Upcoming Postal Rate Changes + Suggestion on Reducing Costs Related to Mailings

As many of you I am sure have heard, there will be postal rate increase coming up, effective this May 12th. Some of the highlights are below in this email. For add’l rate information, check out the following USPS link:

http://www.usps.com/prices/welcome.htm?from=bannercommunications&page=prices

In add’n to this rate increase, there will be add’l changes that will be taking place later this year, and some of them actually will benefit you. Rather then get into in this posting of all the various changes and what I see the important trends taking place that pertain to you, for that would make for a a very lengthy posting, what I like to request to each of you is to PLS involve your mailhouses at the design phase of your mailings. These guys and gals can show you how to tweak your designs that will help you save tons of money, not just in postage but in many other ways as well.

To often, from what I see, mailshop portion for most mailings is an afterthought and by that time it’s too late. As a result, literally, thousands upon thousands of dollars is wasted year after year, not just in postage but many other ways too, which could have been easily saved. Plus, as these rates continue to rise, it’s becoming more and more crucial to involve your mailhouses at design phase.

In any event, here are some of the highlights that most of you will need to know.

The rate case, filed by the U.S. Postal Service earlier this month and expected to be approved by the U.S. Postage Commission, includes changes to all types of mail, including first-class mail, standard mail, periodicals, package services and special services. Some of these rates changes that will take place include:

Non-Profit Mail:

* Regular Letters: 0.8 percent increase
* Regular Flats: 1.2 percent decrease
* Nonprofit Regular Parcels and Non-Flat Machinable (NFM): 7.6 percent
increase

First Class Mail:

The cost of a first-class postage stamp will increase by one cent to 42 cents. Mailers can continue to use the Forever Stamps they purchased for 41 cents, even after the price change. The Postal Service has announced it will have 5 billion Forever Stamps in stock to meet increased demand before the price change.

The Postal Service also intends to change its pricing for shipping services, including Express Mail, Priority Mail, Parcel Select and International Mail. Those changes will be announced in March.

As I learn more, I will be happy to share this information with you, in simple to understand language, without all the postal jargon. In the meantime, if any of you have any questions, etc. pls don’t hesitate to contact me. Thanks everyone.

Vinay

Blogs and other social media…opportunities for “golden handcuffs” in membership based societies?

Ever since I discovered blogs, it’s like a new world has opened up and all sorts of new possibilities are arising in my mind, which never occurred to me before.  Anyways, along this line, I am brainstorming an idea here and want to put it out there for input to see if it has any merit and if it’s even possible.  Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t.  Just throwing it out there to test it out.  Hope you all don’t mind.

One of the things I think about often is what can we offer to our members, similar to certification programs, that essentially serve as Golden Handcuffs, where we know the members will renew their membership each and every year.

What I am observing is that the Blogging community, as well as other types of social media, is on the increase - not only “blog owners” but also those who are signing onto blogs as participants.  This is going to only increase over time.  And there maybe an opportunity here for us associations.  Blogging provides not only good learning, one also starts to form emotional bonds and make more friends.  Therefore, between the various blogs, my hunch is that if we were to total up the number of folks participating, this could add up to a huge number of members, and possibly even non-members.

So here’s what I am thinking and wondering out loud:

1. Currently, from what I have observed, the blog addresses go something like this:

(Individual Blog Name).wordpress.com

(Individual Blog Name).Blogspot.com

So even though many of us who are part of the ASAE membership, our blogs are independent of ASAE.  So if were to drop our ASAE membership one day, we could still continue to operate our blogs as well as retain all those who have signed on, if those participants choose to do so.

2. Once someone starts a blog, it’s highly likely they will want to hold onto it for a long long time.  And the more one posts, and as more and more folks have signed on, the more “difficult” it will be for one to “let go” of the blog.

So here’s my thought - question.

Say for us ASAE members, does the technology exist where we each can create our own blogs — but rather then using say wordpress or blogspot, we create our blogs through an ASAE blog technology?  So for example, the blog name could be as follows:

(Individual Blog Name).Blog.ASAEnet.org

Then each of the various blogs we members of the ass’n community are creating, or signing on as participants, they all go through the ASAE technology?

