February, 2013

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Can associations bridge the skills-gap for their members?

YourMembership

The following is a guest blog post by Jack McGrath, President and Creative Director for Digitec Interactive. Since 1991, Jack has worked in eLearning as an instructional designer, producer and developer for eLearning titles for The Walt Disney Company, YUM Brand Restaurants, FINRA, and Chase Manhattan, among others. Jack is the inventor of Knowledge Direct ® - a robust learning management system (LMS) used by dozens of trade associations and professional societies including the Emergency Nurses

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Tips for a Long and Happy Donor Marriage

Wild Apricot

Here are some tips for keeping your donor's love alive so they keep coming back.

Tips 258
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Reads of the Week: February 8, 2013

Reid All About it

Do you have a person in mind when you write marketing or social media copy? Geoff Drake, senior web writer for the Monterey Bay Aquarium (what a cool job!), writes for his imaginary friend Sue. “Get personal with your persona,” he says. “We have a kind of pact, Sue and I. She needs a vicarious experience, and I want to foster a connection with the Aquarium, and our oceans.

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Dump Your Committees

Thanks For Playing

Volunteerism is changing. I know I'm not the first person to think - or write - about this. Hell, Peggy Hoffman and Cynthia D'Amour have built their businesses on working with new volunteer models. But recent events have conspired to bring it top of mind for me. The thing about standing committees is that they're standing. Think about that for a moment.

Committee 207
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How to Create a Community Your Members Can't Get Enough Of

Here’s Your Blueprint for Year-Round Member Engagement. Are you ready to transform your association into a thriving, 365-day community? Download GrowthZone’s ebook, How to Create a Community Your Members Can’t Get Enough Of , and learn strategies for leveling out the peaks and valleys of member engagement. This guide provides actionable strategies to create consistent networking opportunities, deliver value-packed content, and foster connections that your members won’t want to miss.

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How Technology is Transforming Strategy

Principled Innovation

This post originally appeared last Wednesday on the ResultsDirect AssociationCentric Blog. Remarkable…simply remarkable. I find it remarkable that it is February 2013, and I am still reading magazine articles advising associations to create strategic plans every five or six years, and encouraging leaders to review those plans just once a year. Do association leaders still believe we live in that world?

More Trending

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Gamification and Your Private Online Community

YourMembership

This week YourMembership.com launched gamification. The features are incorporated into our private online community and are free to all YM clients. Gamification is a topic that has interested me since I first started researching it about two years ago. Gamification benefits both you and your members. It allows you to give weight to the activities within your organization that you deem important.

Discount 240
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Event Planning - A New Normal

Wild Apricot

Technology and social media are changing events and creating a "new normal" in terms of how we "market, consume and measure events." Here are some thoughts and tips to help small organizations update their events.

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Strategic Planning v. Strategic Thinking

Spark Consulting

Lots of chatter about strategy and strategic planning on the ASAE Collaborate groups recently, with lots of people throwing around lots of VERY IMPORTANT sounding terms. Me, I like simplicity. To quote the Eaglet from Alice in Wonderland : “I don’t know the meaning of half those long words, and, what’s more, I don’t believe you do either!

Analysis 197
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Strategic Planning v. Strategic Thinking

Thanks For Playing

Lots of chatter about strategy and strategic planning on the ASAE Collaborate groups recently, with lots of people throwing around lots of VERY IMPORTANT sounding terms. Me, I like simplicity. To quote the Eaglet from Alice in Wonderland : "I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!" What do we mean when we talk about strategy?

Analysis 197
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How To Build an Exceptional Member Experience | Weds, Dec 11th, 3PM EDT

Speaker: Jessica Bonney from VICA and Jeff Horne from Wicket

What does delivering an exceptional member experience mean in today's world? With the right insights, tools, and strategies, you can identify what truly matters to your members, drive meaningful engagement at scale, and continue to meet the ever-evolving needs of your members. Join association experts Jessica Bonney from VICA and Jeff Horne from Wicket who will share practical insights on how to build an exceptional member-driven experience by gaining a deeper understanding of your members and d

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The key to successful CSM/planner collaboration is communication

Aaron Wolowiec

Kelly Van Dyke, CMP. This post is authored by guest blogger Kelly Van Dyke, CMP. Kelly is a convention service manager at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. Email: kvandyke@amwaygrand.com. Your venue CSM should be your number one go-to person, your number one collaborator, your biggest fan, maybe even your best friend (even if only for a short period of time).

