Sat.Nov 01, 2014 - Fri.Nov 07, 2014

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More Tips to Improve Your Open Rate

Spark Consulting

'Tips to help your blast emails shine, Part 2: Personalize it – It’s 2014. We all have the ability to send emails to “Dear Elizabeth” rather than “Dear Colleague” so be sure to call people by name. Be a real person – Write like you would talk to someone, not like the first draft of a Business Communications 101 project. Avoid jargon and acronyms – This is hard in associations, but do your best and be sure to define any acronyms you do use.

Tips 244
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Member Engagement Buzz, Bench Warmers Or Change Makers & More

Wild Apricot

'This week''s link round-up offers 5 posts on member engagement; insight into Millennials and why you should consider having them on your board, as well as the Top 150 Nonprofit Blogs.

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What Happens When Non-Board Members Attend Board Meetings?

Eric Lanke

'image source We did something brand new at our latest Board meeting. For a while now, our Board has been organized into three task forces--each focused on one of the three strategic priorities of the organization. These have been task forces of the Board, meaning the only Board members served on them, and they have traditionally met at each of our two-day Board meetings.

Resources 165
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Call for Presentations: Dead or Alive?

Aaron Wolowiec

'A colleague recently posted this question to a professional development discussion board I enjoy reading: In the past few years, we have been receiving fewer responses to our call for papers. Has anyone had any success with any incentives to increase the number of submissions received? Following are two lightly edited responses I posted in follow-up: Response 1.

Michigan 158
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Ultimate Guide to Monetizing Association Member Education

Unlock More Profit and Smarter Packaging for Member Learning Every decision that goes into your learning monetization strategy matters for your association’s bottom line. Our research has shown a clear correlation between high program maturity (and ROI!) and choosing the right monetization strategy. This eBook contains clear, actionable ways to approach packaging and pricing models that will help your association grow revenue, improve profitability, and drive expansion into new markets.

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Technology, your association, and your members. Where do you stand?

YourMembership

How do you go about making decisions involving the technology needs for your association that enable you to serve your members more effectively? We asked that question last week in our webinar, Make the Right Choice: Eva luating Technology for Your Association. In the 15 years I have been involved in the association management software industry I have come to realize that an association’s technology capability is one of the leading indicators of not only how effectively they currently serve thei

More Trending

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The Importance of Community

Jamie Notter

'“Community” is a big word in my circles, particularly in this day and age of online communities. There seem to be a lot of people in organizations who fret about their need to “build” community for their members or customers, and for large companies this extends to employee communities as well. And while there is nothing particularly wrong with those efforts, they are focused mainly on creating an online space that captures people’s attention and provides opportuni

Maine 146
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Fighting fury with F.I.R.E.

Virtual

'The “bad” Board member. Every Board has one. Just say their name and people roll their eyes. This person exists on nearly every Board, but takes on different forms. Sometimes it’s a person who is intentionally disrupting the group’s activity. Sometimes it’s a person who monopolizes discussion. Sometimes it’s a person who is abusive to his peers and staff.

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Don’t Get Caught in These Branding Traps

YourMembership

DIY or do-it-yourself may work with minor fixes around the house and “it’s good because we say it’s good” may have worked long ago, but the line is crystal clear when it comes to marketing, branding, and designing for your association – original, quality and objective-based marketing is the only way to go. No matter the industry or membership demographics, and regardless of the quality of services or benefits you deliver, how you present your association becomes your brand and will directly impa

Cost 150
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Member Recruitment & Retention: It’s About Being Flexible & Personal

Wild Apricot

'This is the second post offering clips from our interview with Nicole Walters of the San Diego Venture Group. It offers insight into the importance of being both flexible and personal in recruiting and retaining members.

