90p Admin

We have some potential 90Minds members that are in some of the DSD's offices. They are interested in meeting some of the people in 90minds in person and joining our group. I talked about our MOTM on our last partner call and one group was very interested in attending. His name is Steve Iwanoski and he is in Lancaster, PA office, I feel that this is a great opportunity for some vetting and getting some new quality 90minds members. What are the group's thoughts on this?

DSD is already a member. What do we do for other company that are members and want to bring in new peeps? Is OASIS a mandatory first step to vet them?

I think the process that was established last year with OASIS is a excellent entry point. Join the OASIS group and participate there. If the partcipation level is sufficient, they will be invited to join the more elite 90Minds group just as the five newest members were invited last August.

Steve can join OASIS at the DSD rate. Membership into 90Minds is based on the individual, not the company.

Thanks for clearing that up Mr. Schwenk!

I agree it was established for new companies but not for existing members/ or affiliates of DSD. The end game is growing our participation and feel that inviting a few of the DSD offices to MOTM to introduce them to the 90minds/oasis group is a good thing. Frankly we do not have a lot of people joining 90minds/ Oasis so I think some new blood would be good. The ERP world is shrinking and new members are gold. For example Steve brings in some good skill sets in the SAGE 100 ERP world and I feel would be a good addition.

Let me consult my copy of our bylaws and see what they...wait! Where is my copy of the bylaws?

Since the invitation has already been made, I'd find it inappropriate to rescind the offer. It is an opportunity to recruit more DSD offices to join oasis, since 90 Minds is by the individual.

I didn't see that the invitation was already made. But ... I don't care really. I think the protocol is that they join OASIS first and then 90 Minds after. The question still on the table is: are we inviting OASIS members to MotM? Again - I don't care really but it probably should have been extended to all members if we are doing it. The more the merrier as far as I am concerned but I will leave it to group consensus.

We haven't currently extended the invitation to MOTM to OASIS. We have selectively invited individuals (I think Hoyt was the only one).

Sorry, my position hasn't changed. The MOTM is for 90Minds members only! John Hoyt has been invited as it was discussed in advanced. Inviting other OASIS member was discussed early and the concensus was to wait and see how many 90Minders responded. I think the response has been overwhelming and we don't need to open it to OASIS. While Steve may have a good skill set in the Sage ERP 100 world, the venue to flesh out his potential is the OASIS group (just as we are doing with other DSD Premier partners that aren't in the 90Minds group yet). This is NOT the time to bring in ""newbies"" To paraphrase an old Smith Barney commercial ""To be invited to the MOTM annual conference, you have to earn it

You have to be 90 Minds or a colleague of a 90 Minds member. How should that apply to multi office firms?

And the precedent was set last year with Christine Reeder, Mike Arick, and Rob Neal.

The real question is how it works for multi office firms.

Robert - I'm not following your thoughts because you are speaking in short-hand. My understanding is the same as Jeff's - new people go through OASIS first and then are picked to join 90 Minds based on participation. I think that's how we've done it with multiple people from the same firm, right? If so, why would it be different with people from different offices from the same firm. If we've made exceptions in the past, I'm guessing they were discussed ahead of time. If we want to make an exception now, I think it's something to be discussed. I would also discuss opening it up to others in OASIS if we did that. Otherwise, you might have backlash in the greater group.

Right. Jim's asking about people who are DSD. They just aren't in San Diego.

Yes ... and I thought that people that were members of firms still needed to be added to OASIS, correct? Whether or not it's multi-office is irrelevant. Least that's what I thought.

You are allowed to bring folks who are part of your firm who are not 90 Minds/OASIS members.

If that's the case, why didn't you say that first?

I said it. Unfortunately in the way I was posting I was still working out what I was trying to say.

@JimWoodhead can you confirm or deny ... Did you actually invite them to MotM or did you just mention it? It seems to me that the protocol is that new members are vetted via OASIS, and not at MotM. I always thought that was true whether or not someone else from the same firm is already a 90 Minds member. If we are inviting OASIS members, we should vote to invite them all or by exception. If we made an exception last year, I would consider that a one time exception and not a rule. If we want to make another exception this year, let's put it to a vote. This is all moot if Jim did not actually invite him already to the meeting. If he has, I suggest we vote on whether or not to make an exception.

Where do @WayneSchulz and @MarkChinsky stand on this?

Yes I invited them . Wayne and I briefly discussed it before the call and since they are all affiliated directly with DSD, We didn't think it was a big deal. Frankly most of the DSD partners are already part of 90minds. Our DSD office in Lancaster, PA has been talking about joining for a while. They called and thought it was a good opportunity to meet some of the other individuals in the 90minds group. I sent him the hotel link and we discussed the dates for Steve to be here. Btw John Broadfoot in our Spokane office (who already is a 90minds member) also responded to invite too and is planning on coming now. If both these guys attend we will have a total of 25 coming to the MOTM.

Btw the call I am referring to is our monthly DSD partner call.

Wayne is away this weekend but he is ok with them attending.