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Announcing Association Summer Jam 2013

Association Subculture

So hey all you Association Subculture blog readers.in the immortal words of Jeff Spicoli - hey bud, let's party ! On Saturday, June 15th some friends and I are starting the Association Summer Jam and here is how it works (it's TOTALLY simple) -. We'd like to find ten party hosts to throw a bash at their house on June 15, 2013. Could be a pizza party, dinner party, Beer and BBQ, potluck, pool party, low key yoga party - whatever floats your boats.

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The Power of the Crowd: Using Crowdsourcing as an Association Event Planner

YourMembership

One of the savviest trends event planners are experimenting more with this year is crowdsourcing. Mashable defines crowdsourcing as distributed problem solving. By distributing tasks to a large group of people, you are able to mine collective intelligence, assess quality and process work in parallel. Daily Crowdsource event, Crowdopolis , describes crowdsourcing as getting a crowd of people to help you with a task that used to take one person.

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How Small Nonprofits Approach Communications Differently: More Emphasis on Events

Wild Apricot

In this guest post, Kivi Leroux Miller reviews her 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report findings to see how the results from the smallest nonprofits compare to the report’s findings overall.

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2024 State of Customer Education Report

Customer education has become a key driver for growth, retention, and product adoption. Our latest 2024 State of Customer Education Report uncovers critical data and insights from a survey of over 200 industry leaders, offering a look at the evolving role of education in driving business success. Inside, you'll find data on key trends and strategies, including: Strategies for Scaling & Customization: Find out which investments in learning technology deliver the biggest ROI and scalability.

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Reads of the Week: February 22, 2013

Reid All About it

Last night I went to Ignite Raleigh where the speakers, including a few of my friends, delivered a mix of inspiration, entertainment and education. Even better, the nonprofit partner for the evening was one of my favorite organizations: the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. One of the original founders of the Triangle’s Ignite movement is Jeff Cohen.

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Great Leaders Know How to Utilize Their Team’s Talents

Association Leaders

Common sense tells us that great leaders innately know how to make the best use of their employees. They recognize hidden talents others don’t see and harness those talents to the benefit of the team. Then again, common sense isn’t so common. So, here is an article I recently read that gives a few ideas for identifying and harnessing the hidden talents of your team.

How To 163
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What I’m Reading

Spark Consulting

What you can – and can’t – learn from A/B testing. Another fantastic, challenging post from Joe Gerstandt on actor-observer bias and the myth of reverse discrimination. Fear = lunch. No really, stick with Jeff Haden here. The insights that define innovators. Hearing “we already tried that and it didn’t work” DRIVES ME CRAZY.

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What I'm Reading

Thanks For Playing

What you can - and can't - learn from A/B testing. Another fantastic, challenging post from Joe Gerstandt on actor-observer bias and the myth of reverse discrimination. Fear = lunch. No really, stick with Jeff Haden here. The insights that define innovators. Hearing "we already tried that and it didn't work" DRIVES ME CRAZY. Eric Lanke asks: why are we so afraid to talk to our members ?

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Boost Sponsorship, Exhibit, and Ad Revenue

Sales often gets a bad rep. Yet, if securing sponsors, advertisers, and exhibitors is part of your role, it’s essential. But what if it didn’t have to feel time-consuming, uncomfortable, or worse—icky? Join us for the 3-part virtual Sales Accelerator Labs , where customer experience and sales expert Carrie McIntyre will show you strategies to make sales easier, more effective, and dare we say, enjoyable!

