Happy Friday, everyone! We hope everyone has had a good, productive and fulfilling week. In keeping with our Friday tradition, below are five our of favorite blog posts from the last week in the association community.

1. Jeffrey Cufaude shares 10 tips for engaging a volunteer community. Small staff associations likely have to rely on volunteers for many things due to limited resources, so this list is definitely a must-read!

2. How do big brands manage social media? Maddie Grant shared a great – long! – video about how large brands manage their social media efforts. There’s also a conversation about social media management systems. Of course, most nonprofits and small staff associations likely do not have those types of resources, but there are always lessons to be learned and idea for how to scale your own efforts.

3. Could your association implement social dining? Deirdre Reid examines the concept and gives some great background info. (I kept comparing it to the speed dating concept in my head as I read.) Although your organization might have to rely on volunteers, social dining could be a fun member meet-up.

4. Pinterest really is everywhere right now – even on association blog! KiKi L’Italien shares how nonprofits and associations can utilize the popular pinning social network. You may already be familiar with the social network for personal use, but KiKi shares great tips for how your association can get involved. The best tip? Make your content pin-friendly.

5. Aaron Wolowiec shared feedback from one of his quotes from LSAE: There is no such thing as constructive criticism. Does “real” constructive criticism exist, or is it simply criticism cloaked in good intentions? There are great lessons here for all leaders and managers – the first being, to give positive feedback first, then follow it up with things that could use improvement.

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great weekend!

Even if I don’t always incorporate the tips or applications into my life, I enjoy learning about how others keep themselves focused. You can never have too many ideas! I figured I would share some great apps with our readers!

1. F.lux: Designed to change the lighting on your computer screen according to the time of day. Your computer screen will look warm at night and bluer during the day. The big perk for me is that it could possibly help you sleep better. We all know we should power down an hour or two before we hit the sack, but how many of us are guilty of using our laptops, tablets or smartphones in bed? (Yep, I’m raising my hand too.)

2. Dropbox: I already use Dropbox and I can vouch for how great it is. I prefer to work on my personal MacBook, so to keep my work files from taking up space on my hard drive, I can just store them in my Dropbox folder and access them from anywhere. This came in handy when my MacBook had to be shipped off for a few weeks to get the display fixed. All of my work files were easily accessed from my loaner laptop.

3. Lastpass: I will definitely be downloading this one asap. Obviously it’s extremely important to have unique passwords with numbers and special characters, but it can be so difficult to remember each and every one of them! Lastpass is a password management system that can be accessed from any computer as long as you provide one ultra-secure and hard-to-crack password. It will remember every other password, credit card info, etc. So useful!

4. KeyText: If you’re constantly typing the same phrases, addresses, boilerplates, what-have-you, KeyText is for you. Just enter a few keystrokes and the corresponding common phrase will be automatically inserted into whatever you’re typing. This is Windows-only, but TextExpander is a similar Mac app.

What are some of your favorite apps to help you stay productive?

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!

Small staff associations: now’s your chance to get recognized by YouTube! For the third year in a row, the online video giant is awarding prizes – including grants – to the best in nonprofit videos as part of the Do Gooder Nonprofit Awards.

If you’re a member of YouTube’s Nonprofit Program, submit your video by February 29! This is a great opportunity to spread the word about your organization and get some awesome publicity! Keep in mind: it doesn’t matter how small or big your organization is. Great videos deserve the recognition!

Check out the video (above) and get even more info about the contest here!

I hope everyone had an exciting weekend! (I know I did, but I realize not everyone is a Super Bowl fan…)

We wanted to kick off the week by sharing a few cool slideshows that we recently discovered. The first is especially interesting because it covers gamification in nonprofits – something that is not always widely talked about in the nonprofit sector. Let us know what you think!