Mariner Management

JUNE 23, 2022

We all know that at some point, we need our chapters to change. And whether that change is small or large, we will experience some resistance from chapter leaders. So, what is an association to do? We know resistance to change is natural. Anytime you introduce a new process or technology, you have to think about change management from the very start.

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Mariner Management

JUNE 23, 2022

We all know that at some point, we need our chapters to change. And whether that change is small or large, we will experience some resistance from chapter leaders. So, what is an association to do? We know resistance to change is natural. Anytime you introduce a new process or technology, you have to think about change management from the very start.

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Mariner Management

JANUARY 16, 2022

“When reaching out, the key to staving off network shrinkage isn’t spending time going to Zoom happy hours or trying to meet people online … Picking up the phone may be a better strategy. We’re more empathic and better listeners when simply hearing a voice. A phone call can be almost as good as a hug — in one study , it reduced cortisol levels, a biomarker of stress.”.

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Mariner Management

DECEMBER 29, 2021

What would we do without chapter volunteers? They’re our everything! Year after year, volunteers step up, take on chapter leadership roles, then step aside for the next set of leaders. So how do we ensure our volunteers have what they need to contribute? How can we inspire them? On Wednesday, December 15, we collaborated on essential coaching skills to attract new volunteers and keep the ones we have motivated on the path to success.

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Mariner Management

DECEMBER 29, 2021

What’s the best way to end the year? With a great virtual idea swap to prep for a new year, of course! On December 19, we chatted about coaching our chapter leaders for success in ‘22. Listen to the full swap and read the quick recap for insights into our conversation. Recap: What we’ve learned: These past two years – and even prior – we really ramped up resources, technology, education opportunities; we did anything we could to invest in our chapters.

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Mariner Management

DECEMBER 27, 2021

Originally posted December 24 on Event Garde. As recently as this month, December, an association pro began a Collaborate discussion with the question “are associations seeking a reduction of volunteers interested in board or officer positions?” Volunteer burn-out is real and for many associations, we saw that with increasing clarity in the past 18 months.

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Mariner Management

DECEMBER 27, 2021

As we turn the page to a new year, we have the opportunity to leave things back in 2021 and start fresh on others in 2022. Here are a few resources to get that reset buzz going …. 8 Steps to Design an Effective Nonprofit Board Training Program | Wild Apricot/Personify – just seat a new board or need to reset your current board? Tatiana Morand offers some ideas.

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Mariner Management

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

Part 1 of 2-part series: Hard to believe the holiday season is upon us already! Could this mean it’s time to take stock in this past year? Here’s a thought: How about we switch that up a bit and instead of just looking back at what worked and didn’t work, let’s look ahead by strategizing on how we can build on the lessons we learned in the past 2 years.

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Mariner Management

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

Part 2 of 2-part series. Our last post recapped our October idea swap which highlighted some of the lessons we learned in 2020/21 and how we can use them to shape a more positive future. During the swap, we also split into groups to brainstorm on three specific challenges. Any sound familiar? Train the trainer: We know our volunteers were already stressed and the pandemic only piled on more angst so asking them to give their time to training won’t be met with great enthusiasm.

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Mariner Management

NOVEMBER 19, 2021

What would we do without chapter volunteers? They’re our everything! Year after year, volunteers step up, take on chapter leadership roles, then step aside for the next set of leaders. But what if no one wants to step up? What about when things don’t go as planned? Deadlines and expectations fall short. Staff often don’t have any alternative but to step in and save the day!

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Mariner Management

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

VolunteerPro | Tobi Johnson & Associates has opened their annual global “state of the industry” survey and we’d like to get some association voices in the mix. This year’s survey will dig deeper into key themes such as … How COVID has impacted the current capacity levels for volunteers active around the world. The extent to which volunteer organizations have adopted diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) plans.

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Mariner Management

OCTOBER 11, 2021

September 15-October 15 marks National Hispanic Heritage Month. If you haven’t had a chance to hear the voices and check out the stories of Hispanic/Latinx association pros, check out the story project at ASAE. I want to highlight this for a couple of reasons. The first is the obvious: to pay tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched us, our society, our country and – I must add – our associations.

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Mariner Management

OCTOBER 7, 2021

With 2021 winding down, what’s ahead for chapters? COVID will still be “a thing” and, for some, budgets will still be in flux. We can expect there will be challenges and new opportunities galore. So let’s put our collective heads together to think positively and proactively about 2022! Join us on Wednesday, October 20 at 12 p.m. for the chapter virtual idea swap— Prepping for 2022 —where we’ll offer tips based on 2021 and collaborate on how to prepare for next year.