But then the question might come up as to why should we do this through ASAE when we have free technology already out there and we’re not tied to ASAE.

To encourage this, say ASAE can create say a blog directory that they use to “promote” each and every blog that is on this “domain”.  Thus everyone is linked in some way - but in the end it all goes through ASAE.

Furthermore, since these reside on ASAE “domain”, to participate, whether it’s your blog, or you have signed onto a blog, you must be an active full paying member of ASAE.  So by having these blogs reside on ASAE “domain”, ASAE has essentially come up with “golden handcuffs” for a large part of it’s community.

Is this possible?  Does it make sense?  Any merit here?  If this is possible and makes sense, then imagine, other associations can do the same for their memberships. What do you guys think?

Again, maybe it’s a wild and crazy idea. And maybe even just plain way off the wall with no merit or potential.  But I won’t know till I put it out there. Thus, this posting.

Vinay

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Vinay Kumar

GRC Direct - Serving Associations and Non-Profits
One-Stop Shop for Graphic Design, Printing & Mailing

www.grcdirect.com
4169 Bludau Drive
Warrenton, VA 20187
T 866-648-0900 x104
540-428-7000
F 540-428-2000
E Vinay@grcdirect.com

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Valuable Lessons from Corporate America…For Associations…

First, I just want to upfront acknowledge that I realize this posting may rub some the wrong way. I am going to sound like Mr. Smarty Pants. Not my intent though. So if I come across that way, pls forgive me. I am simply sharing what I see, what I sense. Hopefully this will lead to a good discussion and some valuable learning for us all. I care deeply about the ass’n community and therefore this posting.

Something from the recent discussions on membership cards on the ASAE Membership Listserve really hit me. What occurred to me is that as time goes on, we continue to reduce tangibles of membership. And, in the name of efficiency and cost-cutting, now we’re even getting to the point where we ask our members to even print out their own membership certificates, membership cards, etc.

Guys, how much more are we going to cheapen the membership experience? What’s next? Why don’t we just let our members know the web addresses for Google and Amazon? Since we seem to be becoming efficient sources for information dissemination, appealing mostly to the mind, maybe members can instead just do themselves searches on Google and Amazon and find the information they need? In add’n, for those who want to be part of an on-line community, there are plenty of on-line communities coming up to choose from, thanks to blogs, social network sites, etc. - which by the way one can easily find via Google search. So, why do they need us?

It appears to me that as time goes on, we seem to be becoming more and more focused on feeding the members brains with more and more information. Guys, members are so much more then just a mind, a brain. They are living, breathing, emotional beings. Plus they have senses and organs that go beyond just the eyes and the brains. It’s very important we recognize this - if we are going to grow and prosper. Remember, people are not the rational beings as we think they are. In many cases, decisions are made emotionally and then rational is used to justify the decision. Membership is no different.

We need to truly understand what’s behind the stuff we send out. For example, a certificate. If viewed as simply a certificate, it’s nothing more then a piece of paper, worth no more then a few pennies. But when a member “feels important” cause of it, then this piece of paper becomes priceless, for that member.

Look, I am not coming from the view point of saving these cards, certificates and so on. What I am saying is that we need to be having a different conversation in order to move forward. From what I observe, great majority of the conversations seem to revolve around how to achieve operational efficiencies, how to get more members, etc. While I know it’s not intended that way, the conversations seem to be all about us, not the member. And therefore no surprise that we worry about things such as do we raise dues or not, we keep our dues the same for gazillion years in spite that costs continue to rise for fear that members may not renew, etc.

But then, hey, maybe I am the one who has lost it and is missing something.

Majority of my time and energy is spent in the ass’n community. So for a change, I decided to check out some corporate sites, thinking that perhaps I can get some clues from them by seeing how they position themselves and why they continue to grow and prosper while many of us seems to have become stagnant. With this in mind, I spent part of this morning visiting some corporate website of some common household names that we all will recognize. I believe it will be a very safe bet that many of our members are spending tons of money with these corporations, without questioning their “dues” and I bet they “renew” year after year, without any hesitation. And believe me, I don’t think these guys go on operating their businesses year after year without raising their “dues”.

