90p Admin

I was emailed while on vacation by David Boroi - Director of Marketing - Delphia Consulting --- and I know that @JeffSchwenk forwarded an inquiry from Brian Delphia regarding possible membership in 90 Minds. This brings up an issue that we should have a discussion about -- namely whether to admit vendors as members. I do not have any opposition to admitting vendors as members - however I recommend that: a. It be at a much higher annual fee (IT Alliance charges $2,000 joiner and $8,000 annual renewal). And, yeah, I think we could get close to those numbers.. b. Only for vendors related directly to Sage products --- aka we're not looking to admit Accumatica, Intacct, Netsuite unless the you think this would be helpful to members overall. c. If we decide to do this we develop a plan which allows the vendor members to provide webinars and other product info to members. IF we were to allow vendor members at our current fee schedule I think it would be doing the group a disservice and giving the vendors a huge deal via their access to our membership. As part of this we'd probably also have to reorganize the groups and cut out a lot of the ones that are not used while adding some that would be specific to the vendor(s).

Which groups would they have access to? I don't think it is fair to allow access to everyone's opinions/comments/etc. I would see that discouraging member activity. I would also hate to see a bombardment of webinar posts, etc. We get those in our inboxes on a daily basis already. And if we don't, I'd hate for them to get access to everyone's emails to use outside of the group for marketing campaigns. Tough call.

Scanco would also be interested in a vendor/sponsor type membership. I cant quite figure out how it would work.

The fun bit is any post not in a group is exposed. Now that we can move those into groups, it is just a matter of cleaning those up. Also, currently, any member can join any off the *groups.

Pros: - Vendor fees COULD allow us to underwrite more of the MOTM/future symposium fees for members. (Although, we have extra funds already.) - Members may be able to see options they weren't aware of. Cons: - A bunch of marketing posts that no one will pay attention to? - Alienation of members? - Alienation of members with competing products? (Harold Westover and POS come to mind although we've given a webinar by him in the past and I would see the opportunities in the future.) Maybe open it up to a poll? @RobertWood so all vendors would have access to the *groups? Can we change that in any way?

It can. Basically all groups would become closed and only open by invitation. It makes onboarding a 10 minute task instead of a 5 minute one but it's not aa big deal at all. I'm for creating a poll, but do we know what we are asking yet?

I just exchanged emails with David. I know him from the Marketing Academy.

One of the questions I have is, would Delphia be a vendor member or a regular member?

High level I think we are voting about monetizing 90 Minds. Whether we do it via admitting vendors, advertising, etc. Then once we come to terms with that concept (yes/no) we'd have to decide on how I see a. Admit vendors for a much higher recurring fee b. Charge for advertising on our web site c. In conjunction with (a) allow vendor members to present webinars to members and/or their customers If we say that we don't want to monetize then there's really nothing more that we need to do and we can continue to maintain our technical collaborative and annual meeting. I am increasingly against allowing vendors to present to our group at no cost. I think it gives them an extremely low cost way to gain access to a lot of very well qualified partners and there's value associated with that.

@RobertWood Setting aside @PeterWolf for the moment - anyone who is not a pure Sage 100 or Sage 300 would be a vendor. There's no reason for them to join other than to farm leads.

I can live with that definition...and setting @PeterWolf aside too.

I've been staying quiet on this purposefully. I like to think that I'm not a vendor as I try to contribute to support as there are more than a few members that do sell Sage CRM directly and ask questions from time to time. But I know that the traditional group value has been Sage 100 support (and now Sage 300 support). I also don't think I have ever spammed the group with ""Buy Morez $age CRM from Azamba!!!!"" or Azamba webinar posts either. (Maybe once early on ... can't recall.) If I put aside my involvement, I think @ThereseLogeais points - pros and cons - are right on the money. My biggest concern is ... too much spam from vendors and what do we do with the extra money? We need to start paying out admin members or reimbursing fees to things like ITA or MotM or Summit or we will be a for profit non-profit.

We need to decide: - Do we want to do more in the area of our web site? Advertising? Gather leads (as available). I think this is a valuable resource especially for some of our members who don't have a presence (or as prominent as they'd like). - Vendors are coming to us asking about sponsorship and getting involved in the group. While that's well and good -- is there a member benefit to having vendors participate alongside us? If there's NOT a member benefit then I would have concerns about overt advertising/spamming of services to the group which might cut participation. - Are we open to paying administrative members (basically us) - because if not then there's also little reason to expand as my sense is we are maxed out on the volunteer level (and I don't see bringing in an outsider as a paid admin to be initially feasible because it would require one or more of us to work very closely with them as an unpaid assistant).

Are we going to have an admin conference call any time soon? I think we need to hash this out sooner rather than later.

All good comments, by the way. I agree with Wayne and @PeterWolf (and with @RobertWood about setting aside Peter).

Let's keep it simple - the way I see it we have two major questions: 1. Are you in favor of possibly admitting vendor members for a much higher fee to a segregated area and administering a program which could allow them to present webinar(s) to our members and possibly customers? - Vendors get segregated group - We maintain a set of pricing, literature for their solution - Vendors have opportunity (cost TBD) to present webinar - Spamming or frequent promotion is discouraged (though I do not think this will be as much of a problem as we think) 2. Are you in favor of monetizing our web site by accepting advertising (banner ads) which would fund the effort to blog and increase the web presence of 90 Minds. Depending upon funds we might also buy Google Ads though at first our efforts should be organic (non-paid) search and social marketing of 90 Minds.

@ThereseLogeais we did have regular standing meeting - the first Monday of each month - prior to Summit. Should I start those back up?

If I could have a pick - I would much prefer morning meetings.

Well your morning is earlier than mine and @PeterWolf's but way earlier than @JimWoodhead 's . I'm not crazy about evening ones but what time would work for everyone? Can we set aside an hour during the day?

I'm ok with that but @JimWoodhead is on the west coast so his mornings mean lunchtime for you.

For a once per month call, I will gladly make the time - especially if we are getting serious about shaping the direction of the group.

You schedule it and i will make.

Can we do it about noon time. If it were on a Wednesday that would probably work in terms of scheduling around emergencies. 12 et would let Jim be on at 9am

That's 11 my time. That works for me!

I sent an invite with goto call in and screenshare. It also supports video cameras if you are so inclined. Please join my meeting. https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/464085785 Dial +1 (636) 277-0130 Access Code: 464-085-785

Well, well, well, the day that I am busy getting things off my desk so I can go on the big 30 anniversary vacation next month and the admin switch board lights like the Washington Memorial on the 4th of July.............. Now I understand the reason for today's fireworks and why I have an invite for the Pow Wow..... Brian Delphia isn't the only one, last month Joe Bisaha of JDBG Solutions (WOScan and JOScan) expressed an interest in joining....

I was in meeting all day too. I have mixed opinions like you all and agree with the concerns. I look forward to hammering it out.

Have a look at how Blytheco prices their advertising and vendor plan