Eric Lanke
JANUARY 21, 2019
Couple of conversations this week with members of my association's Board on the differences between strategy development and strategy deployment. I probably need to provide some background first. My Board recently decided to change our cycle of strategic planning. When I first came into the organization (12 years ago!) I put it on an annual cycle of strategy development and deployment.
Associations Now
JANUARY 22, 2019
As part of an initiative to examine future forces shaping the corporate real estate profession, CoreNet Global spent time interviewing its members worldwide. The effort resulted in a new study forecasting industry trends that will affect members and the association by 2025 and beyond. As an association leader, you likely do some form of thinking ahead, whether you’re crafting a tactical 90-day plan or taking a longer view to create a five-year strategic plan.
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Wild Apricot
JANUARY 25, 2019
Here are all the free nonprofit webinars I could find happening in February.
WBT Systems
JANUARY 21, 2019
Don’t Believe Myths about Generational Learning Differences. Read more about Don’t Believe Myths about Generational Learning Differences.
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Higher Logic
JANUARY 24, 2019
If your organization manages a membership program, you know that it can be a real challenge keeping your members fully engaged while developing ways to grow your program. After all, no matter how many new members you attract, it’s your retention rate that drives real growth. Member engagement drives retention, and communication is the key to boosting engagement.
Association Universe brings together the best content for association members and organizers from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Reid All About it
JANUARY 25, 2019
The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community… Oh my god, Millennials, Gen Z, they’re here! Quick, change everything about your educational programs because these young folks are soooo different. No, don’t. Don’t fall for sensational generational learning myths. WBT Systems explains what you really need to think about when developing and marketing education for all generations.
Spark Consulting
JANUARY 22, 2019
What is the best type of networking event to hold to get the maximum member engagement? It depends. I know, I say that a lot. I’ve participated in – or seen – all kinds of successful (and unsuccessful) networking events: formal presentations with networking time either around a meal or not, peer-to-peer sharing roundtable discussions either around a meal or not, chat-everyone-up networking events with or without booze, activities (traditional, like golf or less traditional, lik
Blue Sky eLearn
JANUARY 21, 2019
Raise your hand if “providing education and learning opportunities” is part of your association’s mission statement and/or core values. With such a focus on education, isn’t it surprising when an association’s membership and events teams often have whole teams of staff, while an education department might have only a couple employees…or even only ONE?
Higher Logic
JANUARY 23, 2019
Automation rules. Marketing automation. Two terms that sound similar (and sort of are) except for the fact that they tend to be siloed into two separate spheres of community and marketing. Though it’s a tad confusing, it’s no coincidence that these two key Higher Logic features both use the word “automation,” because it reminds us how closely and effectively the two tools can work together.
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Ever wonder why brands like Apple, LEGO, and Sephora are going all-in on branded communities? It’s because online community building is the secret sauce to connecting with audiences in ways that ads and emails simply can’t. But here's the best part—it’s not just for big corporations. Associations can create thriving online communities too. GrowthZone’s eBook, "The Power of Community," breaks down exactly why a branded online community can be a game-changer for your association.
Jamie Notter
JANUARY 23, 2019
I was talking with a colleague the other day who said that in her experience, management retreats usually ended up at one of two extremes: either they were stellar and everyone loved them, or they were a disaster and people ended up quitting at the end. That may be a bit of an exaggeration—I’m sure many management retreats are more middle of the road—but it reflects a general fear among senior managers that management retreats are inherently dangerous, because they could do more harm than good.
GrowthZone
JANUARY 22, 2019
Hosting a physical conference is cost-prohibitive for many organizations with small budgets, making it an out-of-reach goal. With the technology available today, smaller organizations can reap the benefits of hosting their own conferences…virtually. Virtual conferences can offer: Member education. An excellent marketing tool. Networking opportunities for members (and presenters).
Blue Sky eLearn
JANUARY 21, 2019
Raise your hand if “providing education and learning opportunities” is part of your association’s mission statement and/or core values. With such a focus on education, isn’t it surprising when an association’s membership and events teams often have whole teams of staff, while an education department might have only a couple employees…or even only ONE?
Associations Now
JANUARY 23, 2019
Responding to emails can take up an unnecessary part of the workday. Change your email habits to save time and be more productive. Also: The American Physical Therapy Association breaks ground on its new headquarters. Type, send, repeat: The average professional spends about 28 percent of their workday on email. For American workers, that number equates to about 2.6 hours and 120 messages received per day, says Matt Plummer in a post on Harvard Business Review.
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Velvet Chainsaw
JANUARY 21, 2019
In physics, the second law of thermodynamics says all things—bodies, businesses, conferences, energy, organizations, relationships—move toward chaos and disorder. This is also known as the state of maximum entropy. In one sense, entropy is a measure of uncertainty or randomness. It is the amount of confusion, disorganization and disequilibrium. As your conference matures, it experiences entropy.