So, what did I learn from these corporate website? Let’s look at 5 companies we all will recognize and many of us actually support.

1. Disney. Their tag line: Dreams Come True. Disney is selling happiness. Result: Revenue, Operating Income, Earnings per Share continue to rise. These guys continue to rack it in. How many of us have been to Disney? And when purchasing their tickets, did we argue with them as to why they have raised their tickets or why it’s so darn much?

2. Marriott. Their mission is providing Exceptional Customer Service. Would you believe that over the last 52 years, they have provided a 16.5% Annual Return. And their stock prices also continue to rise. This is truly exceptional corporate performance, by any standard. How many of us have stayed at a Marriott?

3. American Express. Their tag line: Membership Has it’s Privileges. And Membership Begins with the Right Card. Again, earnings per share and revenue continue to rise. How many of us carry an American Express?

4. Starbucks. Tag Line: Life Happens Over Coffee. What a bargain. Coffee at nearly $5 a cup and there is always a freakin’ line. There’s a lot of livin’ going on over Starbucks. And guess what? Many of those in line at Starbucks are our members and they are not arguing with Starbucks as to why their “dues” continue to rise year after year. How many of us go to Starbucks? Do we ever challenge them and say “Hey, I can get coffee at McDonalds for 79 cents, why is yours so much more?” I bet we just keeping going, because our “Life Happens Over Coffee”.

5. Volvo. Selling Safety. Again, sales, assets, income continue to rise. Do any of us really doubt or challenge their safety statement? If we care about and want safety, we drive a Volvo.

An underlying theme in each of these corporate examples is that they are all appealing to the emotional aspect of our beings, not so much to the mind, the rational part. Very much opposite to what we ass’n mostly seem to be focusing on. Hmmm….what’s the message their.

Having said all this, perhaps the discussion that we all ought be having and the types of questions we need to be asking are as follows:

1. What are we truly selling? How does membership in our organization touch a members life? What happens?
2. What is the membership experience we want to provide?
3. What are the privileges of our membership? I don’t believe these are a journal, a magazine, educational event… We need to go beyond these and truly identify the benefits in a language that resonates with the members. These are simply paths to those benefits.

I am sure there are other questions also. But it is also these sorts of discussions that we need to be having. that we need to be asking ourselves and as a community. While we don’t have the corporate budgets, we do have the community, the passion…These are our resources to use and build on. Finally, we need to recognize that assn’s are a business - so I feel it’s important that we be thinking like Disney, Marriott, American Express and so on. We may even consider inviting folks from these organizations to help us reposition and market ourselves. I am sure we can learn much from these guys.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for hearing me out.

Vinay

*******

Vinay Kumar

GRC Direct - Serving Associations and Non-Profits
One-Stop Shop for Graphic Design, Printing & Mailing

www.grcdirect.com
4169 Bludau Drive
Warrenton, VA 20187
T 866-648-0900 x104
540-428-7000
F 540-428-2000
E Vinay@grcdirect.com

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Early Signs of Disintegration of Membership Communities as we Know them Today?

Ever been to large gatherings which would meet regularly and then over time smaller subgroups formed, each with their own diverse interests & topics, and as time went on, each group continued to move in different direction. Before long, the larger group from which the smaller subgroups formed, ceased to exist?

Or another scenario is where say the larger fabric begins to fray at the edges. Initially no one takes note. But one day it becomes so week that it just easily rips apart, most of the time when one least expects it.

What brought these thoughts to mind is that recently I started to participate in blogs (and even started my own blog) and in the process am discovering a whole new world out there where lots of exciting and very interesting discussions are going on.

While it’s all very exciting, I also can not help but wonder how such on-line communities that are forming will impact us associations in the future. Not only each of us as members of ASAE but also the memberships of our various associations.

What I am noticing is that more and more people are getting involved in and forming “communities” around Blogs, Facebook and the likes. And while each and every individual can join and participate in each of these various communities by linking to each other, at some point I imagine it’ll become impractical and just plain impossible to keep up with it all as the number of such “communities” rapidly increase. As a result, in essence, silos may form.