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Ten Things to Know about St. Pete, Florida (Welcome AMCI members)

YourMembership

We’re so happy to welcome you to our beautiful city. If this is your first time in St. Pete, we’d like to give you some advice. Below are 10 must knows about the Sunshine City: 1. We like nicknames. Hipsters call St. Pete “the ‘burg.” However, you’re not in the “‘burg” at the annual meeting. You’re at the beach. 2. We like food.

Florida 214
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Wild Apricot Is The #1 Most Popular Membership Management Software!

Wild Apricot

Here are the highlights of Capterra's recently released Top 20 Most Popular Membership Management Software Solutions, in which Wild Apricot ranked #1!

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Reads of the Week: February 1, 2013

Reid All About it

Steven Rosenbaum says, “ Stop knocking curation.” I agree. There’s a big difference between aggregation and curation. I can do without the daily paper.li aggregations. I rarely read them, even if one of my tweets is featured as a “top story.” Too many of them don’t have the human (or curator’s) touch. However, as Rosenbaum says, “Information overload drives content consumers to look for human-filtered, journalist-vetted, intellectually-related material.

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What is the Association Value Proposition?

Eric Lanke

Lego Value Meal Another subject we tackled at the dinner I mentioned in a previous post was the much-reported sickness of the association value proposition. We had both association executives and consultants to the association community present at this dinner, and I couldn't help but notice that the battle line seemed to be drawn between those two camps and the perspectives they each brought to the table.

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Recognition Powers High-Performance — If You Do it Right

Speaker: Radhika Samant and Todd Wuestenberg

Employee recognition has often been deemed a "feel-good" initiative, tied closely to rewards. While we understand its importance, we tend to associate recognition with intangible outcomes like engagement and sentiment, rather than direct impacts on retention and high performance. In today’s workplace, the true ROI of recognition lies in its ability to regenerate tangible, business-driven results.

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Always the Last to Know: Apps for Creativity

Spark Consulting

Another roundup-style post on cool technology, this time of apps to help you be more creative (courtesy of Innovation Excellence , which you really should check out). The only one I’ve used personally is E vernote , and I live and die by it, so if the others are of that same quality, you really can’t miss.

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Always the Last to Know: Apps for Creativity

Thanks For Playing

Another roundup-style post on cool technology, this time of apps to help you be more creative (courtesy of Innovation Excellence , which you really should check out). The only one I've used personally is E vernote , and I live and die by it, so if the others are of that same quality, you really can't miss.

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Association Weekly Wrap-Up for February 22nd!

YourMembership

Happy Friday and Welcome to the Weekly Wrap Up brought to you by the team at YourMembership.com! The weekly wrap-ups are a great resource to find industry provoking articles, blog posts, upcoming events, fun facts, and provide up-to-date news and tips found throughout the association and workforce space each week. Please feel free to leave a comment, ask a question or just enjoy the week’s top ten picks!

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Passing The Social Media Baton

Wild Apricot

Do you have a process in place to manage transitions of staff or volunteers responsible for your social media?

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Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide

Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.

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Reads of the Week: February 15, 2013

Reid All About it

Everyone (well, most everyone) knows the benefits of content marketing. But you can’t just say to your staff, “Yeah, good idea, start doing social media.” Valeria Maltoni says, “There are three crucial challenges to overcome if you want to implement a successful content strategy ” – resource allocation, workflow planning and governance. Over at Copyblogger, Barry Feldman shares nine ways you might be losing your audience’s trust without even realizing you’re doing it.

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Don't Talk to the Members

Eric Lanke

image source I had an animated conversation with colleagues over dinner last night, during which we discussed why some association staff people consciously avoid contact with their own members. Perhaps you know some of these people. Call a member? Oh, I can't do that. They're busy. I shouldn't disturb them. Maybe I'll just send another email. Why do some people act this way?

Industry 136
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Friday Top 5

Spark Consulting

I was honored to be selected to judge ASAE’s Gold Circle awards this year in the website category. After having reviewed all 21 entries twice, I’m entering my actual scores today. And I’ve learned (or remembered) a few things from the process: Associations are making progress. Every single site has some sort of social technologies connection, and every association was at least on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Review 150