The beginning of October marks the official start of the Halloween season—and the beginning of the end of 2018.

As Q4 kicks off, it’s important to look ahead and start creating strategies for 2019. Not sure where to get started? Callie Walker from the MemberClicks blog suggests asking these four questions:

What was successful in 2018? “While a new year should bring new ideas and new initiatives, there’s no reason to abandon your ‘best of’ tactics from the year prior,” Walker says. “Whatever it was, brainstorm ways to not only leverage that in 2019, but to make it even better.”

What was the biggest lesson learned in 2018? Think about something that didn’t go to plan this year, and consider how your organization can enhance it for next year. “The point is, knowing what you need to plan for allows you to ultimately plan better,” Walker says.

What’s the one thing you want to achieve in 2019? Make a list of goals, then prioritize them. From there, develop initiatives and strategies that will help your team get from point A to point B.

If you knew you wouldn’t fail, what would you try in 2019? Fear of failure can cripple any new project, so while every new idea might not become reality, it’s important not to limit creativity from the start. Walker suggests outlining your organization’s dream experiment—and then scaling it back to realistic deliverables and deadlines.

What’s Your Onboarding Process?

Here are five quick tips to develop a successful #onboarding program at your association. #membership #nonprofit #members https://t.co/o8h3KbDgrj

— JP Moery (@jpmoery) October 2, 2018

Recruiting new members is always exciting, but getting them integrated into an association’s online community, resources, and other offerings can be a complicated, and sometimes incomplete, process.

Developing a thorough onboarding process starts with creating an operational program that outlines the first 30, 60, and 90 days for a new member, says JP Moery in a post for The Moery Company blog.

During this time, engagement is critical and should be used as a measure of success for your onboarding process. “Do they join a community? Do they participate in an event? Do you invite them to a meeting or a committee discussion on an important topic?” Moery says. “Members are not renewing due to ‘lack of engagement’ or return on investment. This means the member isn’t active or has found the association is not worth the time and money. If we connect right away, the ROI goes way up.”

Other Links of Note

As 2019 draws nearer, Business 2 Community outlines the email marketing strategies that will be popular next year.

Understanding how technical employees work can be key for leaders to bring projects to fruition, says Alan Price in a post on Forbes.

Airbnb took the world by storm with home-sharing, so much so that hotels are now trying the technique, from The Christian Science Monitor.

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