Happy Friday and Happy December! (How is is it December?! Seriously.)  I’ve missed writing the weekly recap of my favorite association management blog posts the past few weeks! There has been some great stuff, but the holiday took precedence. I hope everyone (who celebrates) had a great Thanksgiving — have you started your holiday shopping yet?

1. OK, so this post is technically from last week, but I’m still including it. Over at Nonprofit Conversation, Bunnie Riedel wrote about tactics for increasing membership renewal. My favorite part? She wrote that nonprofits tend to very rigid about their dues structures — organizations could assess their membership demographics, perhaps provide a payment plan or find added-value partnerships.

2. Dear Association Leader has some good reminders for what every “group project” needs. Setting some ground rules and establishing everyone’s roles is definitely necessary, but so is having fun! In my opinion, the more enjoyable a project or task is, the better the end result.

3. After a bunch of blog posts about ASAE’s Social Media Workshop, Lindy Dreyer stepped in and pointed out that speakers have to be prepared for handling “Web 2.0 audiences.” It’s not uncommon for conferences today to feature a Twitter stream in the background with all the tweets featuring the event’s hashtag. Understanding how to deal with real-time criticisms (big or small) is crucial.

4. Over at Insights from a Future Association Executive, Bruce Hammond speaks up for extroverts after reading a story Called Why Introverts Can Make the Best Leaders. Leaders, Hammond writes, should be passionate rather than calm and visible rather than solitary. He makes some great points, and as a bit of an introvert, I found it an interesting read. I think good leaders can be either introverts or extroverts!

5. This one isn’t targeted specifically toward associations, but Five Ways to Multiply Conference ROI has some amazing suggestions and tips for planners and attendees alike. I love that he included socialize as number 5 — after-hours events are fantastic networking opportunities, and can be a lot more casual and relaxing. Lots of good info here.

I hope everyone has a very happy weekend!

(Image via Mooganic on Flickr)

Lately, I’ve dropped the ball when it comes to reading. (This is very upsetting to me.) Joe Rominiecki recently wrote about crowd-sourcing over at Acronym, and it reminded me to step up my game. I’ve been staring at “The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Suroweicki for the past month or so, and I’m only about 100 pages into it so far. I’m a voracious reader, but I’ve found myself reading novels lately rather than nonfiction.

Black Friday unofficially kicked off the holiday shopping season, and it’s also never too early to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions. Somehow, I’m practically done with my Christmas shopping but have barely started on my own wish list. And since one of my goals for the upcoming year is to read more nonfiction, I’ve compiled a list of books I want to tackle in the coming months. I think they’d be great for association and nonprofit staffers, too!

1. “The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Suroweicki. I’ll finish this one eventually, and can’t wait to review it. Although the book was originally published in 2004 and then revised in 2005, the concept — crowd-sourcing — still applies today. So far, the book has been chock full of real-world examples, ranging in subjects such as pop culture, sports, business, biology and psychology.
2. “The Milkshake Moment: Overcoming Stupid Systems, Pointless Policies and Muddled Management to Realize Real Growth” by Steven S. Little. Associations are famous (notorious?) for their many policies and procedures. Although this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, they can be stifling to an organization’s growth and prosperity.
3. “Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School” by John Medina. Despite the research out there, I remain a consummate multitasker. I’m hoping this book will finally convince me of the error of my ways and show me why focusing on one thing at a time will make me more productive. (Of course, I realize in theory this is true but I can’t help flitting from task to task.)
4. “Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business” by Jeff Howe. Yup, more crowdsourcing. I think it’s important to read more than one book on a topic to get as many perspectives as possible.
5. “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell. Why do some people succeed while others don’t? Gladwell argues that superstars don’t come out of nowhere – there are common factors to their success. And if you haven’t read Gladwell’s famous book, “The Tipping Point,” I would highly suggest that one, as well.
6. “Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone” by Mitch Joel. This is another one I’m embarrassed to have not finished yet. It’s been sitting on my bookshelf for a few months, but I’m excited to delve into it. Clearly the Internet is changing how organizations can get their messages out, and from the reviews I’ve read, I think association staffers would enjoy this one.
7. Finally Charlene Li’s “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies” should definitely be on your wish list this year if you haven’t taken a look yet. Li was a keynote speaker at ASAE and the Center’s 2009 Annual Meeting, and she’s an expert in social media analysis. I read a review that said this book has “staying power,” which, when it comes to social media books, is rare.

Have you read any of these books? Would you recommend them? What would you add to the list?

(Image via roland on Flickr.)

