Association management

Presenting again, this time on taking corporate supporters to the next level (beyond exhibiting, natch), with Nicole Kukowski of Global Giving for the Association Foundation Group's 2011 National Conference.No handouts this time, but slides are below:Goin

Lots of traveling again this week, so not much reading. FB v. Google - it's getting ugly.AmEx is on the cutting edge of cause marketing once again.Could email be the key to social media success?Loving Wonkette - how did I go this long living in DC without

Another post in my irregular "What I highlighted and why while reading Here Comes Everybody" series.Whenever you improve a group's ability to communicate internally, you change the things it is capable of. What the group does with that power is a separate

Ever wanted to build your own computer - or your own robot? Check out Arduino, a simple open source electronics hardware platform, and make with the inventing.

So of course it's been beautiful all work week here in DC, and now that the weekend is upon us, it's raining.Trying very hard to look on the (virtual) bright side here, Top 5 Things I Love About a Rainy Spring Weekend: Showers --> flowersRain washes al

(Re-posting this since Blogger blew up last night and lost the post, taking me back to draft, so this version might be a little different.)And good reminders for not-so-new professionals.I've recently been reviewing resumes (a LOT of resumes) for a summer

If you don't read Fast Company magazine, what are you waiting for? It's a magazine that I have read since the early 2000s, and every issue has made me think about something I am doing in my life and career. In the November 2010 issue, which was the magazi

It's that time of year again, and in today's Association Twitter Chat (#assnchat) some of the time was devoted to talking about giving thanks and recognition to volunteers and members.For me, giving thanks to volunteers should be an ongoing process, not a

I was watching the Texas A&M vs. Nebraska football game this past Saturday evening, and I witnessed someone being probably as passionate about something as I have ever seen - Nebraska coach Bo Pelini... He was running up and down the field, screaming

An old boss of mine wisely once told me that there would always be a reason NOT to take a new position, and that it was always easier to stay in the comfy and stable place where I was.His advice has always been that I need to be willing to take a chance,

I'm back today after a little hiatus from this blog to take opposition to something you hear a lot of people say in terms of getting ahead - say yes to every opportunity that comes your way... I've heard it over and over and agreed with it for a long time

I got back earlier this week from a fantastic 2010 ASAE Annual Meeting in LA - my third consecutive Annual Meeting. It was memorable for a number of reasons, some of which I will talk about in a future post. Today, I wanted to talk about the most regular

The difference between compliance and commitment is simple; compliance means one is doing something because they have to, for fear of some negative result, (e.g., losing their job). Commitment means doing something because one believes that what one is do

I’ve owned a Kindle 3 since last October and have really enjoyed it. I don’t read it every day, but probably read it once a week. The other day I picked it up to read one of my books and

I’ve posted a new article on my website. One of the reasons I’ve always been attracted to technology is because I’m inherently lazy. I really get my kicks when the computer can do all the work for me. I can recall

I recently had to process a refund through my PayPal account (first time ever!). The account I was refunding from had only that one transaction in it, so according to PayPal’s rules, I would not be charged the usual fee

I’ve posted a new article on my website. For any association staffer who has been through the process of trying to convince their board that it’s time to invest in a new association management system, the question “Why do we need

I ordered a hand exercise product online last week. It was from a website that I stumbled across, and the product was what I was looking for. I placed my ordered and received an email confirmation of my order. And

Social media continues to explode among individuals and organizations across the world. The statistics are truly staggering: Facebook has over 500 million active users, and last year Twitter reported receiving almost 50 million tweets...per day! As more p

Still not entirely convinced annual reports present opportunity over drudgery? Many nonprofits are bridging print and digital content in creative ways that make their annual reports interactive, engaging and attention-grabbing.http://associationjam.org/st

The highlight of last month's Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington, D.C., for me came when Ramya Raghavan, YouTube's News and Politics Manager, detailed all the programs and services that YouTube provides for the nonprofit community. What was sho

Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong. But what if we're wrong about that? "Wrongologist" Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just admitting but embracing our fallibility.http://associationjam.org/story.php?title=on-being-wrong-kathr

Every day we encounter hundreds of decision points. Ideally, most of these will be snap judgments. We follow our habits or rely on intuition. ...However, patterns that work so well on small decisions often fail us when it comes to the big stuff. While it

Everyone is talking about "the power of stories" - social scientists, nonprofit directors, your mother, you name it. Connect emotionally to your supporters and they'll give! Make them see the issue in human terms and they'll give more! There's just one pr

A resident has found a Certificate of Deposit that pays a higher interest rate. The CD requires that all correspondence is between him and the bank, even though the instrument is in the Associations name. He promises to report the account status to the Bo

We have a delinquent homeowner has no job getting farther behind. What are options in North Carolina?  We have followed all rules about warning, late charges, interest charges, etc. She has promised regular small payments, but has not made them. We k

I'm one of three trustees for a 6 unit condo building. Because of the small number of units, our condo fees tend to be higher than average, but our building is also somewhat unique so units tend to turn over quickly. Like most other places in the northeas

Proxy's are only allowed during our annual condo association meeting. Otherwise you must vote in person or have a proxy carried in. We did not have a quorum, so ballots were mailed to each homeowner with a return envelope. One of the candidates took blank

I live in a building that was built in 2008. Now in 2011, there are only a few units that remain owned by the builder. I reached out to the builder to inquire about purchasing an additional garage parking space and a storage unit on the property. However,

I recently purchased a condo in a 6-unit building. My brother was the former condo association manager, and I bought the unit from him, so I am taking over as the manager. We went to the bank to change the owner of the association account and they said we

I am very excited to announce the launch of our brand new SocialFish website at www.socialfish.org. We've updated stuff, prettied everything up, added more than a dash of awesomesauce, and - most importantly - aggregated our blogs over there. Please ha

This is the third in a series of six interviews of CEOs of online community platform providers to the association industry, in conjunction with a white paper we're writing about them. The first two interviews are here. The white paper will be available

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Your friendly neighborhood Socialfish will be "IN" the NTEN Office Hours Communications Chat Room every Thursday (that's today!!) at 3 pm EST. Got burning questions about social media strategy? Or just want to hang out and shoot the breeze and get a break

This is the second in a series of six interviews of CEOs of online community platform providers to the association industry, in conjunction with a white paper we're writing about them. The first interview is here. The white paper will be available for f

Check this out! ASAE has done a great job setting up a mobile hub for ASAE09. To get there and play for yourself, go to http://asae09.org/ or http://asae09.org/m/ on your mobile phone. You can just view, or if you login using your normal ASAE login, yo

Having just turned from a wonderful cruise, this is something I am...

What am I reading today? I always appreciate it when someone shares...

What am I reading today? This a great post for meeting planners...

We association people like to say we "wear many hats," meaning association management often requires broad expertise in several different roles. The hat I generally wear is the editor's hat (which I guess would look like this if we were...

When ASAE hosted a recent study tour of about a dozen association professionals from African nations, we thanked our lucky stars for the volunteer member who developed the idea, organized most of the memorable experiences, recruited fellow colleagues to h

One of the things I love about the association world is the willingness to share ideas, models, plans, programs, documents, themes, strategies, and more. And how we're pretty okay with letting another association take our ideas and transform them into...

Per my previous post about my interest in the community-building sessions at MMCC, I'm adding a second set of thoughts here about a different question: How do you set goals for something as emotionally based as "community?" Sure, my colleague...

It's time for the Form 990 Key Ratios battle royale: DC v. Chicago; Chicago v. DC. But first, I want to thank those who have been following the quizzes all week (and I'm talking to all three of you!). I'd...

I'm sure everyone is breathlessly awaiting tomorrow's Chicago vs. DC quiz, (well everyone in the two largest association hubs in the U.S.) in this series of posts from ASAE's 990 Key Ratios database. Today, there's not particular theme, just me...