I thought this was odd, because this particular organization has always been open only to people within corporations–not to consultants or service providers. But after getting two more followup emails to be sure to join, I thought, why not?

Well, because it turns out they were only kidding. Last night, I received three more emails apologizing, because the initial invitations were sent in error to people who would not normally qualify for membership.

What a bizarre set of communications–from what is supposed to be a group of prestige marketers. My first question was why, if you don’t want “my type” in your organization, do you have me on your email list–three times?

Furthermore, once you realized the mistake, it’s a shame you couldn’t  reach out to this group of professionals and find a way to include them in your organization in one way or another.

Anyone can make a mistake, it’s how you recover that your audience will remember.