Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 02:59:52 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] New people and old-timers
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

I've looked at when each of the 85 people who have attended at least
three meetings in the past two and a quarter years (i.e. since the
beginning of 2002) were first mentioned in the WSFA Journal.  1983
should be read as "1983 or earlier," as that's the earliest I
currently have online.  (Since the 1983 issues contain two address
lists and one phone list, anyone not mentioned that year wasn't in
the club that year.)

1983: 17 *****************
1984:  2 **
1985:  2 **
1986:  5 *****
1987:  3 ***
1988:  0
1989:  3 ***
1990:  4 ****
1991:  4 ****
1992:  0
1993:  2 **
1994:  2 **
1995:  3 ***
1996:  1 *
1997:  2 **
1998:  3 ***
1999:  0
2000:  4 ****
2001: 10 **********
2002:  7 *******
2003:  8 ********
2004:  3 ***

The fact that nobody joined in 1999, or at least nobody who stayed,
gives the impression that there are two distinct populations.  But
I think that's an illusion.

It would be interesting to generate similar graphs for previous years.
Are we really getting more new members in this decade, or is it just
that many of each decade's new members don't last into later decades?

It would be also be interesting to generate similar graphs for people
who have attended at least a third of the meetings in the past year or
two, rather than just three.  I'm counting a fair number of people who
attended exactly three meetings in 2002, and haven't been seen since.