Happy Friday and Happy (almost) Halloween! I’ll be back on Monday with a full recap of our own office Halloween celebration, including the top three costumes! (The photo to the left is from Halloween 2008.)

But until Monday, here’s some reading material for the weekend!

1. I don’t think this post is actually from this past week, but it is from October! It’s a great forward-thinking view from Jeffrey Cufaude asking what your annual meeting will look like in 2014. Remember to reinforce the core of the meeting, maximize systems and templates, enable more eyes and more initiative and use feedback to experiment and refine.

2. I loved Leslie White’s guest post on the SocialFish blog this week about policies in associations. Leslie gives some great tips and suggestions for crafting your association’s social media policy. My favorites? Avoid absolutes, make it enforceable, be friendly and be consistent.

3. Check out this great post on SmartBlog Insights by Mark Buzan about recruiting members in the Facebook age. There’s more information than ever before at our fingertips, but how to use it? It’s also easier to network these days with LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks, and this post gives great suggestions for making sure associations remain valuable to members.

4. Brian Birch at ASAE and The Center’s Acronym blog admits his control freak tendencies and asks others if they share similar qualities. I can definitely relate to a few of them — in school, I was always the leader (and primary worker) in group projects. But it’s so crucial to remember that delegating isn’t a bad thing, and neither is change. And I’ve learned the best ideas usually come while brainstorming with more than just one or two people.

5. Steve Drake reminds us that Twitter is more than 140 characters and gives some great examples of how his association has used Facebook and Twitter. It’s important to note that he says he learned by “trial and error” and that he’s not a “Twitter expert” (who is?). But he keeps TweetDeck open all day to get real-time updates from his followers and other keywords for his organization. Kudos!

Don’t forget — there’s still time to enter our contest to win a free copy of Seth Godin’s “Tribes.” See this post for more information, but it ends at 6 p.m. ET today, Oct. 30.

We at MemberClicks hope everyone has a happy Halloween! And don’t forget to “fall back” on Sunday — set your clocks back one hour for Daylight Saving Time.

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a successful week. Enjoy your weekend!

To finish out the week, here are my recent favorite association-related blog posts. There’s been some good stuff floating around this week, especially after Seth Godin’s “The Problem with Non” post. I love a healthy debate!

1. Elizabeth Weaver Engel shared her thoughts on why associations should have Chief Community Officers. Her description of what the position should entail makes total sense.  After all, associations are all about about community. She concludes by asking if she’s “lost her mind.” Definitely not!

2. Weighing in on the debate about whether nonprofits approach social media the right way, Maggie McGary agreed that many associations are afraid of change. People who are trying to create changes are getting frustrated. “That’s the way we’ve always done it” just isn’t cutting it anymore.

3. This wasn’t written explicitly about associations, but it definitely applies to them. We’ve heard all about being innovative, but are you awesome? To be awesome, you have to love what you do because that’s when true, meaningful value really appears.

4. The ongoing debate about the membership model continues. David M. Patt wrote at Association Executive Management that membership is not dead — it’s just being defined differently. People have to feel engaged before they become members, and we will always continue to interact with like-minded people.

5. Cynthia D’Amour compared associations to newspapers (love the metaphor!) since many of the dailies in Ann Arbor, MI are shutting down. Is there still a demand there? Would there still be a demand if your association disappeared? Would substitutes pop up?

Happy Friday! It’s pretty dreary and drizzly here in Atlanta — I hope everyone else’s Friday is sunnier. To round out the week, I thought I’d share some of my favorite association management-related blog posts from the week. I’m sharing links all day, every day at our Twitter stream, but here are a few of my recent favorites.

1. Wes Trochlil shared a theory on why many associations don’t invest in technology. I think he hit the nail on the head — association leaders should start thinking about long-term goals and how technology will benefit the organization down the road, rather than in just the next few years.

2. In the aftermath of Tuesday’s #assnchat about chapters and social media, Peggy Hoffman elaborated on a key point: social media shouldn’t be explored for social media’s own sake. Explore your options (there’s more out there than just Facebook!) and have a clear goal in mind.

3-4. An Acronym post created quite a stir this week, discussing whether or not the association membership model was dying or evolving. Tony Rossell responded at the Membership Marketing Blog with a well thought-out piece. He’s “not ready just yet to put association membership in the grave,” and gave several reasons, citing the Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report.

5. I really loved the latest post at the Association Executive Management blog, reminding us of a simple lesson: your time is not free. Too often we forget our time is worth money! It’s a valuable resource — there are only 24 hours in a day, so use them wisely.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!