San Diego 235
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2024 Association Survey Results Report

2024 Association Survey Results Report For the 10th year, association professionals across the U.S. and Canada provided a look at the inner workings of their organizations when they replied to GrowthZone’s annual survey. Read the 2024 survey results report to see how your association compares: Top Challenges Retention Rates Non-Renewal Reasons Automatic Renewals Reinstatement Strategies Member Engagement Changes & Strategies Why Members Join Non-Dues Revenue Sources Dues Increases, and more

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The Reciprocity Rule of Online Networking

Association Adviser

'Follow the Golden Rule of Networking: give as good as you get. If you want others to help you in your job search, then you must first be helpful to them. The post The Reciprocity Rule of Online. For more about this topic, click on the headline.

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Project Management and the Dangers of Too Many Cooks

Associations Now

'There’s a reason it took more than a decade to finish the HTML5 standard. When too many stakeholders get their hands on a project—especially a high-profile one—innovation can slow to a crawl. The secret is to chop things up into smaller bites. The most interesting technology discussion I had last week involved Taco Bell. As I noted in Wednesday Buzz last week , the Quesarito master took an unusual approach to marketing its new mobile ordering app: Rather than using its social feeds and we

Project 87
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Increase Conference Attendee Acquisition With Targeted Message Maps

Velvet Chainsaw

'How often are your conference communication pieces in lockstep with your attendees’ needs? Do your conference emails tend to go out as a one-size-fits-all blast to your entire database? Or is your copy customized with critical issues for each primary target audience segment? If you want to increase your conference attendee acquisition, you need targeted emails and marketing.

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Really, Internet? Is This What Social Media Has Become?

Mizz Information

'Maybe it’s just because the leaves are falling off the trees and it now gets dark at 5:30 pm and I’m depressed that winter’s almost here. Maybe it’s run-of-the-mill social media fatigue. Maybe it’s because I finally dropped my iPhone one too many times yesterday and the screen finally shattered. All I know is that when I read about Alex from Target , it just depressed the crap out of me.

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The Retention Ripple Effect: Nonprofit Staff and Donor Dynamics

Speaker: Andrew Olsen, CFRE - EVP, Fundraising Solutions at DickersonBakker | Kat Landa, CFRE, CSD - SVP, Talent Solutions at DickersonBakker

Across the nonprofit sector, organizations invest heavily in donor retention efforts, yet the struggle of cultivating lasting relationships remains. While attracting new donors is crucial, the lack of repeat donors poses significant financial risks. Through a comprehensive analysis of industry data, experts argue that there is a direct correlation between donor burnout, donor retention, and the talent retention crisis.

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Waiting: Members are Sick and Tired of Waiting!

SCD Group

'Well, I am. I’m tired of waiting on “service people.” Waiting is almost as annoying as all those political ads. The annual meeting of members started 8 minutes late. No big deal, right? Well, BS! Wasted time for all of waiting. And, it says that our association disrespects us and the value of our time. Associations: don’t do this! Start on time. Respect and value the time of your members.

Tools 62
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The Power of Personalization

Associations Now

'Your meeting attendees don’t want to feel like they’re just another name on your attendee roster. They want a custom-tailored experience that’s all about them. I remember attending a publishing conference five-plus years ago where my program book had my name printed on the cover. There was something about seeing my first and last name at the top of the book that made me feel special and gave me a sense of ownership not only of that guide but also of my conference experience.

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6 Real World Conference Disruptors

Velvet Chainsaw

'All disruptions are innovations. But not all innovations are disruptors. At least that’s what Forbes writer Caroline Howard says. Think of innovation and disruption as both makers and builders. However disruption dislodges and changes how we think, act, do business, learn and go about our day-to-day tasks. Defining Disruptors Harvard Business School professor and disruption guru Clayton Christensen says that a disruption displaces an existing market, paradigm, industry, or technology.

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Technology Trends and Associations: An Interview with Reggie Henry of the American Society of Association Executives

Association Mavens

'[link]. Reggie Henry is the association industry’s favorite technology guru and CIO of ASAE. In this interview, Reggie and I talk about technology trends in the association industry, his thoughts on geo-fencing, and Reggie shares a new tool that is a must-have for any organization that wants to broadcast live presentations from anywhere in the world.

