90p Admin

I just received this from Association Resources - have not had a chance to read through it yet

I read this quickly, looks like for $4,000 per month they'll take over all of our roles with the exception of events.

Certainly not much of a cost savings then. Will read in depth later tonight.

It takes care of the conflict of interest issue mostly and is a good bit less than I was expecting.

The proposal from AR is one we can utilize to maintain status quo. I think it's a good option and I recommend we study it and strongly consider the proposal unless we want to revisit paid self-management again and revamp the group so as to remove conflict of interest. That would mean removing the paid people from voting/admin status. I believe AR is going to want to put 90 Minds into their Association Management system and for them that may mean converting Socialcast to a different platform. This may be a showstopper. Or maybe not. Our 95% value to members is in SC and having a place at 10pm on a weekend to get 5 answers to an important technical question. This is probably my top concern with any proposal and I understand that anyone managing the group will want to have as efficient a process for activating/de-activating members as possible. It's likely if we ask AR to continue to manage SC membership (very manual intensive) that their fee would rise accordingly. I know personally I cannot continue at present level and not have it take a toll on my business. And I cannot justify revamping the group and paying more money when we have what seems to be a pretty good option for management of the entire group. Adopting this type proposal means that volunteer committees manage: - The website content, updates - Group direction, decisions on membership, affiliates - Newsletter content, updates - The maintenance of DropBox/Evernote / potential future KB - Administrative team - MOTM and future events Committees need to report to someone on an administrative team and in turn the administrative team takes an active role in guiding the directioni including managing the committees. My suggestion is that we eliminate what we can: website, newsletter. Hold the MOTM meeting as-is (not expand). Pare back everything that is the lowest value to our membership. I'm probably in the minority however I see dark skies ahead for the Sage 100 product line. I don't believe a new coat of paint, new payroll 2.0 or much of anything is going to breath life into the line. Year over year I expect to see declines in customers on plan as companies merge/consolidate or leave Sage 100 for industry specific solutions. My expectation is that without working to actively diversify with other products that 90 Minds is at or very near it's peak in terms of membership and activity.

I need to read through it one more time but am of the opinion we probably need to make a decision at an admin only call and make a decision and get moving forward, decide to go elsewhere, or not to change.

I think we need to move forward with it. Marty will be able to give us direction and definitely help us with our conflict of interest issues. It is a Huge step in the right direction. I think we need to have a meeting in SD if not sooner to make a motion, discuss and vote.

Bringing this back to the forefront. I know it will take about a week for us all to clear off the issues that arose while we were away at MOTM. Please take some time to review. Also, the important question we need to ask is whether our **members** are best served by remaining a Sage 100 centric group or whether **actively** working to diversify is in the members best interest. I put 'members' in bold specifically,' because this is **not** a question of whether you or your firms would benefit. This is a question of what's best for the group membership.

I also recommend if we have further meetings with Sage that we have a discussion about what the value is to Sage of that and price it accordingly. Naturally Sage is thrilled to come to MOTM for little more than the price of dinner. They've had a ""taste"" of the group and at this point they can remain on the same level as any other affiliate for their dues or if they want to have further interaction that should be priced additionally.

I went through this proposal from AR and thin the biggest open issues are: a. Website upkeep is extra b. Socialcast upkeep may not be included - their proposal may require us moving to their preferred solution c. Events like MOTM are not included Some of the other areas - such as overseeing meetings and providing direction to the group will only be of as much value as we make use of. If we have a strong committee in that area then I suspect they will be of value. However, AR is most certainly not going to engage in debate or spend lengthy periods of contemplation regarding different directions the group may or may not contemplate taking. Ultimately I think an alternative to a $4,000/mo AR type contract could be someone doing the bookkeeping for $1,000/mo and some up and running consulting (possibly from someone like Joanne Benzer though I haven't spoken with her) for perhaps $5,000 to $10,000. However, if the group is actively contemplating expanding and going to publishers like Acumatica and Sage and working closer with them throughout the year (meetings, events, etc) and those publishers are willing to spend bigger money then something such as AR may be a worthwhile investment. This question of expansion vs stay-as-is is really a board level question since if you ask our core of members most of them will vote to solve error 47's faster rather than be forward thinking. It's up to the board to make more difficult strategic decisions. The long and short of this, my gut says our membership still thinks of themselves as ""Sageresellers"" and might be content to ride this train until it derails. When I'm at MOTM and hear member comments like ""I'm ok with adding Acumatica but it just has to be existing 90 Minds - no pure Acumatica VARS"" , I don't think that's realistic (or very smart) and I don't think a shortsighted group like that probably requires as much oversight as AR has proposed. My TL;DR: If the vision for 90 Minds is going to remain a comfortable sageresellers type group, consider more of an outsourced admin assistance/bookkeeper. If the vision for 90 Minds is going to be that we actively diversify, open sections for products which our members are diversifying toward (ie Acumatica) which would include admitting Acumuatica only partners (to areas that they would NOT be interacting with Sage info) which would include actively engaging (for a fee paid by publishers) as advocates for our members, which would include actively expanding some of our reach and keeping a strong web presence. Then an AR type managed service makes sense. We need to set the vision for 90 Minds (maybe even a name change to toss the perception that 90 relates to MAS90) and then select the appropriate structural support. I have already relayed that I am not able to remain as President due to the time commitments of the group interfering with my business. So it seems to make the most sense as our next step to decide upon who the go forward team (Board) may be and then have that decision about strategic direction for the group. I think we should look to schedule a call so that we can all discuss this next Thursday March 3, 2016 at 1pm ET. Does that work for everyone?

Works for me.

90 Minds Administrative Meeting Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/739597269 You can also dial in using your phone. United States : +1 (213) 493-0604 Access Code: 739-597-269

I'll be at a customer's then.

My week is open

Would Friday March 4 at 1pm ET work for everyone?

We ha e are DEPT meeting from 1230 to 2 est can you make the meeting at 2pm instead.

Friday anytime after 1pm ET works for me.

Like herding cats.... Friday PM I am downing my server and taking it to the shop so they can upgrade the OS to something that Sage will run on. Not sure if I will have Internet access at that point. I can make anything before that work. If it is only audio, I could probably make the PM work.

I am going to post a series of dates/times below - please LIKE the date(s) which you can attend. The first one to get 4 likes wins.

Thursday March 3, 2016 - 1pm ET

Friday March 4, 2016 - 1pm ET

Thursday March 10, 2016 - 1pm ET

Friday March 11, 2016 - 1pm ET

Need 4 likes to schedule something - @RobertWood can you make any of these dates/timee?

They are all good for me. I have liked.

Thursday March 10 is the day - 1pm ET. Invitations sent.

Loaded these into Google docs, shared with everyone and sent email from there. Since I do this about once every two years, not sure if all was done correctly. Please review and let me know if you have any questions. I would like to add to the agenda next Thursday.

And Sage now scheduled their second ""Learn about the payroll price increase"" webinar directly against our admin meeting. Personally, I think I've attended enough half-assed Sage webinars to last me the remainder of 2016. However if you are attending then we may need to re-schedule our admin meeting. Let me know if we should go back to the drawing board and pick another date.

I am good with staying the course.

I am too

Let's keep the ship moving.

Ditto.