Thursday, March 22, 2012

WHY IS AARP LOSING SO MANY MEMBERS?

What is AARP? It is the American Association of Retired People. It is a membership organization for those over 55. They are suppose to represent Senior Citizens. They haven't been doing a great job lately and many members are leaving the organization. They have a staff of 1,300, a 15 member Board of Directors, 6 National Officers and a CEO Barry Rand. They also have a volunteer staff of 400,000 who assist them with many of their programs. One of the problems seems to be the salary of the officers. Barry Rand makes an estimated $576,000. AARP makes money from membership plus they have a Health Insurance wing, a Pharmacy wing and a total of 8 different businesses that they manage. It is estimated they do $10 billion in sales per year. But they seem to be big supporters of Obamacare which doesn't sit well with many members. The AARP supposidly has a feared lobby action and awesome marketers. But they don't seem to use it where Obama is concerned. There was a meeting of the AARP higher mucky mucks and they were questioned on Obamacare by some members. The Officers walked out and then returned to seize the microphone so that those asking questions couldn''t even us that. That tells you something. They think they are right and don't want their judgment questioned - faulty as it maybe. I think I will probably join those exiting AARP when my membership expires. I mainly use it only for the discounts at hotels, rental cars etc. There are actually just as good a discounts thru other organizations that I belong to. There are also several new organizations which are gaining members which are similar to AARP.

1 comment:

  1. I did not renew my AARP membership as AARP is no longer a strong voice for seniors (or ALL Americans for that matter)! They are too busy trying to sell insurance, etc.

    They need to listen to their members!

    ReplyDelete