June 2024
We, the Board of Directors of Lotus Ltd. owe you an apology and an explanation. First, the explanation and then the apology.
About 30 months ago, we recognized that we had a severe problem with expenses as a percentage of the dues revenue we were collecting. We were spending too much on the production, publication and mailing of the reMarque magazine. Postage costs had increased dramatically, paper and printing costs had jumped and we were well behind the curve in recognizing this. We began looking at other clubs and how they were handling this same issue, it became clear that the very large club’s publications like the BMW Roundel (72,000 members/$58 year) and the PCA Panorama (165,000 members/$56 year) have far different metrics and economies of scale. We have a membership base of around a thousand…a rounding error for these clubs. Other smaller marque clubs like us have chosen to raise dues, revert to newsletters, changed to quarterly or fewer issues, or have gone digital.
Once we had a clear understanding of the costs as well as the trendline for future costs, we made a very difficult decision to transition to an electronic version of the reMarque and to create a more robust website that could serve you better at a more reasonable cost. The alternative, which we rejected as unsuitable, would have been to raise dues to nearly double and then to increase them regularly going forward, perhaps even annually. We believe you would rather spend that money on fuel for your Lotus!
This decision was very carefully considered and we too feel the loss of the printed reMarque. Most of us on the board prefer to hold an actual magazine in our hands, but as stewards of Lotus Ltd. had to make a realistic decision. It is important to note that we agonized over the choices we had and still reached the conclusion we did.
We are now well along the path to a robust website but we feel we will not have finished this transition until we have communicated to you that we are committed to an electronic path and have no intention of going back to print media.So, now the need for the apology.
We were so involved in the mechanics of transitioning to electronic media that we failed in our duty to keep you informed of why and how we were changing. We sincerely apologize for letting our focus drift from our communication responsibility. We will do better going forward.
On the website, under the FAQ tab is info on how to download the reMarque to print a hard copy if you really want to and also how to make it more readable on a tablet or laptop, if you wish to do that.
We are committed to delivering Lotus experiences and building our community electronically. Let’s get on with it!