Wondering why Wikipedia, Google and other websites have special messages today?

It’s part of a campaign to tell Congress to vote “no” on SOPA – the Stop Online Piracy Act – aka the “Internet Blacklist Bill.” SOPA would effectively give the U.S. government the same control over the Internet that nations such as China, Iran and Syria have. Any site that is suspected of hosting content that infringes upon copyright laws would be blocked. Of course, it’s extremely easy to infringe upon copyright laws. Any website in which users share content they don’t own – such as Facebook, personal blogs, Vimeo, YouTube or Twitter – could be found in violation.

But the kicker is  this: rather than simply having websites to remove infringing content, the site would be punished by potentially having its U.S. traffic blocked, ad revenue blocked and search traffic blocked.

History has taught us that harsher censorship laws lead to self-censorship. This would limit innovation, the number of Internet start-ups and – since the U.S. often sets precedents for Internet laws around the world – could become standard practice across the globe.

At this point, in 2012, communicating and sharing information online has become the norm rather than a novelty. Your small staff association likely does it every day – and your own website could be at risk if this bill becomes a law. Unknowingly, you could even be linking to infringing content, which could lead to consequences. Be sure to educate yourself on what this bill threatens and how it could affect you and your organization.

For more information, check out this awesome infographic, Google’s blog post to “End Piracy, Not Liberty” and this blog post on why SOPA is dangerous.

Edited to add: We in no means support copyright infringement and understand that many, many millions of people are involved in illegal activity on the Internet. However, we think it’s important for everyone to educate themselves on what is contained in the bill and what rights it would give the government. Being anti-infringment and anti-privacy are two different things.

Remember Summer Reading? You’d get a list of books from your future teacher with instructions to have them all read before the first day of school – and sometimes with the dreaded book report. Now, I love to read, but I never appreciated being told what to read. I like to choose my own books, thankyouverymuch.

But sometimes, no matter how much I resisted, despite my initial frustration, I ended up liking the assigned books. Some of them – “East of Eden,” for example – are now on my mental list of favorite books.

But we’re adults now, and we don’t have to write book reports anymore and reading is just for fun … right? Well … often reading can be related to our careers. After all, we can’t rely on blogs and magazines!

So, without further adieu, here are some of my top picks for this year’s “summer reading.” They may not be lighthearted enough for the beach, but I guarantee you you’ll learn something.

1. A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing: Advice From the Leading Experts

2. The Future of Nonprofits: Innovate and Thrive in the Digital Age

3. Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential

4. The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry)

5. Creating Healthy Organizations: How Vibrant Workplaces Inspire Employees to Achieve Sustainable Success

6. ON: A Brilliant Way of Living and Working

7. Decade of Change: Managing in Times of Uncertainty

8. Strength Finder 2.0

9. Conflict 101: A Manager’s Guide to Resolving Problems So Everyone Can Get Back to Work

10. The Positivity Pulse: Transforming Your Workplace

Do you have a summer reading list?

I just wanted to highlight a great upcoming program from ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership that will be taking place next month. The Online Conference for Small Staff Associations will take place Tuesday, Feb. 15 through Thursday, Feb. 17. Here’s what ASAE has to say about it:

Trying desperately to recruit and retain members? Looking for new revenue streams in an ever changing economic environment? Have you thought about what would happen to your operations if disaster strikes? Are your marketing efforts not hitting the mark? Most importantly…are you trying to accomplish all of these tasks with limited staff and budget?

If these questions are keeping you up at night, you can’t afford to miss ASAE & The Center’s Online Conference for Small Staff Associations. The program is jam-packed with essentials for association executives who operate in an organization with 10 or less staff members.

There will be two online sessions each day, so you don’t necessarily need to commit to attending all of them — but hopefully your small staff association professional peers will have lots of great ideas to share! The sessions will explore ways to maximize your membership marketing efforts, developing contingency plans for events, a case study for small staff association marketing and how to leverage outside groups. Check out the agenda (PDF) here.

We’ve dedicated ourselves to championing the needs of small staff associations since 1998, and we’re excited that there are now more events dedicated to this amazing group than ever before. If you attended the Online Conference for Small Staff Associations last year, what did you think?