Disclaimer: I'm a member of one of the largest PAC clubs in the US, but
the opinions expressed below are my own and do not necessarily reflect
those of other club members or officers. That said...

wrote:
My local club seems utterly confused by ACA and their proposed rate
increases. Is this situation common to all paddling clubs?

Yeah, pretty much. It seems to me that they must have hired a former IRS
employee as a consultant with the mandate to "make the fee structure as
confusing as humanly possible". Frankly, when I see something this
unnecessarily complex, it makes me suspicious that the real motive is to
try to conceal the true cost from the clubs until it's too late. It's
not as if the ACA has been above concealing things from their member
club in the past. Remember the insurance debacle a couple of years ago?

The ACA is one of the most unprofessional, inefficient, bush-league
organizations I've ever dealt with. It seems that every year they come
up with grandiose plans for club services that never come to fruition.
Heck, it's taken them YEARS to get to the point where they can get
membership cards out in a reasonably timely manner, yet now they think
they can manage all of our membership mailings and fee collection?
"Sure, sign me up and I'll take some of that swamp land you're selling
too! What's that, my check is in the mail? Okee doke!" Of course, they
have no trouble at all reaching deeper into our pockets every year,
pretty much without fail. However, there's a limit to how much the ACA
is going to be able to get out of the PAC "cash cow".

IMO, the only thing they provide to clubs that's of any real value is
liability insurance (unless you're into whitewater, Paddler magazine is
a waste of good trees) and I'm not sure that it's worth what it's
costing us now. We've been forced to increase our membership dues
substantially over the past few years, due entirely to increases in what
we have to pay the ACA. That has undoubtedly cost us members to other
local, non-ACA clubs and we're probably one fee increase away from
reaching the breaking point at which point we'll just drop our ACA
affiliation. If they ever make their new Trip Leader certification
mandatory, that will be the last straw for sure.

Most of the other clubs in our area have eschewed membership in the ACA
PAC program and just go it alone. They rely on the principles of the
"Common Adventure Model" for liability protection. To date AFAIK, none
of the clubs or their members have been sued for anything that has
happened at any of their club functions, trips, etc., primarily because
their safety record is exemplary, as is ours. With the cost of insurance
going through the roof, I suspect that CAM is the wave of the future.

Is anyone from the ACA listening out there???