by KATIE WORRALL

The Chestnut Hill Community Association executive committee will vote at its meeting on November 13 on whether or not to combine Community Association membership and Chestnut Hill Local subscription into one fee. If approved the decision will be voted on at the board of directors on Monday, November 24.

The idea of dropping a Local subscription-only option was approved by a combined meeting of the membership and Local management committees on November 3.

The motion made by membership committee chairman John Ryan says that “no later than January 31, 2004 all members shall be subscribers and all subscribers shall be members. Each component [the Community Association and the Local] to offer discounts in consultation with other components. Each component shall use their best efforts to promote the other entities.”

Readers of the Local are currently offered a choice: either to join the CHCA for a contribution of $30, which includes a subscription to the Local, discounts at participating businesses, the privilege of running for the CHCA board  of  directors and voting in the those elections or subscribe to the Local, which is presently $20 per year. Currently the $30 fee is split by the Community Association and the Local, with $10 going to the Community Association and $20 allocated to the Local.

The vote on November 3 followed a two and a half hour discussion, in which Peter Mazzaccaro, the business manager, was prepared to offer statistics of recent subscribers and a plan to build circulation. The membership committee did not appear to be interested in hearing it.

Mazzaccaro said that the Local has been promoting itself, offering readers a choice of being subscription-only customers or members of the CHCA. Readers in Mt. Airy and other areas may not want to belong to the Community Association, he said.

Ryan said that when he explains to people about the Community Association, its fund-raising arm, the Chestnut Hill Community Fund, and its third component, the Local, listeners always  want to become members.

“I’m excited about the Local, but I take a more expansive view. We’re doing a terrible job of getting the word out about the Community Association,” Ryan said.

Much of the discussion at the meeting revolved around the question about whether or not   people are confused about the difference between being a member of the Community Association and being a subscriber to the Local. Ryan and Tia Burke, a members of both the membership and executive committees, gave anecdotal evidence that readers they have spoken with are not sure if they were members or subscribers. Mazzaccaro argued that readers are not confused, but are purposefully making decisions of whether to be a subscriber or a member.

Pete Winebrake, of the membership committee, said that confusion would be eliminated if  there  was a membership-only option, which would include a subscription to the Local, were offered.

Several people attending the meeting pointed out afterwards that by only offering a membership option, the Community Association  is going back on  the  separation of the finances of the  Community Association, the community Fund and the Local that was approved  last fall.

It was the  approval  of the  Basic Plan for Financial Responsibility in October 2002 that separated the finances of the  CHCA, the Local  and  the Community Association’s  fund-raising arm, Chestnut Hill Community Fund. Prior to that decision, as much as $35,000 was given annually by the Local to the Community Association. With the approval of the plan, the Community Association no longer gets that money. It plans to raise income for operating expenses by offering a credit card or insurance plans, neither of which have yet come to fruition.

The Basic Plan included the hiring of a full-time business manager for the Local, effectively canceling the Local Management Committee. (In addition to Vice President of Operations Douglas Doman, only the Local editor and business manager and the CHCA executive director were present at the November 3 meeting as voting members of the Local Management Committee.)

“We took risks in separating the organizations. You can try this and if it does not work, we can step back,” Burke said.

Doman proposed offering three options: Community Association membership, including a Local subscription; a Local subscription only, or a Community Association only. Mark Keintz, former chairman of the Local management committee, asked people to think about that the user is buying: a membership, a membership with a subscription or a product.

Although at one meeting in the meeting, CHCA president Maxine Dornemann  told Mazzaccaro  that the CHCA  had to make this proposal, she also said that she does not want to hurt  what  Mazzaccaro  has done to increase circulation. These include a circulation drive offering a subscription for $10 and a membership for $20.

Karl Strandberg, the Local display advertising manager, said that the meeting that “we don’t sell the Chestnut Hill Local, we don’t sell the ad content. We sell people, a package, a readership.  Every advertiser asks what the circulation is. The sales are based on circulation.”

Cheryl Massaro, the Local’s circulation manager, said that if the proposal was approved, the Local would risk losing its periodical mailing status.

Dornemann wanted to delay a vote on the motion to go through a cycle and make proposals and to give the Local’s subscription drive a chance to work. Ryan insisted on bringing only one motion to the board of directors in November.

She later told the Local that she thought that either the CHCA membership only option or the subscription/membership choice  would work, but that if the  membership only option is  approved, the membership committee will need to be “very, very proactive” is building  membership in the Community Association.

The executive committee meets at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 13, at the Chestnut Hill Senior Center, 7999 Crittenden St. The board of directors will meet on Monday, November 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Chestnut Hill branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, 8711 Germantown Ave. Both meetings are open to the public.