Joining the Crowd

Volume 8

This week while doing some work for school wee were assigned to look into industry associations, because of the fact that I am mixing fashion and music I chose two associations. The first association being the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) which can be found at http://www.meisa.org. I gathered information from the student association site. The site helps to connect students in the entertainment industry to professionals working or retired from the industry. The site also stated that it helped to prepare students for the industry by pairing them with mentors and potential  employees. By securing a MEIEA membership one will be allowed to gain admission to conferences, seminars, and association workshops. Earn voting priviledges and apply for grants and scholarships.  MEIEA is a non-profit organization, the membership is for two and four year colleges and universities http://www.meiea.org states the the association currently has three levels of membership active, student, and institutional. The best part about the active membership is that it is available to anyone who wants to join the organization. The membership is good until October 31st of each year and must be renewed or will expire. The site did not state rather or not there was a membership fee, though it stated that the chapters were not required to pay. 

The second being the National Shoe Retailers Association (NSRA) where more information can be found at http://www.nsra.org. The NSRA is also a non-profit organization which represents independent shoe store owners throughout the United States and Canada. One thing that I found interesting about this particular association which seemed to line with what I want my business to be about is the fact that the typical members goal is to make sure the customer is pleased, not only with the purchased product, but also with the overall purchasing experience. The current members currently make up 20% of the total footwear industry. The NSRA offers similar if not the same benefits to its members as MEIEA. The reason I chose these two associations is because they lined up with not only my career path but also had programs that allowed students and other members to network freely with people of similar interest in career paths.