Soliciting members

[John W Blehm]

Businesses and organizations use email to solicit customers and members daily.  Email lists targeting different markets are developed from internet sites and sold. 
Our Ameraucana Alliance constitution says…

•    “Article 4 – Club Director Club Directors shall be responsible for actively promoting the club and its' activities and take an active part in the recruitment of new members.”

Knowing that ABC members are interested in Ameraucanas I used the email addresses of some of them that are publicly listed online to invite them to Join the Alliance.  I’ve emailed many fanciers over the decades to invite them to join us and feel it is only common sense to specifically ask those that I know have an interest in our breed of chickens to join our chicken club.  I did this without consulting other members of our board of directors and see no reason why I should have, so I take any perceived blame and all the credit.
I was told the opposition is claiming (on FaceBook) I “phished” their online listings, which would be wrong and is nowhere near the truth. 
If anyone believes what I did was unethical, immoral, illegal or just plain wrong please let me know personally and we can discuss it.
FYI, below is the soliciting/invitation email I sent…

Dues start at just $10 per year for Newsletters by email or $15 per year for Newsletters by U.S. mail!

(logo, below, was here)

Paid members have full access to our Ameraucana Forum, may have a listing in our Ameraucana Directory and enjoy all the benefits of membership.  Our memberships run from January 1st thru December 31st.   

Click on this link to easily pay online using PayPal buttons, with drop-down boxes, and to see all the options.  You may pay for up to two years in advance…2018, 2019 & 2020.  I don’t automatically send out invoices via PayPal, but will send one if requested.

If you don’t use PayPal, please send a check to: Ameraucana Alliance, 4599 Lange Rd, Birch Run MI  48415.   

Click on this membership form link, fill it out and email it to me or send it with your check. 

Happy New Year,

John W Blehm
Ameraucana Alliance

[Denise Baker]

Dear John:

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a profitable, healthy new year.

I for 1 am extremely annoyed at what you did.  (haha) You should not be apologizing for promoting our club others may or may not know about.  This is business and how business is run.  When we sell bird and bird products, we go to the "proven interested" persons first, the "may be interested" people next,  the "people that don't even know they need our products" after that.  This is what you have done.  Bravo!


 Denise Baker,  Paradise Found Farm.

[John W Blehm]

It has been a while since we've communicated and its good to hear from you...hope you and Mark have a great New Year.
I've received many emails of support and understanding from folks like you that understand.

Thank You,

[Mike Gilbert]

This really is a tempest in a teapot.   In the long run, who cares?    The issue I had with it was the potential for stirring up more animosity among the die-hard ABC officers and members.   They have a track record of spreading half-truths and making us look bad.  And then the gullible public, newbies to the breed, are persuaded to join them and not us.   The rest of the officers seem to be pretty unanimous in their feeling that we don't need to stir that pot. 

[Beth Curran]

This was well intended - we want to be inclusive and welcome all Ameraucana enthusiasts, regardless of whether or not they have ties to the other club. While I personally dislike this style of marketing - just ask Duck's Bar & Grill... and the ECU professor who recorded that robo call about the state lottery - there was no deception on John's part, he didn't hack their membership database, he didn't request information under an assumed name, and the email he sent was clear as to both it's origin and purpose. Characterizing this as phishing was a deliberate deception, equating email marketing with the guy who wants you to wire money to Nigeria.

But we need to tread lightly and not give the other club any ammunition to use against us. Had the email addresses come from a list published by any other organization (contact information for everyone enrolled in NPIP is public), I doubt it would have raised any eyebrows, but the relationship with the ABC is just too volatile - we need to give them a wide berth. There is stirring a pot, and then there is kicking a hornets nest...

[Cesar Villegas]

This was well intended - we want to be inclusive and welcome all Ameraucana enthusiasts, regardless of whether or not they have ties to the other club. While I personally dislike this style of marketing - just ask Duck's Bar & Grill... and the ECU professor who recorded that robo call about the state lottery - there was no deception on John's part, he didn't hack their membership database, he didn't request information under an assumed name, and the email he sent was clear as to both it's origin and purpose. Characterizing this as phishing was a deliberate deception, equating email marketing with the guy who wants you to wire money to Nigeria.

But we need to tread lightly and not give the other club any ammunition to use against us. Had the email addresses come from a list published by any other organization (contact information for everyone enrolled in NPIP is public), I doubt it would have raised any eyebrows, but the relationship with the ABC is just too volatile - we need to give them a wide berth. There is stirring a pot, and then there is kicking a hornets nest...

Again as I stated before my loyalty is to the Ameraucana breed not the clubs. So when I comment I come from a no-bias perspective. That being said:

From what I got, the ABC is not really making a big deal of this. They posted a post about what happend. The word "phishing" was retracted and everyone went about their business. Lets move on.

To me other AA members seem to have more of an issue with what happened.

To me this was a case of and Im quoting Jurassic Park here. "Everyone was so preoccupied whether they could, they didnt stop to think if they should."

At the end it is what it is, this will be forgotten by next week and things will go back to normal(whatever that is) again lets move on and enjoy a good hatching season.

Happy New Year


~Cesar
"For the good of the breed"

[Mike Gilbert]

Cesar, thanks for posting that.   We did see screen shots of things both Susan and Cliff Redden wrote, and they were not exactly complimentary.   I'm glad to hear they have mellowed out a bit.
Thanks again. 

[Russ Blair]

That was my biggest fear, not knowing the adverse postings due to so many social media sites I can not access. I am glad to hear the comment were retracted and hope a lesson was learned. Like Beth I feel there are better ways to attract members and am looking forward to the new members who join this coming year