To our valued members, past, present & future:
It’s time once again to renew your MassAccess membership. As you’ll no doubt remember, we base our memberships on the calendar year so that we’re not sending out renewals every month. In essence, if you join or renew at any time in the first nine months of any year, you’re credited for that year. If you join or renew after October 1 of any year, you’re credited for the current and subsequent year. Please also remember that it is our policy that MMX usage may be suspended after January 31 of any year if dues are not paid. We do this not to be exclusive, but to make sure that our members feel as though there are benefits to being part of our organization. What else does your membership contribute to? Well…
This year, thanks to your support, MassAccess was able to develop and file two separate bills at the State House, one supporting access to HD channels and Electronic Program Guides and one supporting a change in the language of the Enterprise Fund Law. If successful, these bills will protect the future viability of our field and improve our transmission and promotion options. Our Spring Conference and Fall Meet & Greets were met with great enthusiasm and we’re very excited for our Annual Meeting and First Annual Massachusetts Creator Awards on January 23, 2018. Our new website was launched in 2017 and you can look forward to more member benefits, such as an improved listserv, coming your way very soon. Speaking of the new year, please mark your calendars for Friday, May 4th – the date of the 2018 MassAccess Spring Conference. More details to come!
As I mentioned in a recent release, your online renewal experience may be different than it has been in the past. Please be sure to contact me if you have any questions as you go through the process of renewing your membership and updating all the information for your organization or business. One common trend I see when organizations sign up is inaccurate user names. I know it’s not obvious when you sign up, but if you’re signing up for an organizational membership, the user name should be the name of the organization…not YOUR name. This causes the database to be difficult to maintain and unfortunately, user names can not be changed. Also, when you go to log in, make sure you’re using the organization’s login, not your personal one…which may be different. The administrative account associated with the organization is the only one that can make profile changes for the organization. It takes some getting used to, so please let me know if I can be of help.
Lastly, I wanted to mention that physical renewal letters are being mailed on December 29. If you don’t receive one, it means that you either were not active in 2017, or we have made a clerical error. Either way, we need to hear from you! If 2017 taught us anything, it’s that we can really be effective when we work together. I know I speak for the rest of the Board of Directors when I say that the support we get from our members energizes us as we continue to advocate for every one of you. Thank you for all your efforts and we hope we can count on you going forward. Have a happy and safe New Year’s.
David Gauthier, Vice President