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SME Relationships: Proven Solutions for Seamless Collaboration and Success

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

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Attention! Association Executives 55+

SCD Group

'What do you do? Who are you? As you get closer to retiring, those are the questions you can expect others to ask you. Retirement planning involves more than just financial planning. Planning mentally and physically are just as important. After years as association professionals, you suddenly find yourself answering the easy but difficult question “who are you.

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Study Debunks Myths About Generations’ Workplace Preferences

Associations Now

'Does your office really need to change much to become more appealing to the fast-growing millennial workforce? Perhaps not. A new study suggests that the generational divide in workplace preferences could be something of a myth. Age is not as much of a factor as previously thought when it comes to preferences in the workplace, according to a new study by commercial real estate services and investment firm CBRE Group, Inc.

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6 Fun Icebreakers for Nonprofit Training Sessions

Beth Kanter

'Note From Beth: Having good openers (and closers) are essential to the success of your training workshop. I always incorporate an icebreaker, a short exercise that lets people introduce themselves and tap into existing knowledge. I have a repertoire of icebreakers and always like to discover new ones. I noticed that Jen Bokoff from the Foundation Center was re-tweeted a photo of an icebreaker she used at her conference session on facilitation techniques.

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The Powerful and Undervalued Skill of Listening

Beekeeper Group

'At some point during our educational or professional careers, most of us have been introduced to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , Stephen Covey’s all-encompassing code to leading a successful life and optimizing your potential. While following all seven steps can have beneficial results, it was habit five, Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood , that struck me as an apt lesson for any online community manager to take to heart given its simplicity as a powerful principle for s

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Measuring the ROI of Enterprise Learning for Customers, Partners, and Professionals

Prove the ROI of Learning Struggling to measure the business impact of learning initiatives? Try our three-pillar approach to show the true value of learning, backed by stories from real businesses like yours. Make 2024 the year of ROI!

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Do you need to power your association writing?

SCD Group

'Early in my job as a news writer at The Associated Press, I was assigned to the “night radio desk.” I arrived at 4:00 pm and needed to put the initial “evening news” headlines/stories on the wire by 4:20 pm. This meant converting stories written for a newspaper into broadcast news stories. which involved cutting a 500 to 600 word story down to less than 100 words.

Texas 59
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A Major League Member-Engagement Metric

Associations Now

'Tracking engagement on a per-member basis is valuable, but what could an association learn from an organization-wide engagement indicator? One of my favorite baseball statistics—or, as is the case lately, perhaps least favorite—is league-wide batting average. It’s a big-picture view of the game and a benchmark for player performance. But these days, it does not paint a pretty picture.

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Trainer’s Notebook: Integrating Thinking and Feedback Activities

Beth Kanter

'Last week, I was honored to facilitate a workshop on best practices in crowd funding in Pittsburgh, PA organized by The Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University in conjunction with its TechNow Conference (where I delivered the keynote). I’ve already shared a blog post about the content related to “ Best Practices for Nonprofit Crowd Funding ” that includes case studies, examples, tips, and resource links.

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Opportunities in the Face of Declining Membership How to Survive While Dealing with Industry Consolidation

Plexus Consulting

'By Steven M. Worth, President at Plexus Consulting Group, LLC Like the animated cartoon figures that keep on running on thin air over and past a cliff, until they suddenly realize there is no longer any ground underneath them, assns often continue functioning in a "business as usual" mode until they realize their traditional membership support is not coming back.

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Here’s a Powerful Marketing Tool Designed for Associations

Show the Benefits of Membership to Your Toughest Prospects. Download this FREE infographic from GrowthZone AMS, Why Join an Association, and start using it as your go-to recruitment and retention marketing tool. Post it on your website. Use it in sales presentations. Or use it as inspiration to create your own version. Infographics have power. They're a quick read.