It’s tough, it’s scary, it’s intimidating … but we’ve all got to speak in public at least once in our lives. And whether you’re in front of five people or 500, it can still be extremely nerve-wracking. It’s not for nothing that public speaking is the number one fear of Americans.

Here are some tips for keeping your cool while speaking in public:

1. Use appropriate body language. Make eye contact, walk around the room if possible. Use visual aids if you can. Don’t simply read from a script. I know this seems like common sense but it’s easy to fall into this trap when you’re nervous.

2. Be prepared to adjust your speech based on your audiences’ needs and questions. If your audience becomes visibly bored, you may have to switch up your game a bit. Don’t be intimidated.

3. Take pauses. Don’t obliviously keep talking without pausing for air. Natural pauses allow your audience time to absorb information. And they allow you, the speaker, some time to mentally collect yourself.

4. Use humor (if appropriate). Humor and lighthearted jokes interject a sense of human-ness to your presentation and lightens the mood just a bit.

5. Visualize yourself giving the speech. Be clear, be loud (but not too loud), be confident.

6. Remember – the audience doesn’t want you to fail. They want you to succeed. They want to be informed, they want to learn. No one wants to see you stutter, get sick or whatever your greatest fear of public speaking is. Everyone’s got your back.

7. Practice, practice, practice. Practice may not always make perfect, but the only way you’ll ever improve at public speaking is if you continue to practice it.

8. Know when to stop talking. No one likes a long-winded presentation.

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving? Are you adjusting to being back in the office? Long weekends are awesome but the work that piles up during them is not!

I’d like to share some cool presentations I found recently with our readers today. Let us know what you think!

I particularly like the last one, which explains why social media measurement is important (and fun!). It’s so exciting to see engagement levels rising when you keep on with a steady approach to social media.

How many times have you sat yawning in a two-hour meeting, only to go back to your office or cube and think, What just happened?

In any office environment, meetings are a fundamental necessity to keep different departments and people up-to-date on various goings-on. But without proper planning, a meeting can take a turn for the worse as participants struggle to stay awake or leave feeling as if they accomplished nothing.

First, decide if you even need to have a meeting. Some issues can be solved through a few simple e-mails. Meetings aren’t the only way to convey information to multiple people.

To ensure your association’s meetings are effective and purposeful, begin with the end in mind. Set a measurable objective and goal, and make sure all attendees are aware of it.

During your meetings, stay focused. Assign actionable duties and responsibilities to people so follow-up will be easy. (This will also make it easy to determine how successful your meeting was.)

Everyone should leave a meeting with new tasks on their to-do list, or at least a sense that they’re headed in the right direction concerning tasks they’re working on.

Meetings don’t have to last hours and hours to be effective. I’m sure many small-staff organizations could have quick 30-minute catch-up sessions and be good to go.

Whatever you do, don’t just meet for the sake of meeting. Everyone should have something new to contribute and leave with new takeaways. If you ever leave a meeting and think, “Well that was useless,” definitely take some time to consider if it was worth it. Meetings take up employees’ valuable time — staffers at smaller associations in particular have no time to waste as they juggle their varied day-to-day tasks.

How often do your association’s staffers touch base? Do you have formal meetings with agendas, or does a more casual style work for your organization?

You’re a staffer at a small staff association. You’re in charge of more departments than you know what to do with. And just when you think your plate is full, the whole world is telling you to start innovating, changing your membership model and blogging if you want to thrive in the 21st century. Something’s gotta give!

Every organization has one thing in common: They all have to deal with the recovering economy and figure out what’s next. But the answer is different for every association. And every association needs to buckle down and themselves crucial questions.

How you engage members and drive volunteer involvement? Why do members join your association, and what value do they get from membership? How is Gen-X going to lead your association? How can you target Millennials?

Sure, those all sound like good, important questions. But are they the right questions for your association?

When you’re asking yourself and your staff what changes need to be made to keep providing value going forward, ask why. Why is something important to your organization’s board or membership? Why should you consider adding (or slashing) certain programs? Why, why, why?

The right questions may be tough. You may not have all the answers right away. Asking yourself the right questions is half the battle. No one knows how organizations are going to fare in the coming years. But by continuing to provide value to your members and not allowing fear of failure to get in the way, associations will have to adapt in order to survive in the 21st century.

This week is Thanksgiving (for those of us in America, that is) – and I’m still in disbelief that 2011 is almost over. What a year it’s been!

Similar to what we’ve done in the past, we’re holding both food and toy drives to support the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Foster Care Foundation of America. We’d like to encourage everyone to host similar drives if they are able to do so!

When donating items,  it’s important to give non-perishable items and new toys. Examples of food items to donate include:

- Peanut butter
- Canned tuna
- Caned beans
- Canned soups, stews and pastas
- 100% fruit juice
- Canned fruits and vegetables
- Macaroni and cheese
- Whole grain, low-sugar cereals

Has your associated hosted toy or food drives during past holiday seasons? This is an ideal time for small staff associations to partner with larger organizations to help their communities!