Included in this article below is a graph of BRS membership data for the past 22 years – from 1988 to 2009 – showing membership in the BRS rising to a high of 315 in 1990 and then falling to a low of 143 in 2003, while gradually rising again since 2004. Chart data are from Ken Blackwell’s Russell database giving the number of BRS subscriptions to Russell for each year, and from copies of the BRS database saved by John Ongley from 2003 to 2009.
Russell data (dark bars) count couple memberships as 1 (because couple members receive only one copy of Russell) and thus under¬count the true number of Society members. BRS database data from 2003 to 2009 (light bars) count couple memberships as 2 and so are more accurate, but incomplete. Data for 2009 are as of May 19, 2009. Both sets of data include honorary members. Since March 2009 we have surpassed 2008’s total.
Dark bars: Russell data (couples = 1). Light bars: BRS data/actual members (couples = 2)
Additional data were gleaned from the Russell Society Newsletter by Ken Blackwell. (These data are not included on the graph and do not include honorary members.) Members: 1973: 0; 1974: 72; 1975: 145; 1977: 164 (from RSN nos. 5, 10, 17).
The number of members, as counted by BRS Russell subscriptions (where couple memberships count as one), immediately follows year. The data in parentheses for 2003 – 2009 are from the BRS database and include the couple members for that year not counted by the Rus¬sell subscriptions data and so are more accurate, but incomplete. Data for 2009 are through May 19, 2009, and so incomplete for 2009.
INTERPRETATION. Why the rapid rise and then fall in Society mem¬bership around 1990? A likely explanation is this: Member recruit¬ment for the BRS was then headed by the legendary Lee Eisler, who had spent his adult life working in advertising in New York City. His methods of recruitment are known – they were the professional ones he had used all his life, that of placing ads (in this case, classi¬fied ads for the BRS) in various magazines and keeping track of those that produced the most responses and most new members. He then calculated the cost spent in recruiting each new member and recommended to the membership com¬mittee that it continue placing ads in those magazines that were most produc¬tive of new members, cease placing ads in those least productive, while suggesting new advertising venues. This method seems to have been highly suc¬cessful in finding new members for the Society, but less suc¬cessful in retaining them, hence there was a rapid falloff in membership when Lee ceased being editor of the RSN and became less in¬volved in Society activities. Since 2003, recruitment efforts have primarily focused on retention and encouraging past members to rejoin.
JO, KB