The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community…
Love. Love will keep us together…
Education programs. TopClass LMS suggests offering peer-to-peer online learning programs. In these standalone short programs, member instructors introduce skills, practices, or hobbies to fellow members. The programs are relationship and community builders since they help members connect with each other on both a personal and professional level.
Strategic planning. Vista Cova’s white paper, Strategic Frameworks: The Future of Strategic Planning, explores how association executives are working with strategic plans in the post-COVID environment. The paper describes ten themes that emerged in their research and includes an appendix with the participants’ strategic frameworks. It’s a must-read.
Mentoring programs. The Art of Mentoring’s new guide on mentoring in professional associations explains how to address potential pitfalls and design issues you might encounter around chapter relations, funding, code of conduct, CE credits, matching, and success metrics.
Silent auctions. Create buzz around your event with a silent auction. Chris Mazzon at Multiview describes what’s involved. My state SAE hosts a successful silent auction every year at our annual conference to raise money for scholarships. If you want to look into doing one of your own, I know a guy who can help.
Hybrid work. Stowe Boyd gives the real scoop on what’s behind those hysterical return-to-work headlines. He suggests an intentional approach to hybrid work that, according to research, is actually working for many employers and employees.
Websites. Brightfind’s guide to association websites is loaded with useful advice on 12 essential web elements for acquiring, engaging, retaining and converting users into loyal website visitors, customers and members.
Thriving (or not) associations. James Young at Product Community describes three fictitious associations on different tracks for the future—one’s traditional, one’s striving and one’s innovative. Which is yours?
Reality check. Teenage girls are struggling with mental health. Trigger warnings may be partially to blame, writes Jill Filipovic at The Atlantic. No shit, Sherlock. They’re a harmful practice for young people who need to learn how to cope in the real world.
Also worth your time
The perils of sponsorship: please be smarter than (not as whorish as) the American Academy of Pediatrics is with AT&T. (Bethany Mande, The Spectator)
How to write AI art prompts for Midjourney and DALL-E , with examples and templates. (Hannah Macready, Hootsuite)
Iran scholars in the U.S. are less interested in seeing the country through the eyes of Iranians and more prone to positioning themselves in an ideological battle between American progressives and conservatives—one in which excessive criticism of the regime in Tehran is considered “right-wing” and even “imperialist.” How ridiculous. Iran deserves all the criticism we can muster. (Arian Khameneh, Tablet)
You never grow old at the table
A tavola non s’invecchia mai.
I found this Italian proverb somewhere in my web travels and think it’s quite fitting for this section, for now. Skip down to the list of free educational events if you prefer takeout.
This past week, I only made one dinner and a huge batch of basil pesto. And thank goodness I did, because the dreaded mildew has once again set in so that looks like it for my basil harvest this year. ARRGH! Even the new Israeli variant has fallen victim.
For dinner two nights, we had southern pan-fried flounder alongside roasted broccoli with red onion, garlic powder, lemon zest and parmesan.
If you have a free webinar or event coming up, please send me the link by Wednesday afternoon the week before it’s scheduled. I’m happy to feature it as long as it’s not too product-centric.
Fri 8/18 at 4 p.m.* – The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation (Book Discussion)
Why do so many world-changing insights come from people with little or no related experience? Charles Darwin was a geologist when he proposed the theory of evolution. And it was an astronomer who finally explained what happened to the dinosaurs. Frans Johansson’s The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory and offers examples of how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations. More info/register.
Host: Fridays@4
*All events are online at Eastern Daylight Time unless otherwise noted.
Mon 8/21 at 8 a.m. – Hill Day Impact: After the Visits (Radio Free 501c, the podcast of Rogue Tulips Consulting)
Every week Rogue Tulips brings the nonprofit community intriguing guests discussing vital topics affecting nonprofit organizations around the world—and we have fun doing it! Episodes are published Monday mornings in both audio and video format, available on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, Apple Podcast, and Google Podcast (to name a few!).
Host: Cecilia Sepp, CAE, CNP, principal and founder, Rogue Tulips Consulting
Guest: Anne Dar Conte, Hillstaffer
Tue 8/22 at 11 a.m. – Unusual Collaborations: Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Unusual partnerships and collaborations can be found in music, art, movies, business, athletics, and in other disciplines and industries. Where are associations with partnerships and collaborations? Learn about the basic principles for these engagements, what makes some successful, and what to avoid; when and where your association should be taking chances, when is crazy borderline genius, and when is crazy just plain crazy; and how to get out of a rut, start placing small bets, and build on what works now. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speaker: Jay S. Daughtry, M.Ed., Chief Communications Officer/Owner, CQbd
Wed 8/23 at 1 p.m. – Marketing Artificial Intelligence in Action
Gain an overview of the current marketing artificial intelligence (AI) landscape. Learn about marketing AI tools you can begin using right now to optimize your marketing strategy, how to embark upon easy marketing AI experiments, and use marketing AI to enhance your processes and make workflows less time consuming. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speaker: Erica Salm Rench, MBA, COO, Rasa.io
Wed 8/23 at 2 p.m. – Expert Series: Get Sponsored: How to Make 6-Figures in Digital Sponsorship for Your Association
Learn how to optimize digital sponsorship and capitalize on the huge opportunities to grow digital revenues to 6-figures or more. Find out how to consolidate and price your content marketing offerings for success, structure digital sponsorship that works for sponsors and members, and create the behavior in your sponsors that helps improve your digital content calendar. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Hosts: WorkerBee.TV and Non-Dues-A-Palooza
Speaker: Dan Stevens, president, WorkerBee.TV
Wed 8/23 at 2 p.m. – 5 Email Automation Strategies to Unlock More Revenue for Your Nonprofit
Learn email automation strategies for nonprofits, including how triggered emails work—with some cool examples—and five email automation ideas for nonprofits. More info/register.
