Wednesday, november 5, 1375
page 8
daily nebraskan
Managers reflect on ASK
READ WANT ADS
By Dick Piersd
Whatever happened to ASK? Many stu
dents probably don't know what it was
much less what happened to it.
ASK is the Associated Students Ko-op,
although it's history suggests it was a coop
erative in name only.
Business started in late 1972 with an
AS UN loan of $2,450 to buy a machine to
print membership cards, which went on
sale in January, 1973.
As editor of the 1973 Summer Nebras
kan, Ken Kirk ran several stories on the
Ko-op and became interested in its
possibilities.
Kirk took over as manager of the Ko-op
in August of 1973. He said he started with
only eight participating businesses. He
immediately started soliciting to add more.
Before long, there were 45 businesses
offering discounts of 5 to 20 per cent to
card holders, he said. The previous dearth
of participating merchants was because
ASUN senators who had been soliciting
had little or no sales or business back
ground, he added.
Pressure raised
At the same time, Kirk said, a campaign
to sell mofe student memberships was star
ted. There . was pressure within ASK's
board of directors to raise the membership
price to $10, but the price remained at $5,
Kirk said.
A provision was made stipulating that
for every $5 membership sold, $1.25
would be used to advertise participating
merchants, according to Kirk.
Before long, ASK had paid back $700
of the loan and things seemed to be picking
up for the Ko-op.
"I notified the board that I would be
quitting as manager at the end of the se
mester," Kirk said.
"By that time we had 600 memberships
sold, but sales really slumped in November
and December," Kirk said. "The participat
ing businesses leveled off at about 50.
The spring semester of 1974 perhaps
marked the beginning of the end of ASK.
'Dumped in our laps'
Ron Clingenpeel, who became ASUN
president that spring, said ASK was
"dumped in our laps without even a list
of the board members."
Clingenpeel said Kirk had the Ko-op in
good order when he left but the absence of
a manager plagued the program from then
on. He said the salary commission offered
to a prospective manager was not enough
to attract a qualified person, and often a
quorum was not present at beard meetings.
The board decided that if a manager
couldn't be found, the Ko-op should be
dissolved and an effort made to repay the
money invested, according to Clingenpeel.
Urged to reconsider
In the summer of 1974, Dennis Martin
took over managerial duties. He said his
purpose was simply to try and keep partici
pating buisnesses until a permanent mana
ger could be found.
"Some of those businesses hadn't seen a
cardholder in a year," he said. "People
weren't even using them."
ASUN indicated that senators weren't
interested in selling cards if people weren't
using them, he said. Scrapping the Ko-op is
"commendable" because it is not helping
students, Martin added.
Tale of promises
and predictions
On Oct. 11, it was reported that ASK
still owed ASUN $1,700. Clingenpeel said
that 150 cards had been sold so far that fall.
Wanted out
On Oct. 18, a Daily Nebraskan check
said the original 30 members that year had
dropped to 26 and three more businesses
wanted out. Managers of the three said
they had not heard or seen anyone from
ASK since 1973.
JB's Big Boy restaurant was said to have
had the highest amount of ASK card users
in 1973. They said six people had used the
cards for a discount - since the program
started.
The last Daily Nebraskan ASK article on
Oct. 24, 1974, reported that ASUN First
Vice President Sharon Johnson said 170
students had ASK cards. The manager
position still was open but Johnson said
they were looking for a business student
intern to handle the post.
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