Happy Friday! Before I share my favorite association management blog posts of the week, though, I wanted to welcome one of the newest members of the MemberClicks family. The San Diego Architectural Foundation recently joined us, and we’re excited to begin working with them.

The organization has a great mission of educating students, emerging professionals and the community about the value of design excellence. It also sponsors the Community Vision Award, which recognizes outstanding urban infill projects, and has numerous scholarship programs for emerging professionals in San Diego’s architectural community.

And now, here are my top five favorite association management posts from this past week!

1. Tony Rossell at the Membership Marketing Blog had a great write-up about the growth of membership loyalty programs. According to a study he cites, the challenge isn’t getting members — it’s keeping them engaged enough to take advantage of the membership.

2. I loved this post from Dear Association Leader, about how to delegate. I’m sure this is a problem for many small-staff associations who have little manpower, but delegating involves finding the right person — you don’t always have to do something yourself to get it done correctly.

3. Huge conferences can be extremely intimidating, which is why I thought this post — “How to save attendees from networking hell” — was so great. There are some great tips here. Attendees want to connect with other people, but it can be overwhelming at times.

4. Jamie Notter wrote about being human in organizations. No matter the size of your organization, remember that the people you work with are people first and foremost — leadership skills have to evolve to take feelings and emotions into account. Jamie writes, Dive straight into the human side. That’s where the growth is.

5. I’ve said before that I love all things pop culture, and Shelly Alcorn’s blog is right up my alley! This week’s post focused on associations becoming “experience brokers” rather than “information brokers.” She kicks off the post with lyrics from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and discusses how associations should get people to analyze rather than just acquire information. Love love love it.

And that does it! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!