Questions about REI Clubs

[Sherry Lewis]

Hi all. I just started with a local REI club this past week and I am not sure if I am in the right one. Let me explain...

There were about 12-14 people in attendance. The first 20 minutes were people introducing themselves and talking about any deals they have going on/have to offer etc. After that the presidents husband got up and talked about motivational books he has read. That was about 30 minutes. After he spoke a "finance guy" got up to speak. He had his slide shows etc. but was truly just trying to sell life insurance and using the borrow against your policy angle to justify his sales pitch. At one point I asked the president if this is how the meetings normally go and she said no, but I was not certain about this answer. This gentleman was still giving his pitch when I left after 2 1/2 hours. OK, my question is; Is this normal or should I be thinking about getting my dues back and heading to the other one in town?

[Ann Bellamy]

Before you start to do anything, do a little research.

First, what you describe is a typical format, but the insurance guy teaching you to borrow against your policy is a poor programming choice. They may have run out of ideas, or had a last minute cancellation of another speaker, or simply been trying to accomodate their sponsors (the insurance guy might be paying them to have a booth or table or speak in front of the room). Or they may not be focused on the REIA at the moment if they have other stuff going on and had to put someone - anyone- in front of the room.

So before you plunk down dues, pay for a meeting entrance fee instead of a membership. Check the group's website for past and future speakers. Talk to other members or attendees. You are unlikely to get a refund of your membership.

And it's also possible you just hit a meeting that wasn't as great as others. No REIA head providing speakers can hit them out of the park every time. Sometimes it's just a so-so meeting. But you should be able to network and make it worth your while.

As a point of information, some REIA's are non-profit, some are for-profit. Non-profits are frequently run by boards of volunteers, so the quality of programming is determined by how much time and effort the board member in charge of that chooses to put into it. For profits can make better and quicker decisions, but are motivated by profit - they make a commission on the product that the speaker sells.

So in and of itself, neither model is better than the other, both have their pluses and minuses, but do your research before you decide to fork out a year's dues.