Boilerplate Introduction Email To Send To New TRIAL Members:
We are happy to welcome you as a trial participant in the 90 Minds Consulting Group. We are a group of 20+ Sage Business Partners who regularly share technical, sales, marketing and other information that helps us to collectively market our services and Sage products.
You will receive a separate invitation to our online communications system - Socialcast.
Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the system once you've setup an account. Online help is available at the link below. You should especially notice the ability to tailor notifications to your individual needs so that you can receive updates when other members reply or create content you are interested in.
https://90minds-com.socialcast.com/help
There are also apps in the iPhone and Android market for mobile use of Socialcast.
Trial vs Full Membership
Our process for admitting full members is that we first admit participants as trial participants for a period of 6 months. This allows both of us to get a feel for whether membership is a good fit. We are primarily seeking active participants for 90 Minds membership.
Full members may enjoy additional benefits such as:
- Exclusive rights to a geographical area where we would not ordinarily admit additional members
- Ability to blog on 90 Minds.com
- Listing on our membership grid on 90Minds.com
- Cost sharing participation in various 90Minds projects (ask90minds, etc)
- Invitations to member only webcasts
- Invitations to member only discussion areas
- Other benefits which we may add from time to time
Need For Confidentiality
We expect conversations that happen in the group remain within the group.
Under no circumstances should you disclose group communications without the prior consent of the member whose communication you may be sharing.
Examples of behavior that will result in an immediate expulsion from the group without discussion:
- A member calls Sage (or any third party) and say's ""Hey I heard that (insert group member name) received this benefit/was complaining about)
- A member forwards private communication from the group to a third party (complaints about a vendor, publisher, consultant, other company).
The level of open and candid communication in 90 Minds relies on trust. Violating that trust by sharing information gained in confidence within the group is not acceptable.
You may however fully anonymize information as to the source --- example of this would be if you are researching something for a client and receive good/bad feedback you could:
CORRECT:
""mr/ms client my group members have this general opinion about xyz. "" (Note that in this case you don't disclose the member(s) making the feedbac).
WRONG:
""mr/ms client wayne schulz of Schulz Consulting says that xyz sucks and are run by shysters and you should stay away because he thinks they're on the way out"" (Note that in this case you've disclosed the member and their confidential group communication)
What's active participation?
Active participation is difficult to define in absolutes. Most of our members are active in communicating at least once or twice per week. The quantity of communication is not as important as the quality. To be considered active you should plan on communicating with the group at least a few times per week (and yes we realize people go on vacations, have projects, etc - remember these are not absolutes but rather guidelines).
If we don't see you online for a period of a few weeks or months - you'll most likely not be admitted as a member at the end of 6 months trial.
If after becoming a member we don't see you online with quality participation - you likely will cease to become a member.
We fully admit and recognize that active participation is difficult to accurately define. For the most part consider ""being active"" to occur when you're contributing with meaningful content several times within a rolling 30 day period.
Simply put this is an active group where quality participation is expected and appreciated by all of our members and is a requirement of continued membership. Don't go overboard and share what you've had for breakfast - however don't disappear for a month or two and expect to remain a member.
Who We Are
90 Minds is a group of approximately 27 different companies with 415 employees located in 17 separate states. Our members are predominantly Sage Business Partners in good standing who specialize in one of the core Sage ERP or CRM products.
http://community.90minds.com/find-a-member/by-state/
We serve as a source of second opinions for our members on technical , marketing and other issues primarily related to our members' core business of reselling and consulting on Sage products.
We have created online areas for active sharing of technical resources. Feel free to post questions or answer other member inquiries.
https://90minds-com.socialcast.com/home
Our primary membership criteria is:
a. # Years experience = 5+
b. Product focus = MAS 90 or MAS 200 or other actively market Sage product (ie Accpac)
c. Organization size is under 10 people total
d. Emphasis on firms that have niches in areas that we might want - SMI, E-Business, BOI
e. Sage partner (as opposed to end user) in good standing with excellent current technical skills
Note: From time to time we may have members who deviate from the above criteria. Such deviation doesn't mean that we grant exceptions to every member.
Active participation by at least one member of your group is a mandatory requirement for continued participation. We loosely define participation by the active contributions (we should be seeing someone from your company on a weekly basis) you make to our online communications system and sharing of helpful technical, sales or other information.
Welcome as a trial participant to the 90 Minds Consulting Group and if you have any questions please feel free to email me directly -
wayne@s-consult.com