I think the bigger point is that one has to "pay to play". Looking at the roster of the folks at Avid Connect, I think they could learn a lot more from listening to a panel of editors or moderators from these forums than the average editor will learn from them. Where are the panelists who can address the day to day issues all editors face

Would love to have Kelli give us an update and see if any of the concerns raised here are being addressed with marketing and management.

Avid is broadcast-centric as it is. What they need to be doing is listening to the rest of the market and figuring out what they can do to expand away from the film and broaddcast niche.

The "PR-Speak" in these releases is almost comical. Can anyone tell me what this board of "suits" will tell the user-base? I bet it will be "speed, storage and distribution". Again, I would love to see Avid take this money and use it in development and invest in the customer forums we have right here.

Interesting to me that here Avid is trying to get us to pay for our input to figure out the future for them (isn't that what a Board of Directors is there for?) and Apple releases a major update for its software....for free. Just saying... I still say that if Avid put the time and resources to this community, there would be no need for the ACA.

[quote user="jef"] Membership fees help SMPTE defray their costs. As I understand, they are not a for profit entity. They do not sell normal products to the public. They work as an independent standards creating organization. Huge difference. I think most of us feel that by paying for the product Avid has sold to us, we are should not be asked

From the blog: Q: If I do not pay to join the ACA am I still a member of the Avid community? A: Absolutely! Every customer is automatically part of the Avid community, with full access to our online communities and forums, as well as all of the communications and updates we make on a regular basis. We are introducing this new program for our customers

The question remains:what do we get for the $150 membership to this club that we can't get here, or should be getting here?

[quote user="vpcmike"]Why isn't Avid management giving more resources to the forums since their upside is so high?[/quote] Exactly. What I can't figure out is here we have a company organized community (these very forums) already in place with a proven team leaders from within Avid and professional moderators from the real world of

[quote user="Pat Horridge"] I imagine Avid want some clarity from some of their bigger customers and to be honest if $200 is a barrier it's not you they are looking for input from with this approach. And they have said they are still as involved as ever with the other methods of gathering our feedback. [/quote] So Pat, what you are suggesting