Happy Friday! I’m unusually tired this morning so I’m definitely glad the weekend is upon us. Who’s excited for the Super Bowl? Whether you watch for the sport, the commercials or the halftime show — or even if you just like the food that comes along with the game — I hope you enjoy yourselves!

There was a nice variety of topics floating around the association industry this week! Here area  few of my favorites.

Super Bowl food?

1. Does the fact that any of your members can post video from your meetings on the Internet concern you? Mark Alcorn at the Association Law Blog posted a recommended course of action for dealing with members who post videos. Most importantly – is the video supportive of the association? Should any members be allowed to post videos or should they join the association’s team? Good food for thought here.

2. Although this post isn’t necessarily geared toward associations, I think it’s a great read – especially for small staff associations! How Small Businesses Can Get BIG Online With Content Marketing shares some great tips that small organizations can take advantage of. Content marketing is so useful because it can truly establish your association as a leader within its industry. One of my favorite tips? (Not surprisingly), blogs!

3. At the Drake & Company blog, Nancy Soucek points out that if your content is good, it makes sense to repurpose it. Just because you’ve already published something in a newsletter, e-mail or blog doesn’t mean you can’t publish it someplace else or direct toward another audience. You work hard at developing your content, so make sure you put it to good use!

4. Scott Briscoe at the Acronym blog had an interesting post that spurred some good comments. Is it the staff’s job to make the CEO successful, or is it the CEO’s job to make the staff successful? The answer could change depending on your association and its staff size. Additionally, if you want to build value for your members, what are some things you could do in advance to prepare

5. Kerry Stackpole asked a provocative question at the Wired 4 Leadership blog: If your business or organization went out of business today, who would miss you and why? It’s a simple question at first glance, but it’s extremely important and relevant, especially in today’s digital world. Everything is cyclical, and, as Kerry points out, industries can come and go with time.

No matter what your weekend plans are – and no matter which team you’ll be supporting on Sunday – have a great weekend!

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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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This is part one of a series exploring the value of virtual attendance.

Should socially produced content be repackaged in a more “professional-looking” format to be sold to virtual attendees? Or should every session be live-streamed for free? What is the true value of a virtual experience?

Every week at 2 p.m. EDT, association professionals take an hour to discuss with each other issues facing the community. The platform? Twitter. Attaching the designation/hashtag #assnchat (yes, it’s horrible and attracts a few trolls now and then) to our tweets, we chat about technology, social media, membership and anything related to associations.

This week, the discussion was focused on takeaways from ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership’s Annual Meeting and Expo, as well as ideas to improve next year’s meeting. What began as a discussion about key learning points turned into a conversation about how to create a fulfilling experience for virtual attendees, and what it should cost — if anything.

As association professionals, do you pay conference fees for the interaction with your peers or for the content it provides?

This is a sticky situation, especially since a lot of content surrounding these conferences is now “socially created” through tweets, blog posts, podcasts or videos. Real-life attendees paid to be at the conference, and they supply other content to virtual attendees, who pay nothing.

I can’t help but be reminded of the news industry (whether it’s broadsheet, broadcast or broadband). Consumers have never truly paid for news. Advertisers have. And that’s the problem facing many industries (news providers, associations and more) today.

The business model is changing. And no one knows what to do about it.

The chat on Aug. 25 was one of the liveliest I’ve participated in in awhile. There were many, many opinions — some believe virtual attendance should be entirely free, some proposed different business models (for example, charging for edited content while allowing “raw” content to be free) and some thought event planners should hire content creators and charge for the work they generate.

Of course, every situation is different. Should valuable content be given away for free? Content creators obviously want to be compensated for their work, especially if it’s extremely time-consuming.

For starters, I don’t think the virtual experience at this year’s ASAE was too great. I’m sure everyone enjoyed following the tweets (hashtag: #asae09) and learned a lot, but there were very few live video streams of general sessions and learning labs. Jeff de Cagna streamed his session live and also took questions via Twitter, which I think is a great start.

But the majority of presenters — ideally, everyone — should do something similar. And what works for one conference may not work for another. I welcome any additional suggestions, thoughts and criticisms.

Part two will be available on Aug. 27, and will explore different options for associations, focusing on ASAE and The Center’s Annual Meeting and thoughts from the Aug. 25 #assnchat.

The chat’s transcript is available here.