Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but it is HOT where I live! It felt like 100 degrees Fahrenheit at 9:30 this morning! It’s one of those days where I just want to sit in the air-conditioning all day, ya know?

So, without further adieu, and in the spirit of AC and iced coffee, here is today’s Friday Top Five.

1. Maddie Grant shared a few great tools for supercharging your association’s content: Scoop.it and Twylah. She gave some great uses for each and I think they’re worth taking a look at for small staff associations.

2. This week, Jeff Hurt challenged the traditional notion that we interact face-to-face first and online second. He points out that we register for conferences online, buy movie tickets online, make appointments and reservations online… Heck, I even order food online! Definitely worth a read.

3. Tom Morrison shared a new concept he adopted at his association called Staff Meeting 24/7. It’s a online repository for ideas, concepts and directions that only staff members can see. Tom shared how it has streamlined internal communications for his association and encourages every organization to use its technology to the fullest – something we wholeheartedly support!

4. Cynthia D’Amour wrote this week about the importance of setting up for success. I think this is something we all know deep down, but can be difficult to put into practice. Do you help your members lean into the learning process so they’ll be as successful as possible?

5. Just in time for ASAE’s Annual Meeting and Expo, Engage 365 posted a great article by Jody Urquhart: Seven ways to get the most out of attending a conference. The number one rule? Network, network, network! Where else will thousands of association professionals be under one roof?!

Good morning and happy Friday! What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this weekend? I’m looking forward to a 5-mile race and a friend’s birthday party. It should be a good one!

Of course, it would hardly feel like a Friday if I didn’t share a few of my favorite association blog posts from this past week. Ready? Set … Go!

1. I shared this post on Twitter this morning already, but I really liked Kerry Stackpole’s recent contribution to ASAE’s Acronym blog: How do you make sure failure only happens once? To me, it’s OK to fail or make a mistake – as long as you learn from it and don’t repeat the same mistake.

2. Do you recognize past leaders in your association at meetings? David M. Patt shares an example of one association who didn’t, and to him, it was a big mistake. Recognizing past leaders keeps them connected to the organization, which was probably a big part of their lives for quite awhile.

3. Becky Rasmussen at the Drake & Company blog shared five great lessons learned at last week’s Drake Invitational Forum for Association Leaders. My personal favorite? Don’t do something just because everyone else is. Just like bandwagon fans in sports, bandwagon associations are also making a mistake.

4. In a guest post at AE on the Verge, Marcia Bartol asks association professionals if working from home is right for them. She points out one big advantage, which is that there are no overheard costs associated with working in an office. That can be a huge plus for small staff associations, many of which share office space with other organizations.

5. How do you measure success? Wes Trochlil shares how not to measure it – by effort. Can you measure effort? Does mere effort accomplish goals? Or do you measure success by other, more cut-and-dry metrics?

Happy Friday! In case you missed the post earlier this week, everyone is invited to the MemberClicks Holiday Shindig on Thursday, Dec. 16. If you’re going to be in Atlanta, please stop by our office and celebrate with us!

Of course, there were lots of great posts in the association community this week. So let’s get right down to it!

1. Cindy Butts at AE on the Verge had a great post about a new word she learned: thank-a-thon. Basically, the association sets aside a specific time to call members or volunteers (or write thank-you notes). With Thanksgiving just last week and the holiday season now upon us, this is a great way to reach out to members and volunteers alike.

2. Deirdre Reid discussed transparency in association leadership, and how important it is for members to trust their association. Without transparency, the association has nothing. Leaders shouldn’t hide their decisions behind closed doors, Deirdre writes. Good food for thought.

3. In a great post at the Acronym blog, Joe Rominiecki writes about member engagement and which method is more effective: one big push or chipping away slowly. He uses fundraising as an example, and the comments on this post are definitely worth reading. Lots of good questions here.

4. Jeffrey Cufaude discussed two evaluation questions association professionals should be asking in order to measure lasting impact and change. His suggestions are simple but could prove imminently helpful for determining the usefulness of a conference or learning session.

5. Jeff Cobb discussed the correlation between happiness and success, and how difficult each term is to define. (Probably because they’re different for every person!) Does success lead to happiness or does happiness lead to success? An interesting, thought-provoking post.

We hope everyone has a fun/productive/relaxing/fill-in-the-blank weekend!

Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending the March luncheon of the Georgia Society of Association Executives. It was actually my first GSAE event (other MemberClicks team members attend quite often), and I had a fantastic time.

The speaker, M. Kirk Pickerel, has been the president of American Builders and Contractors for almost 10 years. ABC has 79 chapters and 25,000 members — quite a huge organization! He talked about ABC’s participation in the study that eventually led to the book, “Seven Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t.” Unfortunately, ABC wasn’t identified as a “remarkable” organization; it was one of the “good” ones paired up with a remarkable one for comparison!

However, Pickerel’s speech was a fantastic example of an association leader who saw room for improvement — and did something about it!

The seven measures are as follows:

1. A customer-service culture
2. Alignment of products and services with mission
3. Data-driven strategies
4. Dialogue and engagement
5. CEO as broker of ideas
6. Organizational adaptability
7. Alliance building

Pickerel said ABC’s biggest problem was something I’m betting a lot of organizations have trouble with: Organizational adaptability. Because ABC is such a large organization, it was difficult to institute any kind of sustaining change.

However, I think even smaller organizations can have trouble with adaptability. When you have so many things to take care of and so many hats to wear, it’s easy to get caught up in your everyday tasks and not reflect on how adaptable your organization is. Do you find it difficult to step back and identify positive changes your organization could institute?

How has your organization adapted to new technologies, processes or structures? What obstacles did you have to overcome?