29 Years Old and Our First Pinnacle Newsletter!
Today’s the day! That’s right, 29 years ago to the day, Top Echelon founder Mike Kappel sent out the first Pinnacle newsletter. (You can see the top of the issue in the photo above.)
That date—March 8, 1988—is considered the official birth date of Nationwide Interchange Service (NIS). If you don’t know what the heck NIS is, then check out “27 Little-Known Facts About Top Echelon on Its 27th Anniversary” that we published a couple of years ago.
As riveting a read as that might be, we have another riveting read. That would be Mike Kappel’s first note to Network—I mean, NIS members in the first Pinnacle newsletter. That note is listed below in it entirety.
Sure, Top Echelon Network turns 30 next year, and that will be a big milestone. But as anybody who’s over the age of 30 knows, it’s better to be “29 forever” . . .
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A newsletter will be published periodically to inform our members of recent happenings, current events, and future happenings. We anticipate the format of the newsletter will change drastically and improve as the network grows.
The first order of business is to welcome you, our first twenty members, to the Nationwide Interchange Service. We anticipate that this will be the beginning of a long lasting and profitable business relationship for all of us!
A membership directory is being prepared and will be distributed to you as soon as possible. Occasionally you will receive revised editions of this directory as new members are added. For now, however, an abbreviated list of the new members is included.
Membership enrollment is one of our top priorities at this time. We are looking to build the enrollment to at least 100 members with broad coverage in the disciplines we serve. As always, we are very concerned about the quality and integrity of our members and will not compromise in that area. We receive a suggestion from one of our members on how to build the network will high caliber, high producing members. He suggested that we offer one month of free network service to any member that bring to us an agency wanting to join, which he has conducted business with in the past. We feel this is an excellent way to build the enrollment with agencies we know are ethical, as well as save you money.
Therefore, for the month of March 1988 we are offering our members ONE MONTH OF FREE SERVICE for each agency they send to us requesting to become a member which we grant membership to. For example, if you convince six agencies that you conduct business with to call us for more information before April 1 and they are accepted as membership, we will grant you six additional months of free membership! That is, we will waive your $85 monthly service charge for those months. These potential members must specifically mention (up front) that you have directed them to us, and must meet all our requirements for membership and be accepted.
If we find this method works well, we many extend our offer in the future. Please help us and help yourselves by making a few well placed phone calls. Remember, the type of agencies you direct to us is a reflection on you, so only refer “top notch” organizations.
As was mentioned, we are in the process of developing a computerized “PICK-LIST” so our members will only receive the resumes and job orders they are interested in receiving. It is to our advantage as well as yours, to have this network feature implemented as soon as possible. More about this later . . .
Again, welcome aboard and good luck making placements!