Total membership has only increased by 38 in the last twelve months. The memberships held by users of large ex APANA Melbourne Public Access Sites have been expiring over the year. This, plus a similar situation on a smaller scale in South Australia has largely cancelled out the effect of new members joining in our largest regions.
The fact that we have managed to maintain our membership level in the aftermath of the departure of such a large chunk of our Public Access Siteage is a healthy sign.
We can see that membership numbers are difficult to increase in a world where large Public Access sites migrate towards the commercial world. This phenomenon may not necessarily be a bad thing and is something for each region to consider and deal with. I do suspect however, that with the tendencies towards centralised regional hub location and fee structuring which encourages membership, that we should see our membership numbers experience significant growth again this coming year. Of course some effort at publicity, something that we have never been very good at, might be worth looking into.