Happy Friday! It’s finally starting to fee like spring here in Atlanta; now if only those annoying rainstorms would quit. I’m so ready for spring: more daylight, outdoor eating, baseball, the NFL Draft, flowers … it’s pretty perfect. Speaking of more daylight, don’t forget to spring your clocks forward this Saturday night before hitting the sack. Losing an hour is the only downside of the beginning of Daylight Savings Time — I’m really looking forward to longer days.

With many people attending the Great Ideas Conference, there was some great stuff in the association blogosphere this week, but not every post highlighted the conference.

1. Wes Trochlil shared some tips for organizations converting their data to a new database. There are some great reminders here, such as to stop keeping track of data you don’t need or use, keep your legacy database for future reference and only convert the data you need. Wes’ database tips always spot-on.

2. One of the newer-to-me blogs I’ve discovered recently is Ellen Behrens’. She writes the aLearning blog, and her post this week on exit interviews for members was fantastic. Members who don’t renew often have powerful information that would be beneficial to the organization, so definitely take a look at this post.

3. I read a ton of blogs, and they’re not all association-focused. This post, though, from the Six Pixels of Separation blog, discusses mobile technologies: “The Lines Continue to Blur (at Breakneck Speeds).” This one’s a great reminder about how much the use of mobile technology is increasing — and that it’s not just kids who are using it. Are you ready?

4. Lynn Morton wrote some awesome posts about Great Ideas this week, but here’s her takeaway post. From the more casual (use Emergen-C if you’re sick!) to the more serious (the spirit is there, the content is not), Lynn shared her thoughts from ASAE’s conference and encourages others to push the envelope a bit more.

5. Maddie Grant also had a great collection of takeaway and links post-Great Ideas. Her main takeaway was the concept of “autonomy,” which was discussed during Dan Pink’s closing general session. Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Don’t forget to set your clocks forward!

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When you survey members to gauge their satisfaction with their memberships, do you ask them to rate programs and services in terms of “usefulness” and “criticalness?”

Rather than striving stay relevant in this fast-paced society, aim higher. Be indispensable.

There’s a reason there’s an association for everything. Each one is designed to meet the needs of a special audience. Those of us at MemberClicks are reminded of this every day, as we serve many small-staff organizations specifically tailored toward their members’ unique needs.

It’s vital for association staffers to remember that there is no such thing as a typical member, so stop trying to cater your organization’s programs to fit an “average perception.” Don’t be average. Be extraordinary.

Even though members’ expectations can vary depending on their situations, it’s still possible to incite passion and commitment among them.

Does your mission statement reflect what makes your members special?

Does your communication drive the entire association?

Do the staff’s actions  create value “both within the marketplace and within an organization?”

Do you have a grander vision for your association?

Offer programs and services intrinsic to your members’ wellbeing. And don’t be afraid to get rid of programs that are highly rated as “useless.”

Just because your association has a high renewal rate doesn’t mean nothing should change within the organization. Make every effort to form a genuine sense and commitment toward indispensability.

Everyone in your organization should know how to best present the mission and energize members, volunteers and board members.

Once your team has a clear vision of the association’s mission, they will be able to more effectively demonstrate how and why the organization is irreplaceable in its members’ lives, which should be the all-encompassing goal.

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How organized is your data?

I was reading Wes Trochlil’s latest article, Why Benchmarks Matter, and it struck a chord with me.

For one thing, you can’t improve your data management system if you have no set benchmarks. There has to be something already started if you want to improve upon it. Wes gives a few great starting points for keeping track of actions within your database.

For another thing, how organized is your database currently? What do you keep track of? More data isn’t necessarily better, but the more useful the data you track is, the better.

Do you keep track of those members who are active in listservs? Those who consistently volunteer? The amount of time it takes to process new memberships?

My two cents?

Know who your most active members are. Who participates in studies or focus groups? Who are the active volunteers and leaders? These people can be the evangelists to other members. They can be the ones to step up and help the organization institute changes.

Use your data and implement changes based on your findings. There’s no point in all this data collection unless you actually do something with the information.

Stop collecting data you don’t use. It’s a waste of space and a waste of time. Do you need to know how long someone’s been in their current job or the size of the company they’re with. Perhaps. But be sure there’s a clear reason for your data collection.

Technology can help you keep track of many things, but having a disorganized database is definitely not ideal. The technology can only help you so much – you have to be able to put it to good use.

Photo credit: Flickr

Happy Friday the 13th to one and all! I hope everyone has had an enjoyable and productive week. We Clickers are still settling into our new pad, and we’ve all had a great first few days in the new place.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Friday if I didn’t share my top five favorite association management blog posts. There were some great ones this week!

1. In the days following ASAE and The Center’s Social Media Workshop, Elizabeth Weaver Engel wrote a great follow-up: “forget the ‘how,’ worry about the ‘why.’” Before you even get started using one of the many, many social media outposts available, be sure you have a solid reason. Everyone is involved in social media for a variety of reasons, and people’s goals and reasons aren’t always exactly the same. Your experience is what you make of it!

2. Cecilia Sepp posted a wise response she gave on a listserv. The question: What advice would you give to someone new to association management? The answer includes five great points — remember the association industry is a service industry. Association management is about managing relationships rather than product development, she writes.

3. What would you do if your members jumped right into social media and created an “unofficial” Facebook page or Twitter stream? Peggy Hoffman examined ISES DC and how it followed its members leads when they created not just Facebook and Twitter presences, but also a Google group and blog. There was some disconnect between the staff and members, but the members ultimately took the lead because they knew where other members were.

4. Tony Rossell referenced an article he found from 1991 that discussed how to calculate the lifetime value of a member. There’s a formula and some calculations, and even though all things mathematical freak me out (I love words, numbers not so much), the formula seems (fairly) straightforward. Like Tony said though, every membership organization should have some method of calculating the lifetime value of a member. I still prefer the shortcut method he posted, though!

5. Erik Schonher provided a clear and simple guideline for associations that are in the process of adopting social media. His three questions are concise and to the point, and he includes the caveat that social media is not for all associations — something I don’t think we hear enough of. Additionally, Erik urges association staffers to actively discuss social media adoption with the members. After all, they know what tools members are already using (or not)!

I hope everyone has a wonderful (non-spooky) Friday the 13th and a great weekend!

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.