4. YES!Circle Anniversary Specials
In appreciation of your support over the past year, YES!Circle is offering a special-price $100 annual membership through the entire month of March! And as a special thanks to our extraordinary members: each time you refer a new member or bring a guest this month, you will receive a free YES!Circle event pass!

Please note that this is a special offer to our Newsletter subscribers and is not available to the general public, except by your referral. If you, or someone you know, would like to take advantage of the Anniversary Special, please email register@yescircle.org with "Special Membership" in the subject line and your name and payment preference in the body of the email (check or credit card via PayPal). You will be emailed an official application form and an invoice for your tax records.

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6. Member Spotlight
Member: John Burnham
Business: Real Measures, Inc.
Business Description: Rmi provides survey and economic research to membership organizations.

John Burnham's company, real Measures, Inc. (RMi) provides survey and economic research to membership organizations and the event sector. John has designed and conducted over fifty research projects for more than twenty organizations in these sectors, including research on best practices benchmarking; client and member satisfaction; compensation; cycle time; economic impacts; feedback from event attendees and exhibitors; financial operating ratios; international trade flows and practices; market analysis and regulatory issues. John is currently working with YES!Circle on designing and implementing a comprehensive survey for entrepreneurs.

John has been interviewed and quoted in academic research and numerous local and national publications, including The Journal of Commerce, The Financial Times, USA Today, Convene, among many others.

Q: John, what made you focus on membership organizations?
A: I really enjoy learning about how things work, whether it is a company, a process, a mindset or an economic sector.

Membership organizations represent companies or individuals with common interests. Because of this, members of these groups typically have common informational needs. They are in a unique position to collect data from their members and use this information to conduct analysis and produce reports for their members. Access to statistical information is cited as one of the top three reasons for members to enroll in these organizations.

I really enjoy learning about an industry by working with clients to design the project. Conducting data quality follow-up with participants to verify unusual information teaches me an immense amount about the way various sectors operate, their unique challenges and how each sector meets these challenges. Survey participants know that our conversations are strictly confidential and are unusually open with me, which can be really illuminating.

Q: What about the event sector? How did you get involved with that?
A: I first got involved with the event sector by conducting some association-sponsored trade show surveys. Then, I was lucky enough to get involved in two other projects that gave me new, unique perspectives on the event industry.

The first project was the Center for Exhibition Industry Research's Exhibition Industry Census (CEIR Census) and collected data on a more comprehensive set of events than any previous attempt. his exposed me to an immense amount of information on a huge variety of events. You wouldn't believe all the reasons people get together to hold events! The second project was the Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) Financial Statistics Survey. It collected revenue and expense ratios and other demographic and operating data for almost 200 events operated by for-profit event organizers. The range of data for the events was fascinating and told some interesting stories about how organizations chose different strategies to maximize revenues and minimize their expenses.

Event organizers are generally very passionate about their events. A lot of event organizers are small businesses. Even in large event management companies, each event is often run as its own company, with its own revenue, attendance and profit-and-loss objectives. Event organizers really get involved emotionally with their businesses. When I spoke to them about their data, their enthusiasm was contagious and energizing.

If your event or membership organization has information needs, contact John at johnb@realmeasures.com, or learn about RMi by visiting the company web site at www.realmeasures.com.

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