No wonder memberships and renewals are down…GREED…ON OF THE 7 DEADLY SINS!!!
And I was able to sign in, pulled up my horse’s record with no issues, but then couldn’t effectively change the start date due to the pop up calendar that won’t go away and which blocks the submit bottom. Guess I should email them.
Site does navigate better. And I don’t think it’s unfair to make it members only, though it would be better if they could figure out how to allow up to three free searches.
I sent an email to the head of their customer care team asking who we could direct suggestions to. She responded that she would be happy to take suggestions herself.
Michelle Bray, Managing Director Customer Care and Horse Services
mbray@usef.org
Side note, USEF is a non-profit membership organization. It’s not greed for them to change what’s a membership benefit and what’s a free service they’ll provide to the public. A large part of their annual goals HAS to be membership expansion, or they’ll die out. I work in higher ed and it’s a similar issue for alumni associations these days: do they open events to all alumni, or only dues-paying members? Who can access the alumni networking tools? etc.
The $25 “fan” membership is an interesting tactic, and it looks like they’re trying to provide benefit beyond just being able to search a horse’s record with the educational videos and so on. I’ll be curious to see how many people decide the benefit is worth the cost.
The “fan” membership breaks down to $2.08/month. That doesn’t sound super unreasonable—it’s about the same as of a cup of Starbucks coffee.
I don’t think it is unreasonable to restrict certain access to members only. It makes my membership (that I was already going to have because I show on a regular basis) that much more valuable.
Side note, OMG the dashboard is so much easier to deal with now!!! I haven’t renewed my membership for 2017 yet but I logged in to take a look—much easier to navigate.
Yes, I just logged in to check out the redesign, and for the quick look around I did, I like it. Much easier to see my records, and my horse. The site looks nice and clean.
If the $25 “fan” membership includes all the USEFNetwork streaming throughout the year, that’s really not a bad deal at all. Having to have that membership though, to look up the show record on a horse you’re possibly looking at to buy and compete, though, is really frustrating. Also agree that the suspension list shouldn’t be behind the paywall, people getting in to this should be able to see folks they might want to avoid doing business with before getting into it.
As a current non-member, I would probably purchase a fan membership for full access to USEF network.
$25/year to access services that may interest those who wouldn’t otherwise get a membership sounds reasonable to me. I will be in the minority of not loving the new layout but maybe I’ll get used to it.
Last year I signed up with I think it was called the Outreach membership just to attend a free clinic. I will do the same again this year as well. I don’t think $25 is too much to pay for a non competing membership, if there are still some good perks.
Today’s expectation is that information is free. Thank you internet. I respect USEF on their decision that services are no longer free to those who don’t pay.
It’s 25 dollars. If you own a horse you spend more than that on one horse shoe every 6 weeks. I’d bet a bucket a treats you buy is that much as well.
Why anyone thinks that they deserve access to data requires maintenance, servers, storage, dev ops, etc is beyond me.
If my horse has a lifetime membership but mine isn’t up to date, can I look stuff up?
This is more annoying than anything.
[QUOTE=the continental;9007221]
The “fan” membership breaks down to $2.08/month. That doesn’t sound super unreasonable—it’s about the same as of a cup of Starbucks coffee.[/QUOTE]
No, the amount is not unreasonable but when you were giving information away for free and then stick it behind a paywall with little/no warning to your user base… you can’t exactly expect the user base to be jumping up and down with joy.
Especially when, unless management is living under the biggest rock on the planet, they have to be aware that some portion of their membership is burnt out on the constant new fees/increases in fees/supplementary requests to just flat out donate money to USEF/never-ending give us $$$$$ communications.
And then to call it a “fan” membership is just a semantic slap in the face. People may well pay the fee because the benefits are worth it, but that doesn’t make them “fans.”
It’s a PR thing. It’s a how you communicate with members thing. It’s how you make people feel like they are part of an organization, rather than open wallets that are expected to just pay out whenever and however USEF decides.
It’s the difference between having people who are willing to support your organization because they believe in it, and losing members at such a rate that you have to put things that were previously free behind a pay wall to force them to join.
So, yeah, while I’m not necessarily fundamentally against the idea of having certain materials available to members only and I don’t think $25 is an outrageous fee… I am pretty sour about the approach and roll out of this move. And that, more than the dollar amount, leaves me feeling uninspired to become a “fan.”
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I really like the new website and had renewed for the three year term in November. For $25 it’s a very good value considering all the key information that can be found on the site.
I love that on 2 concurrently running threads…
- We’re being told that a USEF fine of $24K ain’t nothing but a chicken wing
and
- People are railing at having to pay the USEF $25
I’m just amused at the irony.
I always love it when the chorus starts of “getting nick-picked by the member organizations” is the reason that horse showing is so costly. Please! That’s a drop in the bucket.
I sign up every year with USEF and USHJA so my access won’t change. Frankly, I’ve always been surprised COTH doesn’t make this BB access only for subscribers.
I always love it when the chorus starts of “getting nick-picked by the member organizations” is the reason that horse showing is so costly. Please! That’s a drop in the bucket.
I sign up every year with USEF and USHJA so my access won’t change. Frankly, I’ve always been surprised COTH doesn’t make this BB access only for subscribers.
There was kind of a warning when they did that member survey a few months ago and asked, among other things, what you would pay for various things. So today’s announcement was not a huge surprise to me.
Right, I just renewed my USEF/USHJA memberships. I think with the $1 million insurance, it was $155 (so $130 in memberships and $25 for the insurance.) Then I pay $23 per show in USEF/USHJA fees. That is nothing compared to the total amount I spend showing at A shows. It certainly doesn’t tip the scales as to whether I can afford to show or not. I certainly can’t afford to do as many A shows as I would like to, but it’s not because of the USEF/USHJA fees. It’s because with stall fees, shavings and the office fee, I generally have $425-475 in show fees before I even enter a class!
[I]Especially when, unless management is living under the biggest rock on the planet, they have to be aware that some portion of their membership is burnt out on the constant new fees/increases in fees/supplementary requests to just flat out donate money to USEF/never-ending give us $$$$$ communications.
And then to call it a “fan” membership is just a semantic slap in the face. People may well pay the fee because the benefits are worth it, but that doesn’t make them “fans.”[/I]
I gently disagree. From what I understand, all of the same perks are still available to regular members - you don’t have to pay an additional $25 fee on TOP of your membership. This is just a second membership alternative for those of us who follow the sport but don’t actively show (like me). i.e. “fans”…
It would be a “fee” if it was assessed across the board to members and non-members alike.
I actually think it’s a great idea. And I’m guessing (and hoping) that there’s a lot more people like me who will take this option and join.
And heck, it’s a lot cheaper than FEI.tv, and I get more for it.
vxf your insights today continue to have me nodding my head! I am totally perplexed by both threads!
Nickelodian completely agree
I know it’s a big chunk of time to commit, but I would STRONGLY suggest listening to Murray Kessler’s presentation on what to expect.
I for one appreciate the transparency and what kinds of data they looked at to decide that strategy. You may disagree with it, but it’s a huge step to have it out in the open and discussed. And it’s a huge improvement from saying we are going to do x,y,z thing and then nothing happens…he came to the meeting and had things to announce that were happening now, immediately.
