As the NCMUG Ambassador I always make sure that our members understand the value in membership. Our saying is "you membership pays for itself"
How I pass on the offers is that we have an "announcement list". This list is "read only" and I post meeting reminders, our newsletter and vendor offers on this list. It is not used for anything other then communicating with our 500 members in one email message. No fuss no muss.
I post the offers individually with the vendor name in the subject line for easy reference. I do include the purchase link and password in the message. Why? Because the list is only for current NCMUG members. If their membership expires they are removed from the list. And no one can join the list unless their name and email is in our membership data base.
I pass on each vendor offer. Why? Because it is not up to me to decide what is a useful offer or not. Each member has a delete button.
Recently I posted the 1Password offer and link and forgot the code. And since our members know how to reach me they gave me loving grief. I love our group.
BTW if any of you would like to let your members know about our upcoming Mac Computer Expo (10/1/11) I would love it. We will be doing an newsletter ad and would love support from fellow MUG people.
Thank you Sandy for the shout out in the recent UG Leader Bulletin.
-- Lorene Romero
President, North Coast Mac Users Group
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 05:15:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Gary Kampel <email@hidden>
Subject: Re: AUGD: Thanks for the 'Leader' offers
To: Apple User Group Discussions <email@hidden>
Message-ID: <email@hidden">email@hidden>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi there
The "security" for the UG discounts page has never been that hard to overcome.
The reason for the password was to allow the Groups to use the savings as a reason to join the MUG.
We used to say, "There are serious cash consequences for joining." We'd add up all they could save each month, then compare that running total to the dues we charged form joining. Get it? The reason you join the club is to get the discount codes. They save money by joining. If we just gave the password to everybody then nobody would join the club.
Our Apple Ambassador was responsible to give them out AT THE CLUB MEETING. That was their job! They were the club's first promoter. Human contact - what a concept? If you join the club you save the money. So, come on down. You're our next contestant on The MUG Is Right!
So I try not to share the secret location of the password to the code page, even though a monkey with a can opener and a skate key could find it.
Gary Kampel