Association Success
JANUARY 22, 2019
How did one association professional forge her own virtual path? For some people, remote or fully virtual work is a shock to the system. They need the separation of going from home to office and have difficulty adapting to a completely different method of working which relies on self-discipline and self-management. Not everyone is cut out to be alone most of the time, and let’s face it: working virtually is isolating.
Association Adviser
JANUARY 25, 2019
Sometimes, figuring out if your association messages are getting through to your members feels like playing “Duck, Duck, Goose.” You hold your breath in anticipation, hoping they’ll land on “goose” and choose your message as the one of the lucky ones they’ll read that day. But, what if they do? What if they choose to open your email or read that article; is it going to engage them and encourage interaction?
Associations Now
JANUARY 24, 2019
Like new employees, first-time conference attendees will benefit from a smooth and successful onboarding experience. Some ideas for building an attendee onboarding strategy that will turn first-timers into long-timers. I’ve had onboarding on my mind for the past few days for two reasons: one, because we have a new editor joining the Associations Now team next week, and two, because ASAE is in the process of implementing a new employee orientation and onboarding process—and our newbie will be one
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.
Smooth The Path
JANUARY 22, 2019
How do you know if the questions and answers in a member survey are the right ones? You might not. Survey participants will select an answer because that is what they are expected to do or because the survey makes them, but the answer they select may not be the right answer. The answer they select might be the closest answer to the real answer, but not the correct answer.
Membersuite
JANUARY 22, 2019
We all need to continually acquire new knowledge and skills to stay employable and promotable, yet sometimes staff members don't get sufficient professional development opportunities. Read on to learn the steps to take for professional growth.
Association Adviser
JANUARY 24, 2019
As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” This holds particularly true for your association’s print and digital communications. It’s essential for your association to have a clearly defined editorial content strategy if you want to reach your communications goals. According to the 2018 Association Communications Benchmarking Report , associations know that having a communications strategy is important, but they also say that creating a comprehensive plan that meets their
Associations Now
JANUARY 21, 2019
In the past year, a number of major email service providers—particularly, and most prominently, Campaign Monitor—have expanded via acquisition. What should associations know, and what are the pitfalls to avoid? A couple of years ago, you might recall, there was a really aggressive cycle of mergers in the association vendor space. Now it’s email marketing’s turn to go through the M&A wringer.
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Idea Architects
JANUARY 23, 2019
I think we need to reframe the way many organizations currently view volunteers. They see it as something that only “some people” may do. But as The Decision to Volunteer noted, many members say they are volunteering in ways beyond how the board often defines volunteer involvement (positions, formal service, etc.). What if we think of volunteering as something everyone should do because it is one of the most significant ways to build a strong professional network, to connect more to the professi
Smooth The Path
JANUARY 24, 2019
In the last post and the one before , I have been talking about all the benefits of the qualitative methods of research (qualitative research is deep-dive, story-driven research that is adept at answering your complex questions.). But, there is one big drawback. Qualitative is not statistically significant, and unless your membership is very small, we cannot capture every member’s voice.
Association Adviser
JANUARY 23, 2019
Joe Rosensteel, vice president of digital product development for Naylor Career Solutions. Boxwood Technology started in 1997 as a way for John Bell’s recruitment company, Bell and Associates, to find more candidates for tough-to-fill mainframe engineering positions. We built an online platform that gave him a place to post job openings and vet qualified candidates before he would package them up and present each to a hiring company.
Associations Now
JANUARY 25, 2019
The American Academy of Implant Dentistry created patient testimonials, a PSA-style video, and a website to increase public understanding of implant dentistry, putting the spotlight on AAID-certified members. How to hack it? The American Academy of Implant Dentistry runs a digital awareness campaign to help the public understand what implant dentistry is and how it helps people.
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Unlock the secrets to building strong communities and sustaining growth with GrowthZone’s “5 Pillars of Community” ebook. In today's digital era, fostering a sense of belonging is more important than ever. GrowthZone’s informative ebook will help you transform your association’s community and discover new opportunities for growth. Explore the importance of personal and virtual communities, the ACHIEVE Model for success, and the key pillars including Direction, Shared Responsibility, Personal Val
Association Success
JANUARY 21, 2019
The key to impacting culture as leaders lies in purpose and accountability. Organizations becoming more intentional about how they create and sustain their culture ; realizing now what a fundamental impact in has on employees’ ability to be successful. For the purpose of this article, I define culture as the traits of the organization played out in the behaviors of all employees.
GrowthZone
JANUARY 24, 2019
In GrowthZone’s recently released 2019 Association Survey Results , we reported on everything from average employee-to-member ratio to respondents’ satisfaction with their boards of directors. In addition to some interesting trends, the survey pinpointed the top three strategies consistently utilized by growing associations : They keep fresh and relevant content in front of prospects and members.
Beth Kanter
JANUARY 22, 2019
Photo by Norbert Reimer. My book, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit , was published a month before the presidential election. In the wake of some of the most stressful times for nonprofits and activists that I work with, many are seeking out ways to reduce burnout, practice self-care and build empathetic relationships and supportive policies in the workplace.
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