Oct. BoD Minutes

[John Jordan]

John Hill has been working on insurance issues for AAW members for years. Many of us are self-employed woodturners and insurance can be a major problem for some of us. John has tried to help with that.

John

 

[john lucas]

Not to mention the fact that our club would simply not have a place to meet without the club insurance. I'm a fan of privacy and hate junk mail but I'm glad the AAW is at least looking at the options. It does benefit a lot of people.

 

[hockenbery]

Emails not given to third parties

Generally the e-mails from the AAW are sent by the AAW so third parties do not have the our member's e-mails.

Each year there are E-mail invitations are sent to all Florida AAW members regarding the Florida Symposium at Lake Yale in February and
AAW Spring Training for Woodturners at the Tampa Woodworking show in March.

These e-mails are Sent by the AAW not the Organizers of these events.
There have been a few cases where AAW e-mails were acquired unethically and sent by third parties but these were not authorized by the AAW.

If the AAW were to forward a solicitation our e-mails would still be protected.
There are some other issues as too how far a non profit can go in supporting a for profit company.

Al

 

[Stuart Johnson]

My issue with the solicitations is the question on just how will it be determined what will be deemed to be worthwhile. Many might want information about insurance other than the automatic club insurance which doesn't require email. Who determines which insurance company or companies would be allowed to make offers?

As opposed to insurance how many would like limited time discount or free shipping offers from Woodcraft, Packards, Rocklers and so forth? These could be listed under AAW benefits as well plus the AAW could get a fee for handling the messages. Then we can branch out to Amazon and next AAW MasterCards. All of these could be seen a benefits by a portion of the members. Regardless of the origination of the email, direct or forwarded by AAW, they are all a type of spam and as members we should at the least have the option to opt out in some manner that doesn't involve opting out of "official business" AAW email.

 

[John Van Domelen]

Bring it...

Free shipping and discounts - bring it on - I'll take any email the AAW deems worthy of sending - if I am not interested - that is what the delete button is for.

 

[Stuart Johnson]

I'll take any email the AAW deems worthy of sending

John, that is the rub. What AAW deems is worthy is going to depend on the definition of AAW and who is receiving it. I agree about being able to hit the delete button but we all saw how opposed members are if they disagree with what is worthy and who is sending it. We need to be sure we don't have to make that decision. The journal sells advertising. If the "AAW" wants to push a product let them give free or discounted space. There must be away to handle this with membership profile options. If any consideration is to be given to the idea I think an opt out should be in place before the first use.

On the other hand a whole new page could be set up:

Free shipping yes
discount yes
insurance offer :
Professional no
club yes
sick no
death no
shop maybe

and on and on...

 

[John Van Domelen]

@Stuart The intent of my post was humor.

However, I don't disagree with you about the opt out. Not sure of how much extra work it would be for Ed or the office staff.
I do think just a general 'all in or all out' would be the simplest to implement without getting too nitty gritty about it. Just my 2 coppers...

I maintain a similar kind of opt out list for our local club. Those members who do not want their address and phone numbers to show on a google map app can opt out.
This resides in our password protected member forum.

 

[Mark Mandell]

Middle Ground?

Instead of direct solicitations to members, the offers of all kinds (including insurance) could be placed on a special page of the website with radio buttons for "more info", and then a very general e-mail could go out from the AAW making the members aware of offers being posted and giving them a link to the page. The e-mail might take the form of a sort of newsletter with a calendar of up-coming events and other things in a less formal format than the Journal.

 

[Jack Savona]

New information for me

I spoke with John Hill today and this is what I found out:

According to John, what he submitted was a well-researched proposal to have AAW link up with Liberty Mutual to offer the members additional discounts for LM's insurance. It would also offer AAW royalties for each policy. This was to be achieved through a letter on AAW stationery disseminating the offer, with mailing costs paid by LM. LM would not have seen the member's list.

That's not what the October BoD minutes said to me and not what I gathered when it was re-introduced at the December BoD meeting.

Thanks for the clarification, John.

 

[John Van Domelen]

@Jack

If that is in fact the case, it sounds like a win/win proposition as well as an elegant solution to the sharing of the email list issue.

All the better that it would cost the AAW nothing up front.

I did not 'tune in' to the board meeting, does anyone know on what grounds this was voted down.

 

[Stuart Johnson]

Instead of direct solicitations to members, the offers of all kinds (including insurance) could be placed on a special page of the website with radio buttons for "more info", and then a very general e-mail could go out from the AAW making the members aware of offers being posted and giving them a link to the page. The e-mail might take the form of a sort of newsletter with a calendar of up-coming events and other things in a less formal format than the Journal.

Good idea. This would solve all my issues.

Jack Savona :
According to John, what he submitted was a well-researched proposal to have AAW link up with Liberty Mutual to offer the members additional discounts for LM's insurance. It would also offer AAW royalties for each policy. This was to be achieved through a letter on AAW stationery disseminating the offer, with mailing costs paid by LM. LM would not have seen the member's list.

I don't want to receive what in my opinion is email spam and certainly don't want to receive physical spam mail on AAW letter head. I can change my email address but I can't change my mailing address. I certainly hope the BoD does not go down this road but if they do I want time to change my AAW membership address to unknown.

 

[Timothy Rowe]

Change of address

Time to get a PO Box