For Members Only
For the past two months, we have been promoting our Brooklyn Centre Garden Tour with a fabulous postcard that our friend and neighbor designed.
The front of the card is the chapel constructed in 1876 before the porte cochere was added. This year Mr. Halley, the general superintendent will be portraying James Curtiss, the FIRST superintendent and sharing many stories about the history of the chapel.
the back of the card of course has the pertinent information with day, 
date, and time. We are very proud of this postcard and have been placing it strategically all over town. Since I travel through downtown often, I said that I would place it in some of the hotels and at Positively Cleveland. I gave some to the concierge at the Marriott and The Hyatt, and the desk clerk at the Hampton took some, too. They all thanked me because they said weekend guests often were looking for different neighborhood things to do and this would fit in perfectly.
On my way back, I stopped at Positively Cleveland to drop some off. The lady at the desk told me she didn’t think that she could accept them. I assured her that the Cleveland Convention and Visitors’ Bureau had displayed them for the past three years. Could she please just make sure? She said there was no one to ask at the time, but that she would see what she could do. Confidently, I walked to the rapid.
Imagine my dejection, two days later when I received my bundle of postcards in the mail with a short note explaining that only members’ events could be displayed. So I guess with name changes come other changes as well. Later that day, I ran into a friend who had talked to the manager at a well-known Tremont restaurant who was glad to take our postcards because diners were always looking for something “different” to do on a Sunday. He said that another friend who owns a small company that caters to executives took some as well because his travelers also want a “different” experience. The names and identities will remain anonymous because I don’t know if they are “members”, but if they are maybe the other “members” might not be pleased that our little postcard was getting out and about in other ways.
My mood immediately elevated, but still there is just this nagging thought in the back of my head–a convention and visitors’ bureau that promotes “members only”. What’s up with that? How much taxpayer money do they get each year? And, just who are they promoting and why? And why wouldn’t they want to promote Cleveland Neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs as well?
There are. of course, some Cleveland neighborhood development corporations that are members because I saw their events’ postcards and I wondered why those postcards were there, but ours couldn’t be. I thought long and hard before posting this because I didn’t want to sound like sour grapes, but I just don’t understand a city that continues to raise such barriers and arbitrary rules. Promotion and tourism in Cleveland of all things ends with the bottom line. Can someone please help me understand why this makes sense?
Yeah that makes no sense, but sounds typical of Cleveland–a backwards way of thinking. But I do like your postcards–they are really neat!
MO
12 Jun 08 at 10:51 am
Nothing makes sense. You live in a parallel universe. Those who call the shots live in Cleveland’s Second Life.
Miss Information
12 Jun 08 at 6:05 pm
Is Second Life a member?
TimFerris
12 Jun 08 at 10:39 pm
Organizations like this are “hip fronts” behind a phobic old organization “the convention and visitors bureau”. They’re contributors (the developers, owners , VP of companies) just want something for themselves, free space for a party at public entities. I rub your back you rub mine crap.
In the trenches is some naive giddy marking director with some xenophobic office staffers who always fear they’re gonna lose their job at any moment. They simply never work together out of fear.
Thats why these “non-profits” work like they do here.
dweller
13 Jun 08 at 1:10 pm
That just doesn’t sound like that should have happened that way, Gloria. You deserve a better more direct explanation about the change if there was one.
Jill
13 Jun 08 at 8:44 pm
That’s amazing. Positively Cleveland (stupid name, in my opinion) gets tens of millions of dollars in tax money from the bed tax. I think the last time I checked the tax brought in $8 million.
And they talk about members! The members give almost nothing in dues. The vast, vast majority of its budget is from the public sector, not members.
So any public input should be accepted and utilized.
Roldo Bartimole
15 Jun 08 at 8:16 pm
[...] did ‘roots news of her own when she learned that Positively Cleveland was positively not interested in a postcard promo of her [...]
'Roots News: Recent round-up | Writes Like She Talks
16 Jun 08 at 8:30 am
I work for Positively Cleveland. It is the organization’s policy to promote members in the Visitors Center as a benefit of membership . . . currently we have more than 700 members, so that is quite a bit of collateral to house. However, in that Center we also have trained counselors that are there to provide additional information to any visitor or potential visitor and they try their best to keep up to speed on what’s going on. There are also computers in the center that feature our website and our online events calendar (www.positivelycleveland.com) which links to ArtsInOhio.com and other sites. The online calendar is a free service open to any community event (member or non-member)–as is any posting our media room. I encourage everyone to submit their events to the online calendar, inform our staff of community events (cvb@positivelycleveland.com) and send us press releases. I assure you, we use those resources.
Samantha Fryberger
17 Jun 08 at 10:11 am
Samantha, all that nonsense that you’ve spewed out here just tells me that Positively Cleveland probably has too much money and doesn’t quite know what to do with it.
By being exclusive, or exclusionary, you create a ton of bad will–and that’s about all there is to it. It’s really very simple.
A Chamber of Commerce should actively promote the community–everybody, and everything, that has potential to create good will and positive energy.
Dealing with Positively Cleveland has been a real downer overall, and particularly on this one small point. In an experiential economy, you guys are a huge net drain.
As I said, it’s simple.
TimFerris
17 Jun 08 at 4:20 pm
Roldo, I think we need to look into taking our money back; this gaping maw of the GCP is something that needn’t be fed any more. Times have changed, and they have not.
TimFerris
17 Jun 08 at 4:23 pm
Hey there. That was unacceptable for them to treat you that way. Lovely postcard. I would love to feature you or that lovely postcard on my blog. I’m all about promoting what is good about the region.
Katherine
18 Jun 08 at 8:06 am
What a crock of caca that one must be a member ( and I presume pay them more $$$$$ to join) BEFORE the Chamber will help support your endeavor in any way including handing out a freaking postcard! Tim you are dead on – there is something very wrong here.
Tom Elmer
18 Jun 08 at 8:18 am
I am sorry you feel that way, but I do want to be clear that we are not the Chamber of Commerce. GCP is separate entity from Positively Cleveland. I did forward your event information around the office and made steps to make sure it appeared on our calendars.
Samantha Fryberger
18 Jun 08 at 9:00 am
I went to the postively cleveland website to look for the calendar of events, as well as the links page. Is it me, because I can’t find it, Or can one only access the calndar if they are members. That makes sense.
Matt Bolek
18 Jun 08 at 9:17 am
Positively Cleveland, aka “Boring Clevebland,” appears to be genetically linked to the old “Greater Cleveland Shrinkage Association.” Fortunately much life can exist here without this crusty old bunch.
Lee Batdorff
19 Jun 08 at 12:42 am
Gloria,
Their response was unacceptable. I am glad to brought this up because it shows what is really relevant about their organization. I don’t buy that member promotion excuse. The event was a perfect opportunity to promote an enriching community event.
Daniella
21 Jun 08 at 3:26 am
Gloria, We are not members of PositivelyCleveland, yet they list our events as we are on ArtsinOhiocom? Perhaps there is some other way to be included? I know we recieve hundredsof hits thru this link? You catch more bees with honey….
Carolyn Birchenall
21 Jun 08 at 11:49 pm
Carolyn, what’s the link, specifically? I can’t find a darned thing that shows how they drive traffic your way. Help me out, please.
TimFerris
29 Jun 08 at 7:54 am