American Outdoor Adventure Network (AOAN)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS?
Questions
- What is the American Outdoor Adventure Network (AOAN)?
- What are the benefits of being a member in AOAN?
- What are the requirements of becoming a member in the AOAN?
- What do the membership dues go towards?
- How do I get started?
Answers
What is the American Outdoor Adventure Network (AOAN)?
The AOAN is a network of affiliated outdoor and social clubs located in different cities and regions throughout the U.S. All of the clubs use the same web-based membership management technology provided by Memberize, which enables members in any club in the network to access any and all of the other clubs in the network with a single username and password.
What are the benefits of being a member in the AOAN?
1. Members of your club can access ANY of the other clubs in the AOAN network with their username and password, which is a great marketing tool. You can tell your members that they’re essentially getting access to multiple clubs for the price of one!
2. Being a member in AOAN also serves as a competitive differentiator. There are new social clubs (both free and paid) springing up all the time in cities around the country. However, being able to tell your members that they are part of a larger network of affiliated clubs helps differentiate your club from the stand-alone competition.
3. If you offer big trips throughout the year, you can cross-promote them to members of the other clubs in the AOAN, which helps to fill those trips from a larger pool of interested participants.
4. Being a member in AOAN also helps provide you with group purchasing power such as negotiating more favorable rates with national advertisers and vendors, or discounts with national partners. The same principal applies to gaining regional or national publicity for your club as press and media are more likely to cover your club if they know that you’re part of a larger, national network of clubs.
What are the requirements of becoming a member in the AOAN?
1. Clubs (and the majority of its members) cannot be located within a 75 mile radius of another AOAN member club. The exception to this rule is in the case of an AOAN member that owns and operates more than one club.
2. Members must pay both the application fee ($100) at the time of joining the AOAN. Then members must pay the annual membership dues ($100) on January 1st of subsequent years to maintain their membership in the AOAN.
3. AOAN members must all use the same membership management technology, so that members of any club can access any other club in the AOAN. Currently that technology is being provided by Memberize.
4. AOAN members must provide some combination of outdoor, sport and social activities for its members.
5. Membership pricing must be on par with the other member clubs in the AOAN.
What do the membership dues fund?
The Application fee ($100) is a one-time, non-refundable fee that goes toward processing your application and membership into the AOAN. The non-refundable Annual Membership dues ($100) need to be paid on January 1st for each year that you continue to be a member of the AOAN.
Each year in January, the members for the AOAN will vote on how the membership dues should be spent. Expenditures could include subsidizing the cost of doing joint, regional and/or national advertising, helping to pay for website programming changes that will benefit all members of the AOAN, or helping to subsidize the costs of joint events (i.e. big trips) that we market across all clubs, to name a few.
How do I get started?
If you meet the minimum requirements specified above, please send an email to: aoan@hillcountryoutdoors.com describing:
- What type of club you have, or are planning to have
- The geographic area for your club and membership
- Your membership pricing structure
- Your contact information (Name of Club, Your Name, Phone Number, E-Mail)
After reviewing your information, the AOAN administrator will send your request for membership to all the other members of the AOAN. If the other AOAN members approve your request, you will be asked to pay your application fee ($100). Once payment is received, you will be admitted into the AOAN.
Payments can be mailed to:
American Outdoor Adventure Network
P.O. Box 684732
Austin, TX 78768
You will also need to contact Memberize and contract with them to use their web-based membership management technology.