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Mariner Management

SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

Mariner Management president Peggy Hoffman recently sat down with Carol Hamilton on her podcast Mission: Impact to talk about the heart and soul of associations: the volunteer. Peggy’s conversation with Carol delved into how the digital age is changing the focus of chapters and thow we can leverage these changes by rethinking how we cultivate and develop our volunteers leading them to be successful leaders within our associations.

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Mariner Management

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

*Part 1 of a 3-part series on creating a volunteer learning journey. Our volunteers are motivated. There’s no question there. They begin their volunteer journey enthusiastic, energized, elated to be involved in something they truly believe in. And we are happy to have them. Then somewhere along that path, they falter. So, what happened and how can we fix it?

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Mariner Management

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

*Part 2 of a 3-part series on creating a volunteer learning journey. In the last post, we gave you an overview of how the volunteer learning journey concept was developed as well as how it can help your volunteers take charge of their training thus leading to more qualified volunteer leaders. In this post, we’ll talk about how to begin building a volunteer matrix that taps into the diverse skills, knowledge and energy of your volunteers, and puts your volunteers into the driver seat of their own

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Mariner Management

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

*Part 3 of a 3-part series on creating a volunteer learning journey. In our first post, we introduced a way to shift your volunteer training to one that focuses on the person not the position. Our second post talked about how to build a volunteer matrix based on the 5 basic learning and development levels ( new/emerging volunteer, learning volunteer, new volunteer leader, experienced volunteer leader and strategic volunteer leader ).

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Mariner Management

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

We’re knee-deep in interviews with volunteers from a cross-section of associations as part of a number of volunteer strategy projects. There’s still lots of passion. There is also less time, less patience with volunteering that doesn’t move needles, and a sense of a lack of reward for effort. On one project, we had a task force tackle that last piece.

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Mariner Management

JULY 8, 2021

In our April salute to National Volunteer Week, we talked about using this time to reassess your volunteer training by considering flipping your training programs from a global “here’s what you need” to one that begins with the learner, i.e., what the volunteer needs. To explore more on this, Peggy Hoffman, president of Mariner Management, and Kristine Metter, MS, CAE, president of Crystal Lake Partners , gathered a workgroup of association professionals to look at how we can use a learning jour

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Mariner Management

JULY 7, 2021

You have a solid base for recruiting and training chapter volunteers that have worked well in the past. Then came the evidence-based research on volunteers challenging our percepts. Followed by the pandemic and increased volunteer burnout. Turns out our training programs need a new approach. What can you do? Let’s do a reboot on chapter volunteer training.

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Mariner Management

JUNE 30, 2021

By Guest Bloggers Maddie Grant and Elizabeth Weaver Engel, M.A., CAE. Organizations of ALL types – for-profit and tax-exempt, national headquarters and chapters – have been talking about digital transformation for many years, yet association efforts continue to lag. Why is that? In The No BS Guide to Digital Transformation: How Intentional Culture Change Can Propel Associations Forward , we posit that it’s all about culture.

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Mariner Management

JUNE 30, 2021

Member Volunteers bring passion to their work… What they don’t always have are the leadership and team skills needed to make the most of that passion. Tapping effectively into the diverse skills, knowledge and energy of our volunteers requires a commitment on our part to reduce barriers to entry and provide effective volunteer preparation. We need only to look at the effective practices from human resource management to gain a roadmap on how we can do just that.

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Mariner Management

JUNE 8, 2021

Benchmarking is a powerful tool in helping you – and your volunteer leaders – assess where your chapters are in terms of what’s working and what’s not working. Its power is two-fold: to provide a focus on what’s important and to provide a ready incentive. Our benchmarking guru Peter Houstle recently shared a case study to highlight one of the key prerequisites — one of 5 — to a successful chapter benchmarking project: the well-designed chapter self-assessment tool.

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Mariner Management

JUNE 4, 2021

Ask yourself a question: When measuring your chapters’ performance, do you count things that reflect meaningful “effectiveness”? Think about it this way. Chapters may do a lot of things, but you need to ask … Are they making a difference? Does what they are doing help the member and, most importantly, move the mission? Are we measuring the right things?

