join or remain as members, this is a poll and request for comments and suggestions by fans in our part of the world, on the Official Club. I want to see for sure if it is a general discontent, or just a vocal minority.
If it is general discontent, maybe our suggestions can be sent to the Club to help improve it. And if it is just a vocal minority, then I at least need to know, to make sure I don't make Ozformers Community policy to reflect what the minority wants.
I've been trying hard to convince people over the years to join the Official Club, because I have always believed it is a worthy concept for the fandom. After all, I started the Australian Transformers Club waaay back in 1996, because I share that passion of most fans, to feel like we belong to something within our hobby. Our local club was not official (it was authorised and endorsed by Hasbro), and it's name changed from 'Club' to 'Collectors' for a period of time, but for twelve and a half years, I have always tried to put the interest of the fans first. My commitment to a 'club concept' has had me promoting the Official Club ever since it started, and I managed to convince a fair few of the past and present members to join, based on that shared ideology. But now I risk my own membership to the Official Club and BotCon, by once again putting the (local) fans first. As much as I want to remain a member of the Club because I'm one of the few in this country that can make full use of its features, I don't think it is fair for me to be drumming up their business, and then having to try to defend them when things like the recent postage profiteering occured. The situation is getting to the point where several questions and complaints have been submitted to Hasbro AUS in the monthly Q&A program, about the treatment of long-distant foreign members. When fans are that upset over something to want to complain to Hasbro about it, it must be investigated, or resolved in some way.
Now, we do need to keep in perspective, that when the Convention and Official Club were run by FANS, it failed to be profitable enough to survive. Now that an American business (called Fun Publications) are running the Club and Convention, there is a long-term viability to both. Credit where credit due. But is that viability coming from prioritising the majority of its Nth American members at the expense of its long distance foreign members?
Officially, from the head of the Fun-Pub company, is that foreign membership is as cheap as they can make it. But does that membership include things that long distance foreigners do not want or have access to?
These is the membership package for registering to the Official Club:
- Transformers Magazine every 2 months.
- Classifieds publication every month.
- Limited edition Transformers toy.
- Botcon discounts for attendees and non-attendees (for the toys).
- Access to an exclusive website and forum.
- Discounted prices on Club Store items, including exclusive items.
The business called Fun Publications acquired an international license to run the Official Transformers Club, preventing anyone else from being able to set up an Official Club outside of America. As such, the majority of members are American, and as with any business, they must cater for the majority of their customers.
But should the Fun-Pub company have a responsibility as an International license holder to have a fairer membership package to foreign fans, or maybe a fairer price? If they can only offer the one membership package, shouldn't the price be the same for every member within their jurisdiction? Why not charge everyone US$50? It's only $10 extra for the majority of their members, and if we can tolerate US$89 for that package, why can't the Americans tolerate US$50? If the American members say that it isn't fair to be paying the same as us, then they need to be reminded that they get their stuff 3 weeks before us, they pay about a third in shipping when buying from the Club Store, they are 10 times more likely to go to BotCon and benefit from that huge discount, and that Fun Pub's license extends to every country, not just America.
Alternatively, if we are required to pay more because we aren't 'lucky enough' to be an American resident, then maybe offset that expense with an alternative membership package, to convince us to pay twice as much as Americans.
But as of May 2006 when I enquired, the Club only has the intention of having one Membership Package (listed above), so at this time, the only *fair* alternative would be a 'worldwide' membership fee, with the Americans subsidising us foreigners who pay more in shipping fees and miss out on being able to share in the excitement of getting the Magazines and toys at the same time as the majority of the members. The American fans just don't seem to realise that when we get the 'new' Magazine or the 'new' membership & Club store toys, it's already 3 weeks old to them, and we miss out on joining in on the fun of discussing the 'new' stuff with them. It just encourages the foreign members to keep to themselves even more, because interacting with the bulk of (American) Club members who are 3 weeks ahead of us is either a tease, or spoils the Magazine when we get it.
The Issues that have been raised (please add any that I've missed) :
- A double penalty to foreign fans who have to pay more than twice Americans do (US$89 verses US$40) and have to wait 3-4 weeks on the Magazine, toys etc, compared to under a week for Americans. The Club doesn't want to create more than one membership package, so should it have one (international) membership fee for that one (international) package?
