Happy Friday! It’s finally starting to fee like spring here in Atlanta; now if only those annoying rainstorms would quit. I’m so ready for spring: more daylight, outdoor eating, baseball, the NFL Draft, flowers … it’s pretty perfect. Speaking of more daylight, don’t forget to spring your clocks forward this Saturday night before hitting the sack. Losing an hour is the only downside of the beginning of Daylight Savings Time — I’m really looking forward to longer days.

With many people attending the Great Ideas Conference, there was some great stuff in the association blogosphere this week, but not every post highlighted the conference.

1. Wes Trochlil shared some tips for organizations converting their data to a new database. There are some great reminders here, such as to stop keeping track of data you don’t need or use, keep your legacy database for future reference and only convert the data you need. Wes’ database tips always spot-on.

2. One of the newer-to-me blogs I’ve discovered recently is Ellen Behrens’. She writes the aLearning blog, and her post this week on exit interviews for members was fantastic. Members who don’t renew often have powerful information that would be beneficial to the organization, so definitely take a look at this post.

3. I read a ton of blogs, and they’re not all association-focused. This post, though, from the Six Pixels of Separation blog, discusses mobile technologies: “The Lines Continue to Blur (at Breakneck Speeds).” This one’s a great reminder about how much the use of mobile technology is increasing — and that it’s not just kids who are using it. Are you ready?

4. Lynn Morton wrote some awesome posts about Great Ideas this week, but here’s her takeaway post. From the more casual (use Emergen-C if you’re sick!) to the more serious (the spirit is there, the content is not), Lynn shared her thoughts from ASAE’s conference and encourages others to push the envelope a bit more.

5. Maddie Grant also had a great collection of takeaway and links post-Great Ideas. Her main takeaway was the concept of “autonomy,” which was discussed during Dan Pink’s closing general session. Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Don’t forget to set your clocks forward!

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Happy Friday! It seemed the association blogosphere was a little quiet this week as some people gear up for the Great Ideas conference next week. I can’t wait to read everyone’s posts from Colorado!

Regardless, there was still some great stuff in the community this week!

1. Although this isn’t technically a post about association management, Replacing Leadership With … Warriorship? is a fantastic piece about leadership. Joe Gerstandt discusses the difference between leadership and warriorship, and says that warriorship isn’t a bad thing – and that anyone, no matter their level in the organization, can be a warrior. Check it out!

2. Maddie Grant posted her monthly recap post with tons of useful links for association professionals. From social media and event 2.0 to data and technology, there are many, many great links in a variety of categories. Good stuff.

3. Jeff Hurt got a lot of discussion going this week with his Open Letter to Association Board Members, Committees, Executives. He’s tired of associations paying big money for celebrity speakers when they don’t pertain to the event. There are tons of awesome comments, so be sure to check those out too.

4. I loved Jeff De Cagna’s post at SmartBlog Insights this week: The content challenge. Now that everyone can create and distribute content more easily, there’s the challenge to “curate” — collect quality information and making sure it can support innovation and action. What will your association do with all of the available information?

5. Continuing in the content curation area, Jeff Cobb wrote an excellent post defining what a content curator does and why the role is important. As the amount of content on the Web continues to multiply at huge rates, it’s crucial to be able to sift through and make sense of it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! One more week until Daylight Savings Time starts — I’m psyched!

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Happy Friday! Who can believe we’re already just about through February? I know it’s a short month, but it really seemed to fly by this year. It was definitely an exciting month in the association community, and to round it out, here are my five favorite posts from this week.

1. Peggy Hoffman wrote a great piece stemming from an association exec’s confession on an ASAE listserv. The association wasn’t sure what to do with a standing PR committee. Peggy focused on three lessons from this confession, and the ensuing discussion. There’s no clear conclusion, but many of the committee’s tasks could become ad hoc tasks for volunteers.

2. At Association Subculture, Shelly Alcorn has started a new series focusing on Jim Collins’ “How the Mighty Fall” and applying it to associations. In part two, she writes about the pursuit of more — more mergers, more chapters, more members, more more more. It’s not always better, and can lead to an organization’s downfall.

3. I’ve been loving Jeffrey Cufaude’s “Wednesday What-If” series. This week, he drew some inspiration from the men’s figure skating in the Winter Olympics and wondered what would happen if associations focused more on consistent, high-quality work rather than tricky, big breakthroughs. One single effort or initiative can use up a lot of resources, so perhaps we should consider how to make every single element of your efforts richer and more valuable.

4. It’s no secret the association community is enthralled with “best practices,” but, as Jamie Notter wrote this week, those practices can be inherently flawed if they don’t change with time. There’s a great discussion in the comments here about how best practices have to be allowed to evolve to stay up-to-date. Does your organization blindly rely on “best practices?”

5. Thinking of incorporating video into your nonprofit’s communication plan? Be sure to check out this awesome post. One organization tried out video, and shared its successes and mistakes so others can learn from them. Some takeaways: keep it short, have a mission and keep your resources in mind.

If you’re getting hit with snow again, stay warm this weekend! Wherever you are, have a great one!

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Happy Friday! Did you have a good week? I did! As always, there was lots of great reading in the association world this week.

1. This is sort of a lengthy article, but I think it’s worth the read. Tapping into the Nonprofit Board’s Talent offers some great advice about how achieve better board relations. The article makes a great case for why your board should be involved in strategic and business operations. New perspectives can be a good thing!

2. Bruce Hammond wrote a great post on how not to fundraise. After an interesting experience with a certain university, Bruce shared some tips for making sure you target the right people in your fundraising efforts. Fundraisers should be trained and data should be carefully studied to prevent awkward situations or potentially losing a donor.

3. Over at ASAE’s Acronym blog, Joe Rominiecki wrote a post about Third Tribe and wondered whether or not it could be considered an association. Is this subscription Web site anything new? Is paying monthly a model associations should consider? How long will Third Tribe last?

Don't have an awkward elevator ride

4. Jeff Hurt had a few great posts this week, but his 20 things to do to make your conference experience more successful was my favorite. From using the Twitter hashtag to practicing your elevator speech, conferences are all about engagement and meeting new people. Jeff’s post captures this perfectly.

5. I’ve written a lot about how important it is to find your members on the social networks they’re already on, and so have Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer. Maddie blogged Thursday about a new tool called Flowtown, which can find your members across social media platforms (for a small fee). Just import your e-mail list and voila! Instant social media insight!

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a fantastic weekend! Let’s finish February strong!

How organized is your data?

I was reading Wes Trochlil’s latest article, Why Benchmarks Matter, and it struck a chord with me.

For one thing, you can’t improve your data management system if you have no set benchmarks. There has to be something already started if you want to improve upon it. Wes gives a few great starting points for keeping track of actions within your database.

For another thing, how organized is your database currently? What do you keep track of? More data isn’t necessarily better, but the more useful the data you track is, the better.

Do you keep track of those members who are active in listservs? Those who consistently volunteer? The amount of time it takes to process new memberships?

My two cents?

Know who your most active members are. Who participates in studies or focus groups? Who are the active volunteers and leaders? These people can be the evangelists to other members. They can be the ones to step up and help the organization institute changes.

Use your data and implement changes based on your findings. There’s no point in all this data collection unless you actually do something with the information.

Stop collecting data you don’t use. It’s a waste of space and a waste of time. Do you need to know how long someone’s been in their current job or the size of the company they’re with. Perhaps. But be sure there’s a clear reason for your data collection.

Technology can help you keep track of many things, but having a disorganized database is definitely not ideal. The technology can only help you so much – you have to be able to put it to good use.

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