You might get that status, but if you don't keep up your post rate, you'll lose that status and have to re-earn it the next year. And then it'll be more difficult to obtain because it's more important not just to have raw post count, since that's not an accurate measurement of the overall contribution, but to have meaningful posts. Therefore, rather than just counting the raw post count we'll be scoring each post with a rating and using the combination of those to determine the worth so that the status is a meaningful representation of their contribution to the establishment.

Now there will always be those who want to make sure they maintain status so that the pages load faster for them, so they'll probably be off in their own forum on a "posting run" and rating each of their posts positively. Once management learns about this they'll definately try to put a stop to it by harassing the best posters that just were trying to get a few more, and ignore taking away the function to create new forums and threads, still allowing people to do it anyway. Management won't realize that while a few of these aren't useful, all of them contribute and are good members of the program. Anyone willing to take the time to make the extra posts should be encouraged.

At the end of the day, does it really matter that much?