To a degree, what’s happening today reminds me of what VerticalNet tried few years back, one of the early .com ventures. They had spoken at one of the ASAE forums few years back in Chicago, at the time held by ASAE Foundation, that I attended along with many other assn execs. While VerticleNet fizzled out, that concept now seems to be taking hold and becoming a reality.

This leads me to some questions, thoughts that may be worth discussing as this may very well have an impact on our future. Types of questions that come to mind are:

1. As information explodes at such an exponential rate, if we assn’s continue to pump more information, do we risk that one day our members may just begin to mentally check out due to information overload and instead start to look for other sources who can cut through all the information and just give ‘em bottom line solutions to their problems?

2. Given the such useful discussions that are taking place on these various forums such as blogs, how do we bring them into the main stream so our larger membership also participates and benefits from those discussions?

3. As more and more on-line communities form, and in the relative time scale, this phenomena has only just begun and there will be no stopping it as it has a force of it’s own, what will be the glue that will hold our communities together, as we know them today?

I am sure there are many more questions but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment. No easy answers but these I think may be worth discussing at some point at they may have a bearing on our future.

Thoughts?

Vinay

*******

Vinay Kumar

GRC Direct - Serving Associations and Non-Profits
One-Stop Shop for Graphic Design, Printing & Mailing

www.grcdirect.com
4169 Bludau Drive
Warrenton, VA 20187
T 866-648-0900 x104
540-428-7000
F 540-428-2000
E Vinay@grcdirect.com

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How to Grab Attention

Last week, I had placed a posting on various ASAE listserves (Communications, Marketing, Membership and Executive) asking folks to respond to 3 specific questions, which were:

These 3 questions were:

1. What grabs your attention;
2. What do you read;
3. What do you act on.

I was amazed to see such strong consistency in responses, which came from a good cross section of folks; from consultants to ass’n staff, from trade vs. individual societies, from guys and gals… OK, let’s dive into what I learned.

Responses to questions 1 and 3 are tied together so let’s look at these first.

1. What Grabs Attention:

It came out that familiarity and affiliation are strong factors in what grabs one’s attention. For example, when we receive materials from ASAE, given that we all are both familiar and affiliated, we look at pretty much everything and anything that comes out of ASAE. What wasn’t said specifically but I believe was implied are the information sources’ credibility, reliability, trust, honesty…

This was particularly true in the case of email. It was nearly unanimous that if an email comes from an unknown source and/or if the subject line isn’t clear as to what it’s about, in nearly all cases it is deleted or just goes unread. Lesson here is that when we send out emails to our members, as a thought, it would benefit us greatly say to add initials of our organizations, which is likely to lead to increased open rated, read rates. For example, let’s say ASAE sends out emails promoting an event. If in the subject line they start with the words ASAE, e.g. ASAE Annual Conference, as opposed to just Annual Conference, the add’n of ASAE at the start is sure to contribute to an increased open and read rates. Or let’s say we meet someone through the ASAE and we email them for the first time, by adding the words ASAE at start of subject line when first writing to them, your message is much more likely to stand out and be read.

In the case of direct mail, familiarity and affiliation matter much also. This combined with well done, creative communications, seem to be important. But if something is from an unrecognized source, or it screams junk mail, it seems that it nearly all cases, it too goes into the recycle bin. But if the source is unknown, then a well done large postcard or something that appears to be a business correspondence, it does have increased likelihood of being opened and read. As an aside, few folks even added that they like direct mail as it has longer shelf life whereas email tends to get buried or deleted. Having said this, format is secondary to relevancy. This brings me to next question.

3. What do you act on:

No real surprise here. Relevance is key. It’s about need, need, need. The right offer at the right time. Few also added that the marketers be absolutely crystal clear and direct regarding what they are promoting and their offer. They hate it when the marketer wastes their time and try to “trick” them into reading or buying products by cleverly vague subject lines or catchy layouts, etc. In other words, be direct, be clear and be honest. Then if what they are promoting arrives at time of need, then they are much more likely to read it.

This clarity combined with familiarity and affiliation, the message is sure to get through the clutter and be read. But of course, as assn’s we are not only communicating with our members where we have the advantage of familiarity and affiliation. Therefore, even more so, when communicating with non-members, we must be absolutely clear in our communications. And we must write strong benefit statements that will resonate with the readers right away, who also are very busy. In other words, they are just like us. What grabs us, is likely to grab them. Similarly what we trash, so are they likely to.

