For the last several years, I’ve been a devoted listener of “This American Life,” a radio show that showcases stories of “regular” people and topics in amazing ways. I’ve consistently listened to it during my commutes, whether I was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic or walking a mere 20 blocks to the office.

Imagine my surprise when this week’s episode – a rerun – was all about … conventions! As association professionals, whether you work with a large or small organization – conventions and conferences are a way of life.

I think anyone who works in the association industry would get a kick out of listening to the podcast of this radio program. They aptly point out that focusing so much on one aspect of your life at a conference can make for an interesting few days.

When you attend ASAE, or host your association’s conference, do you notice your own habits changing? When you’re surrounded by people with whom you share one dominant interest, how does that affect your frame of mind?

Download a free mp3 here, and let us know what you think!

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?

Happy Friday! Who’s psyched for the weekend? I hope everyone is staying warm with all the crazy snow so much of the country has gotten so far this year. Anyway, as always, there were lots of great posts within the association blogosphere this week, so I’ve got five of my favorites below in case you missed any of them. Feel free to add your own in the comments!

1. Erik Schonher shared 25 universal secrets that could help drive your membership and non-dues revenue. And doesn’t every association want that? One of my favorites: make every customer believe they’re the only customer, even if they know it isn’t true. Isn’t that what providing a great member experience is all about?

2. Innovation is a hot topic in the association world, and Eric Lanke discusses Google’s 20% policy, which encourages Googlers to use 20 percent of their time to work on innovative projects of their own inspiration. Although it may be difficult to actually execute an innovative project with only 20 percent of your time, if you couple it with a good transparency policy about how ideas are selected, perhaps innovation could occur more often at your association.

3. Christina Stallings shared some great tips on how to stay focused. Although she geared the tips toward those who work from home, I think several of them could apply to everyone, no matter where you work. For one thing, she points out that maintaining a consistent schedule is key, and I know that’s definitely true in an office setting as well.

4. Jamie Notter discussed organizational culture and how we prefer for it to be stable. But just because you like your association’s culture a certain way doesn’t mean it can’t be better. It’s the whole “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mindset – but could it be holding you back?

5. David M. Patt shared some great statistics via Forbes Magazine – essentially, business executives overwhelmingly preferred face-to-face meetings for building deeper, more meaningful relationships. Although technology allows us to be more flexible and save money, face-to-face still has several advantages.

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.

Don't make your employees feel like "The Office's" Dwight after a meeting

It’s also helpful to have an agenda, as disciplined and annoying as it might sound. Make sure all participants are aware of it beforehand — they should also know what information they will be responsible for contributing. And if any materials (such as documents or PowerPoint presentations) are going to be used in the meeting, give them to attendees beforehand, as well.

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?

This is the tenth in an ongoing series called “Beyond The Big Three,” which highlights social networking sites other than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are tons of other social media outposts on the Web, and they’re great places for associations to curate content. The first nine installments can be found here. Stay tuned.

When you click over to UStream.tv, you might be wondering what makes it different from other video-sharing sites such as YouTube or Vimeo. The awesome thing about UStream is you can record video live!

(Coincidentally, I began writing this post and saw KiKi L’Italien’s new “Social Media Sweet Spot” show, which she recorded live on UStream last Friday. This is a great example of how live video can be used for communication both at the time of recording and later on.)

On its About page, UStream explains, In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience and further build their brand.

There are so many possibilities for associations who want to use UStream. I’ve written a bit about virtual attendance for conferences and meetings, and UStream could definitely be used to stream keynote speeches or learning sessions.

There is an interactive broadcast functionality, which allows viewers to interact with whoever is broadcasting. If the presenter chooses, virtual attendees could ask the presenter questions rather than just being passive viewers.

For larger events (such as a keynote speech), UStream also offers a one-to-many broadcast feature.

Associations could also use it for various training sessions, speeches or rallies or other events.

You don’t have to have an account to view videos, which is nice for people who just want to watch videos occasionally.

Getting started is very easy – all you need is an Internet connection and webcam.

Click image to enlarge

How could your association use UStream?

Also, I want to add that association professionals should by no means feel obligated to use all of the social networking sites I’ve highlighted in this series. I’ve always advocated picking and choosing based on which ones are correct fits for your organization, but definitely take the time to explore the ones you’re unfamiliar with.