The 30% discount when purchasing ANS publications is also nice.
How do you apply the discount now that they've outsourced through Oxbow? My emails have gone unanswered which is not the first time.
Same experience for me and
still no answer.
It seems the
ANS has scope to improve its latest business model and outreach approach.
On the one hand its doing a great job promoting public access via various online databases accessible by all, not just
members. But on the other, in outsourcing its sales to Oxbow books its decreased benefits for
members, by making the discount on publications inaccessible.
It has introduced the
Money Talks series of regular lectures which have many useful topics, but are really only accessible on a regular basis if you are a
New York resident member.
The e-newsletters are a great outreach tool for remote
members, but lack the substance of lectures.
As a result, the
ANS is reaching out to more people, but the benefits of
membership are very fragmentary and depend on residency.
This is
fine, if as a member you look at your annual
membership fee as a contribution that assists in the development and maintenance of all these initiatives.
However, I think they need to make some modifications to the current approach considering some form tiered access to the various databases, public domain access versus premium material access for
members (via login to the databases) would encourage the expansion of
membership as there would be a more quantifiable benefit in being a member.
Similarly, if they were to stream and video the
Money Talks lectures and make them accessible to the broader
membership beyond
New York via member login would be a fantastic benefit for the broader base of
members, particularly those like me who are Foreign Associates.
I
hope the
ANS moves in this direction to make
membership a more valuable proposition, because they are doing a great job but they are in competition with a lot of other activities and organizations that seek our annual
membership.