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Mariner Management

JUNE 4, 2021

We all know that our chapters do a lot of stuff, but is what they are doing effective? Are they moving the mission through their efforts or are they just checking all the boxes to satisfy the organizational metrics? Here’s a story about one association that found the secret to counting what counts. Background: The Maryland Recycling Network is a local state group of recycling professionals and citizens whose mission is to promote the sustainable reduction, reuse and recycling (the 3Rs) in Maryla

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Mariner Management

MAY 21, 2021

Tax Day has come and gone once again, and we hope your chapters came through relatively unscathed. After all, it’s been a tough year and a half, especially for our volunteers who have not only dealt with unusual challenges in their chapters including the struggle to maintain the bottom line but also challenges in their professional and private lives.

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Mariner Management

JUNE 1, 2021

Benchmarking (count and compare) can serve many purposes, but the most important purpose is to define what’s most important! Everyone’s likely heard some variation on the business maxim, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure,” but the corollary consequence, “you tend to manage what’s being measured” is often overlooked. Bottom line, if we want our chapters to help us serve the members and move the mission, we need to benchmark those behaviors that help us achieve that end.

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Mariner Management

MAY 5, 2021

That question is an ongoing conversation between associations and their chapters that is often complicated by differing state restrictions and the comfort levels of members regarding in-person events, leaving associations with no clear answers. To go fully in-person could alienate those that still feel uncomfortable while staying fully virtual risks further diminishing those vital personal connections that only face-to-face encounters can provide.

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Mariner Management

APRIL 19, 2021

…and we can’t think of a better time to sincerely thank all those volunteers that have kept their associations up and running! And what a year it’s been! Despite a global pandemic, many volunteers have stepped up to the plate, shifting focus as needed and never faltering in their resolve. . Today, we’re going to do a shoutout to the two clients that we manage.

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Mariner Management

APRIL 9, 2021

That question is an ongoing conversation between associations and their chapters that is often complicated by differing state restrictions and the comfort levels of members regarding in-person events, leaving associations with no clear answers. To go fully in-person could alienate those that still feel uncomfortable while staying fully virtual risks further diminishing those vital personal connections that only face-to-face encounters can provide.

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Mariner Management

MARCH 19, 2021

We know that chapters are often in the position to pivot more readily than national when the need arises. We’ve seen it happen over and over again especially in 2020. So now the question is how can we harness that agility with the right support and permissions, and perhaps financial resources, on a larger scale? We explore this question here focusing on ways we can tap into our chapters’ successes thus making them a part of our overall membership strategy.

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Mariner Management

MARCH 18, 2021

We know that chapters are often in the position to pivot more readily than national when the need arises. We’ve seen it happen over and over again especially in 2020. So now the question is how can we harness that agility with the right support and permissions, and perhaps financial resources, on a larger scale? We explored this question on February 24 in 3 Ways to Tap Chapter Relevance in 2021 , focusing on ways we can tap into our chapters’ successes thus making them a part of our overall memb

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Mariner Management

MARCH 8, 2021

As National Volunteer Week approaches (April 18-24), let’s take some time to re-evaluate our volunteer training programs. We know that a comprehensive volunteer and chapter leadership development program consisting of multi-channel, asynchronous, and live delivery (virtual or face-to-face) training and resources is key to success. We also have come to realize that volunteers learn better when they have more control over what they are learning and when that learning takes place.

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Mariner Management

MARCH 4, 2021

What’s the outlook for in-person chapter events in 2021 and how do we help chapter leaders decide whether to host an in-person, hybrid, or virtual event? For nearly a year, CRPs and chapter leaders have focused on virtual. As the vaccine rolls out across the country, the focus is shifting to when can we have in-person meetings (and indeed some have already had them).

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Mariner Management

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

The shift to virtual has placed an even greater emphasis on the importance of leveraging technology at the local level. In this session, we’ll share specific tools to help maximize chapter performance in this new reality. Peter Houstle & Peggy Hoffman from Mariner Management will be your Tech Emcees and share how CRPs are leveraging these chapter tech tools on the job and why they’re recommending them to their chapter leaders.

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Mariner Management

MARCH 2, 2021

National Volunteer Week is April 18-24, 2021 and this past year certainly warrants a huge recognition of the tireless work our volunteers have done to keep our organizations thriving. This year’s theme is Celebrate Service, and you can download logos and other resources from the Point of Light to help you mark this year. To celebrate, we’ve looked back at past posts that are chocked full of ideas and inspiration for showing the love to your volunteers.

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Mariner Management

MARCH 2, 2021

With more than 1,500 clubs and 185,000 members, a membership drop of 2% year over year for 15 consecutive years can really impact your bottom line, leaving you with a crisis on your hands. Rick Rangel, Director of Growth at the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA) had chapters that were drowning. NCGA was at a crossroads. They’d been doing the same thing over and over again with their clubs and expecting different results.

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