AMA Membership Transformation: What Omaha Marketers Need to Know
Author: Suzanne Buzek from AMA Cincinnati
As marketers, we’ve all had our fair share of large projects. The AMA Support Center (that’s what we call the national AMA organization) is about to reveal one really big project: A simplified membership structure to coincide with the release of new technology platforms (CRM, CMS) and a redesigned AMA.org.
This is one high-stakes project, and requires all of our participation and understanding. Below is what we know. We will update this blog post if any new information becomes available, so stay tuned!
What’s Happening
AMA.org will have a new, redesigned website. Blog posts, member resources, and chapter resources will all be refreshed and updated. Managing your membership will also be simpler. Here’s how:
Only Two Options
Remember when you had to select Professional, Academic, Doctoral, or Young Professional when you became a member? People won’t have to deal with that anymore. There will only be two options: Members and Student Members.
Flat Fee
Whether becoming a new member or renewing membership, Members will only have to pay one flat rate per year that also includes dues to the home chapter: $300. The AMA Support Center is also eliminating application and rejoining fees.
Expiration Dates
Additionally, new membership expiration dates will be based on joining date. For example, someone who becomes a member on April 6, 2019, will have an expiration date of April 5, 2020. As a current member, your expiration day will not change and remains the last day of the month. If you are enrolled in auto-renew, that will process on the day of your membership expiration.
Student Membership
For now, Student Member dues will remain unchanged. The typical one-year Student Member rate will be a one-time charge of $50 + chapter dues ($10 for Cincinnati). Student Members will continue to receive a discount code upon graduation that gives them one free year as a Member.
Group Memberships
Upon implementation, Group Memberships (sometimes referred to as Corporate/Team Memberships) will be replaced by a new Group Discount program that new members can participate in (minimum of three people). We will share pricing, information, and processes for this program after February 11.
So What Now?
The AMA Support Center plans to launch everything (website, database, membership structure) simultaneously on Monday, February 11. To allow for proper transition between the AMA’s old and new platforms, there will be a multi-day blackout period on AMA.org.
AMA.org Blackout Period: February 1-11
The blackout means that no one can become a member, renew their membership, make purchases like conference registrations, or update their customer/member profile or contact information.
Related pages on AMA.org will display a message informing visitors about the blackout and providing them with an option to receive a special follow-up email once the functionality becomes available.
Important: These activities do not affect AMA Omaha’s website. We will be functioning as usual!
If you need to renew your membership in January or February… Renew by January 30 or wait until after February 11.
If you are supposed to renew your membership at a different time of year… Sit this one out. You don’t have to do anything!
If you have not been an AMA member before and want to become one … We encourage you to do so in the new system once everything is live after February 11.
If you have any questions or issues at all, please reach out to any of us on the board. This is new territory for us, too, and we are doing our best to stay on top of it.
Thank you for your membership, and thank you for being on this ride with us.