![Welcome!](http://us.vcultimate.com/cdn/shop/articles/Welcome-01.png?v=1587745067&width=1500)
Welcome!
Thank you for joining us! We decided to (re)launch the VC Card Membership Program in an effort to better reward and engage with our community. What better time than now to revisit these goals?
Here's the original look of the VC Card, from back in the 2000's.
You might have read our announcement blog already; we've reviewed it below to give you added insight as to why now is the right time to launch.
We strongly hope that the current market disruption doesn't affect the sentiment behind this program too much. The heart and soul of this idea is to let you in on all the good stuff happening behind the scenes at VC.
We're ready to have fun with this, and we thank you for coming along for the ride!
Your Friends at VC
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WHY NOW
We talked about the inspiration behind this program in our launch post and why it's so important to us to engage with our community. Building and rewarding loyalty is always important, but it's essential right now – we're all starved for connection, and need things to look forward to in the future.
IT WORKS BOTH WAYS
We put community contributions above all else. Using fancier marketing, more aggressive sales strategies or expensive advertising purchases surely would grow our business at a faster rate than it has over the past 20 years, and especially as the competition in the ultimate market has intensified in the past decade.
But marketing ploys aren't us. We've always strived to grow through partnerships and by investing in our community, and by living our values. Trying to grow in the right way, and contributing a large part (over 15%) of every dollar earned back to the community is our commitment. We believe that if ultimate grows in a more equitable and inclusive way, it will grow much stronger and larger than if we simply make decent gear, stick to a certain margin threshold and keep our profit for ourselves.
As stated in our launch post, we want to be able to continue to do this, but it's definitely difficult in the current economic climate. We are anticipating an 80% reduction in our 2020 revenue, which would be crushing had we not matured into a sustainable business with plans and funding in place to weather this storm.
This said, we need your help. Your purchase of a VC Card Membership may not seem like much, but it's everything. Bringing new revenue is essential right now, as is knowing that our community members are out there, wanting to support us in the future through online and tournament merchandise purchases, and especially through custom orders.
WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
Despite half of our team currently being unable to work as we're following the province's shutdown directives, and the other half only working part-time thanks to government subsidies, we are optimistic about 2021. Our goal is to make it through these next few months as optimistically as possible, and emerge strong and with a fresh appreciation of what it means to be a team.
We are all in this together, and we are incredibly grateful for the efforts of frontline workers and essential workers. We appreciate single parents educating the next generation of ultimate players at home, and those who unfortunately do not have the same access to public safety nets as many of us do.
THANK YOU
Again, we're grateful to each of you for joining us and becoming VC Card Members. This exclusive members' blog area is for you, and as we want to discuss topics that you're interested in – send us an email or comment below to ask a question or submit an idea!
Stay healthy and optimistic, and thank you once again for your support!
The VC Team