Freshly back from the President's meeting, I can clarify part of this.
Washington and Northern California were 2 of a few Regions using a particular company for our regional web-stores. They all went away at the same time, and I'm still not exactly sure why, because our National officers were not aware of this action, and had nothing to do with it.
I disabled the link because it was no longer functional. We were informed by the company in September that this would happen in November, which is why we scrambled like crazy to get PayPal in place for the Holiday Party event fee processing. We had previously used our web-store to process credit card payments for the party event fees, and keep track of registration. I am happy to report that that transition took place so smoothly that we received no negative feedback, and most folks didn't even mention it.
I brought this item up during the meeting, and after some discussion, it was well understood that these web-stores fulfill a need that is not covered by VCA Goods, so we don't consider it a competitive issue. The Board was very receptive to helping us in this area, and I provided feedback that I felt it would be a good idea if we could collectively put a similar capability in place in the future, fully under the VCA umbrella. And while there is no program or commitment at this time, I am looking forward to continuing conversation with our National officers in the future.
In the interim, we will likely pursue the same course that Northern California took, with an alternate provider.
In case you are wondering what makes this web store different from VCA Goods, here are a few key points:
- This web store provides clothing selected from a very large catalog, with offerings, options, colors, and pricing controlled by our region.
- This web store provides our regional logos (multiple) as a simple click, including color options.
- This web store provides a direct cash flow to our Region, from commission-able sales to our members.
- This store provides us the capability to create our own in-house (Regional) electronic ticketing for club events, on an event-by-event basis, with net proceeds (less processing costs) directly to our Region.
So, I would expect a short time where we continue to have a gap in this capability, followed by a third party provider, very similar to what we've had in the past. And who knows, maybe at some point in the future, it could be fully under the VCA umbrella, potentially reducing costs considerably.
