buh bye ad club
March 19, 2009
I’ve been a member of the Ann Arbor Ad Club for several years now. This year will be my last.
When I started, the annual membership covered 6-7 presentations at which dinner was served. In the first season, they were at Mediterrano, and they were wonderful. The speakers were good, the food was fantastic and there was a cash bar. Then they moved the meetings to what’s now the basement at SPARK. It wasn’t as nice, but they had good catering and offered free wine and beer. And then they moved to Conor O’Neill’s, which was better, but then they went out to a hotel at the mall, which was abysmal. Now they’re back to the hideous SPARK basement. And as for dinner, the last meeting I tried to attend, I arrived 20 minutes late and there was no food at all present. None.
Dinner wasn’t the only benefit, though: in the first couple years, I got a number of clients from cold calls off the membership list on the website. It paid for my membership, in fact. I haven’t gotten any calls in the past couple years, though. Today I went to the Ad Club website, and tried searching for my listing, typing in ‘Mitten Artworks’ – all I got was an error, not my listing. No wonder there’s no business coming through that way.
I wrote a note today to let them know their member search was broken. Apparently, they’ll fix it this summer and if it I want it sooner, then I should volunteer. Well, um, no – I don’t think so. I pay dues and those dues are supposed to provide me benefits. If I’m not getting dinner and I’m not getting exposure, then what, exactly are you doing with my membership dollars?
So, no Ad Club next year. Maybe I’ll join the Chamber, but the more likely path is that I’ll be a member of a coworking space and put my money to good use there.
What irony! You think somehow the Ad Club, which should be all about connection with the customer, would model strong connection with their own membership. Scotty, how’s our structural integrity?
Seems like the force-fields are degrading in this org. regarding their core business of giving members what they need and want. Perhaps their business and staffing model has been hit by too many blasts of disruptors – especially if it is all volunteer run. (Sorry to be so trekkie– am feeling retro today.)
Thanks for the case study of an association that isn’t working presently. Maybe things will get back on track if they start listening, if staffing renews, and if they survive.
–Deb
PS – I’m thinking about the Chamber too. AND they have a presence on Facebook and probably elsewhere. 432 FB members
My cousin is a member of Chamber and he is telling me a lot of good things about his Chamber membership. and yes, they have Facebook :)
Hello,
I am the current President of Ann Arbor Ad Club, and proud to be of service. The Ad Club is a volunteer organization and I have been volunteering for 4 years now. I understand your frustration with our new website. We updated it this year and there are some bugs in it, I agree. The Ad Club is the sum of its parts and that includes me. We would love to have a perfect company website and services for you and all the members and we put a lot of time and effort into the club. If anyone out there can lend a hand to make this possible it would be greatly appreciated.
The food issue was decided by the club before I began, many felt the sit down dinner was too much. We have received positive feedback from members on returning to Spark.
We are recruiting for Chairs and team members for those chairs. If anyone can lend a hand we can make the Ad Club into what we want it to be.
Thank you for letting me respond.
Tracy Lindsay
President Ann Arbor Ad Club 2008-2009