Do any member clubs in MASNA exclusively use local sponsors?

[WAMAS CLUB]

Had a question for all the club reps and officers out there regarding your club sponsors. First a little background.
I feel that WAMAS is a fairly large club with 600+ paid memberships, and 1000+ board members. Currently we have both LFS sponsors and national "internet" sponsors of the club. We are probably in an enviable situation in that we have great sponsors from both. I doubt many smaller clubs have that luxury. We do have a standard Terms of Service contract that sponsors of the club comply with, that defines what the sponsors and our club gets out of the deal, depending on the level of sponsorship the sponsor chooses. This defines banners, forums, socials, mailings etc...
Recently (maybe as part of the economic climate), a few of our LFS have requested us to ban the internet (non brick-and-mortar) sponsors from our site, claiming it is harmful for local clubs to do so. Obviously we do not want to loose local stores, or see them out of business, and we are trying to work on the relationships and ways to keep them thriving. I was just curious if any clubs out there exclusively use LFS stores in the area and deny and/or separate sponsorship requirements differently for "internet" sponsors. And yes, I know that fine line is extrememly difficult to distingush that line. They have suggested a few clubs that only have local stores, but I feel that given the opportunity, they would not turn the large internet sites down.
I'd love to hear experiences and ideas from other clubs. I have my opinions, but am trying to remain nuetral and said I would investigate...
Thanks for the time,

Doug Arthur, WAMAS President.

[WAMAS CLUB]

RE: Do any member clubs in MASNA exclusively use local sponsors?

maybe this should be moved to the club forums...

[DJ_in_WV]

RE: Do any member clubs in MASNA exclusively use local sponsors?

I wish we had that problem, we cant get the lfs envolved. Try to do some bulk buys every month from the lfs's or have days the club hits the stores a few times a month to make them happy. I think we should support local vendors of all kinds first but some are just so out of line on prices it is hard to do so when you can get things half prices online and then tack a club discount on it. I also think it is out of line for them to ask you to give up income for the club and to ask for a monopoly over the club. I feel for them but everyone is having a hard time.

[Origami2547]

RE: Do any member clubs in MASNA exclusively use local sponsors?

It's been almost 18 months since the original post was made. Here's an update. As the DC economy has continued to improve, our local sponsors have increased and broadened even further at WAMAS to include small start ups that started out in homes and have recently graduated into commercial space. The most successful of our sponsors have used our forum very effectively to cultivate strong relationships and customer loyalty with our forum user base (over 3,000 strong) and paid membership (635+). They do this by posting regularly, being innovative in gaining attention (such as through penny auctions), and by listening to the voice of the customer. These newer sponsors are co-existing with the more established brick-and-mortars that have supported the club over the years and those that are mostly internet-based. We don't hear as many complaints as a few years ago when our sponsorship base began to increase.