Perhaps in our communications, before we finalize and send them out, we ought to do a litmus test. We need to have a circle of friends to whom we can send out our communications in draft form to review. Say to Aunt Betsy type. If she read it, get’s it…then we’re on the right track. But if we loose her, then we need to start over. Just an thought.

2. What do you read:

This is a no brainer. If we cover #1 and #3 above well, then #2 takes care of itself.

Well, this is all for now. Hope this has been helpful. If any questions, etc. pls don’t hesitate to contact me. In closing, to all those who took the time to write, participate and share their thoughts, so that we all may benefit from their input - a big THANK YOU!!!!!

My best,

Vinay

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Vinay Kumar

GRC Direct - Serving Associations and Non-Profits
One-Stop Shop for Graphic Design, Printing & Mailing

www.grcdirect.com
4169 Bludau Drive
Warrenton, VA 20187
T 866-648-0900 x104
540-428-7000
F 540-428-2000
E Vinay@grcdirect.com

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People of Color

Hello My Dear Friends,

I was at an ass’n meeting the other day and someone made a statement that about 10% of their membership consists of people of color. At the time, didn’t think much of it. But then over the weekend, in a Washington Post article by Michele Singletary, again reference was made to “people of color”. This got me wondering. Hmmmm….who exactly are these people of color that we are referring to. So decided to spend time over the weekend doing some research and looked into several factors.

Incase anyone else also is wondering about this as I am, let’s me share with you what I found. It was quite enlightening.

First, I looked up definition of White, Black and Brown on dictionary.com. Here’s how black, white and brown are defined, the common “colors” of people I ran across in my daily life, on this planet earth:

Black: The color at one extreme end of the scale of grays - opposite to white, absorbing all light incident upon it.

White: A color without hue at one extreme end of the scale of grays, opposite to black.

(Man, this was like reading the Federal Register where one statement takes you to anther and before you know it, you’re going in circles. In any event, not to deviate from topic at hand…)

Brown: A dark tertiary color with a yellowish or reddish hue.

OK, I was stumped because they all use the word color in their definitions. So further I had to dig.

Then I looked up some medical sort of stuff and here’s what they had to say:

In humans, the degree of darkness of skin depends primarily on how much Melanin is present. In add’n, the presence of Hemoglobin and Carotine in the blood also contributes to skin color.

Still, no clarity.

So finally, I went to the big boss, at home. Yes, my wife. Yes, she is in charge, without a doubt, whether I accept it or not. Even my two daughters remind me of this every time they get a chance. But that’s a different conversation. In any event, she is a medical doctor so I figured she’ll know something about this.

She explained to me that with the exception of Albinos (which is a rare situation and very few true Albinos are present on this earth), every living human being on this planet earth has Melanin (and Hemoglobin and Carotine) and it is these elements that contribute to color.

Hmmmm….still no clear answer. OK, so I give up. From all the research I have done, the way I see it, are we all not people of color? So when references are made to people of color, who exactly are we referring, besides our selves? The only folks who are technically not of color are Abinos. And I can’t seem to recall the last time I saw an Albino. Now, I am really confused. Can someone please shed some light on this for me.

Perhaps we need to have another measure — please indicate your Melanin content level and we can be grouped by this measure.

Check here: A. 0-10%
B. 11-20%
and so on….

Happy Valentines every body. This reminds me, I also learned that every human being also has a human heart. Hmmmm….I just can’t seem to find anything that really separates us. Everywhere I look, I only seem to find similarities. The search goes on…

Vinay

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Vinay Kumar

GRC Direct - Serving Associations and Non-Profits
One-Stop Shop for Graphic Design, Printing & Mailing

www.grcdirect.com
4169 Bludau Drive
Warrenton, VA 20187
T 866-648-0900 x104
540-428-7000
F 540-428-2000
E Vinay@grcdirect.com

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My very first blog posting

This is SO exciting and SO cool.  My very first blog posting.  I am feeling as if I am entering a whole new world.  Thank you Kevin, Maddie and Tony for encouraging me, supporting me in this.  I truly appreciate it.