I think Wayne can probably speak for himself... Here's my take on it: 1. Jim invited a non-90 Minds and non-OASIS person to MotM without checking if it would fly with everyone. 2. After inviting them, he posted here to see if we are ok with it. 3. Jeff and I aren't ok with it. 4. Robert has provided several reasons why this is acceptable (although none of the reasons seem valid to me). 5. Wayne and Mark haven't commented. 6. Robert is commenting for Wayne to reinforce the position that they can attend. At the end of the day, I have better things to do with my time than have a pissing match about this issue so let them attend. No harm, no foul. Life will go on. We aren't talking trade secrets here. When we are in San Diego, we should meet as Robert suggested to set protocol for the future. Then, if someone breaks protocol, they should clean up after themselves. Seems fair to me. I'm done here unless a vote is called.

I wasn't trying to speak for Wayne. I was just letting you know what he's expressed. Personally, I'm not 100% OK with it, but at this point, I think we need to vote on whether we allow them to attend or not. I think we have to back Jim's play regardless of how we feel since he's already done it. The second question is: Is it OK for a firm with 90 Minds members to send folks from the other offices in their firm? My interpretation of the current rule is: You can send other folks from your office. Jim has interpreted it as: You can send other folks from your firm regardless of office.

I agree that we need to back Jim's play. I understand how it happened. It's not like the rules are ironclad. At least not in my mind anyway. So let's firm them up in SD like Robert suggested. Great idea. Does the non-90 Minder understand that what is said in 90 Minds meetings stays in 90 Minds meetings? That's a concern. If Jim is vouching for him, I'm sure he's a standup guy.

Is Steve a w-2 employee of DSD? Or for that matter is Robert, Wayne, John and all of the other DSD Premier partners?

@JimWoodhead would have to answer that. i think I signed a NDA somewhere along the way.

I'm checking my copy of the bylaws and I don't see anything in there about w2s. Then again the page is blank. I'm not trying to be an ass (it just comes naturally) but is the w2 status relevant?

The point is that the Premier partners are treated as separate offices in the group because they are NOT DSD employees. All of the Premier partners in the 90Minds group were in the group before they merged their Sage operations into the Premier Partner sales organization. If Jim wants to invite an EMPLOYEE of his firm to the event, I am all for that. Christine Reeders attended last year (and has indicated she will be attending this year) because she is an employee of Telesis at the invitation of Leonard and Ron who are in the group, NOT because Telesis is a Premier Partner. Ditto with Robert bringing Michael and the same with Wayne bringing an employee of his. Membership in 90Minds is based on the individual, not on the company though the lower OASIS membership rates are extended as a courtesy to the individual in 90Minds. This lower rate has been extended to DSD Premier Partners ONLY for the purposes of membership in OASIS. Nothing else is covered. We have numerous Premier Partners that have joined OASIS in the past 15 months. They were not invited because they are just OASIS members and we explicitly discussed why they were NOT going to be invited. With the exception of John Hoyt (discussed in advance), no OASIS member has been invited. If Steve is NOT a DSD employee, then inviting him to attend is a slap in the face to the other Premier Partners AND to all the other OASIS members who might be interested. It is also a slap in the face to all of the non DSD Premier partners who are attending because they worked diligently at contributing to the group. If Steve is really that interested in joining, then he can go the website and submit his application and be contributingas soon as his firm submits payment. This summer, we can all meet him in DC and if he has contributed enough to the group, he will be nominated for membership in 90Minds and be able to attend the 3rd annual MOTM in 2014. Nomination (and acceptance) to 90Minds will be the result of his contribution to the group, NOT because he is a DSD Premier Partner. If Steve is NOT a DSD employee, then Jim should step up to the plate and explain that he misspoke and withdraw the invitation. No harm, No foul.

And there is no such thing as DSD Premier Partners any more.

So you are saying you are an employee of DSD.................

I do work for DSD. Does it matter how I'm compensated?

Personally, I'm a 'the more the merrier' on this as long as we kick inactives out. Some seem to be sticklers for procedure. From: do-not-reply@socialcast.com [mailto:do-not-reply@socialcast.com] On Behalf Of Peter Wolf Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2013 7:20 PM To: Mark Chinsky Subject: [90 Minds Consulting Group] We have some potential 90Minds members that are in some of the DSD's offices. They are interested in meeting some of the people in 90mind...

I guess we're going to have a formal vote. Regardless of why you feel the way you do, do we let Steve Iwanoski attend MOTM 2013? All in favor say aye. All opposed say nay.

Aye

Aye

I apologize for this whole fiasco. Let be known that will NOT be inviting anyone else without admin group approval until we get some documented clear guidelines..

All of DSD's offices are recognized by Sage as DSD. Last year we allowed members of 90 Minds to bring guests including at least Ken Phillips, Christine Reeder, Rob Neal and Clark Walliser. I'm fine with debating the multi office fee schedule at MOTM as well as discussing who should attend (IMO we are being a little short sighted not allowing staffers of 90 Minders to freely attend). My vote is Aye - as it will be for any 90 Minder who is bringing a guest.

Was that an aye, @WayneSchulz?

I vote aye. And, FWIW, @JimWoodhead I appreciate the mea culpa as I think it was a break in protocol. W/E. Let's move past it. We all have better things to do with our time.

Sorry. It's time to get the chest beating over with and get it behind us.

Aye aye captain

Nay

The Ayes have it.