- Convention discount is the largest cost-saving incentive of membership, but almost no one from this part of the world will ever go, and most of the current Club members from here joined up just for the non-attendee pack. What incentive is there to get the majority of long distant foreign fans who aren't interested in the Convention toys, to join, if it looks like they are just subsidising the (mostly) Americans who do utilise the discount?
- Most Australasian fans joined up to *local* fan forums because they either prefer interaction with other locals or got lost amongst all the Nth-Americans on the global/American fansites who talk about stuff that isn't relavant here. This means that the other major incintive to be an Official Club Member (access to the Club exclusive website and forum), doesn't interest most fans from this part of the world, especially since a lot of the Club-related discussion (the main reason to interact there) relates to the Club Magazine, toys and BotCon. As mentioned above, long distant foreign members have a 3 week delay before we can discuss the Club exclusive stuff. So either we miss out on interacting on the Club Forum when the stuff is received by the bulk of the (American) members, or the bulk of the (American) members are no longer interested when we want to talk about the stuff when we get it 3 weeks later. So where's the incentive to interact on the exlcusive (American) forum?
What I think the Official Club needs to do, is host online a lot more exclusive material, or even temporarily, scans of the current issue, so that the foreign members can actually get involved in the discussions, and still get their physical copy in the mail 3 weeks later.
- The monthly printed classifieds have no relevent content for members outside of America, that can't be accessed online, so why not cut out from the foreign membership, the six annual issues that don't have the Transformers magazine, to offset the proposed single 'international' membership fee.
- Access to the Club Store's discount prices only requires one member from here to do a bulk order, so no need to join if you just want the exclusive toys and merchandise. That goes for the free membership toy as well. If you are just a toy fan, and there is no interest in the other elements of the Package, why join an expensive club if you can get the member-rate toys from another member? If the membership price was the same as every other member in the *international jurisdiction* of Fun-Pub's Club License, it might be more appealing to join up just for the sake of being a member of 'the club'.
- Items are usually shipped out to foreigners last (as revealed in one of their shipping update emails), instead of sent first to at least slightly offset the 3 week wait we get over the Americans who pay less.
- Expensive shipping. This isn't Fun-Pub's fault, but they don't factor in the added long-term expense of being a foreign member when slugging us with a membership fee that is twice what Americans pay. If we paid the same as the Americans for the same Membership Package, the added shipping expense on anything we order from the Club Store would be shrugged off as just the usual expense most collectors here have to factor in with any importing of toys.
- Postage profiteering. This turned quite a few against the Official Club. The Seacon & Nightbeat bulk orders were done for Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Sydney and Brisbane were overcharged postage by about US$20 and US$30 respectively, while the Melbourne order was undercharged by about US$20. A fair system would have all adjusted or non adjusted (credit to overcharged orders and re-charging of undercharged orders). But the Melbourne order was re-charged the difference, while the other two orders were not given any credit or refund.
So the Poll is simple. How do rate what the Official Transformers Club offers to us foreign fans?
- I'm a member and think it is worth being a member.
- I'm NOT a member, but think it would be worth being a member.
- I'm a member and I don't care either way.
- I'm NOT a member, and don't care.
- I'm a member and don't think it is currently worth being a member.
- I'm NOT a member, and don't think it is worth joining.
For those who think it isn't worth being a member, what would you do to make it fairer, or be worth joining as a long-distant member?
And those who are members - why are you a member? What did you join for, and what of the membership package do you utilise?
Reply With Quote
) and VS key, Alpha Trion etc, but with all the benefits you've listed Griffin, it doesn't really concern non US fans much (as you've stated as well) and I would really feel gipped paying that amount yearly for expensive repaints (which I might inconsistently be after for) and nothing else. As youve said as well there is that avenue of haing only one member registered and order all the toys thru him/her so its not much of a problem. As for Botcon, well that's not gonna happen for anytime within ten years, and that's a fact. It's fairly obvious that they cater only to US fans, having international members is treated more of a coincidence and a source of funds for em, otherwise they would have like special rates/other benefits seeing as overseas members are less likely to enjoy their offered "benefits" and they wouldn't allow an international licensing 
to cater to the differences/culture each individual overseas TF community has. 
Originally Posted by griffin