Host: Feathr
Wed 8/23 at 3 p.m. – The Dating Playbook: Applying the Rules of Love to Your Membership Campaign
Whether you’re looking for marriage or membership, techniques to build interest and commitment are the same. Learn how your association can stop making common membership marketing mistakes and start to reinvigorate your membership campaigns using lessons from dating coaches and matchmakers; help prospects get to know your association better before pushing them to join; and use skills and tools to help you nurture your relationships including SEO, marketing automation and analytics. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Association Analytics
Speakers:
- Chris Gloede, Chief Consultant, Ricochet Advice
- Bill Conforti, SVP of Strategy & Solutions, Association Analytics
- Greg Pollack, SVP of Sales, Association Analytics
Thu 8/24 at 12 p.m. – Artificial Intelligence for Associations
According to Community Brands research, only 17% of professional associations plan on adopting AI in the future. Learn what AI is and what it is not, and where to go from here—the next best steps for associations to consider about the role of AI at their organization. More info/register.
Host: Nimble AMS
Speakers:
- Collier Faubion, Senior Sales Engineer, Nimble AMS
- Tirrah Switzer, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Community Brands
Thu 8/24 at 12 p.m. – Smooth Sailing: Association Operations Best Practices
Explore the key strategies, systems, and processes that can enhance efficiency, member engagement, and overall organizational performance. More info/register.
Host: Nexus Marketing Agency
Speakers:
- Neeraj Garg, Chief Operating Officer at Aplusify
- Thorben Grosser, Vice President of Product Marketing at EventMobi
- Brian Lacy, CEO & Data Consultant at NPOInfo
- Thomas McClintock, Senior Client Services Manager at Empowered Margins
Thu 8/24 at 12 p.m. – The Community Check-In
A weekly community chat on Slack for black professionals working in the events industry. More info/register.
Host: Black In Events Network
Thu 8/24 at 3 p.m. – Future-proof Your Association Now: Inspire and Engage Young Members
Learn how the notion of belonging has shifted, why associations have struggled to engage younger members, the potential impact of the next generation of members on associations, what young members expect from their membership experiences, and growth strategies to attract and engage young members. More info/register.
Host: Grype
Speaker: Sarah Sladek, Founder & CEO of Sarah Sladek & Company and XYZ University
Fri 8/25 at 12:30 p.m. – How to Create an AI Usage Policy AMA
Join this discussion on approaches to consider as you develop your AI guidelines and policies. Explore topics such as ethics, copyright, security, and data privacy. More info/register.
Host: Association Women Technology Champions
Speaker: Juan Sanchez, Chief Information Officer, Inteleos
Fri 8/25 at 1 p.m. – Certification Administration
Learn how to develop and implement a successful certification program, and how to assess and monitor the performance of certified individuals. Explore the legal implications of certification programs and how to ensure that they are compliant with relevant regulations. More info/register.
Host: By Leverage Assessments, Inc.
Speaker: Kyana Beckles
Fri 8/25 at 4 p.m. – Association Management Series: Key Concepts Every Association Professional Should Know – Membership
Just because you work for a membership association doesn’t mean you work *in* membership. But, there are key membership concepts every association professional should know. Learn about the membership lifecycle, from prospecting and lead generation, through the welcome cycle and ladders of engagement, to good practices in renewal cycles, and what happens after that. More info/register.
Host: Fridays@4
Speaker: Elizabeth Weaver Engel, M.A., CAE, Chief Strategist at Spark Consulting
Tue 8/29 at 11 a.m. – Leadership & Learning: The Best Leaders Ask the Best Questions: Because Who Needs All the Answers Anyway?
We’re in a world where people want more from their leaders than ever, yet loyalty and satisfaction are on a bit of a hiatus. To navigate the choppy waters, one skill stands out: the ancient art of asking questions. Using insights from research across industries and over a decade’s experience in education leadership, learn why asking questions is a leadership superpower and the keys to using powerful questions to make better choices, find and keep the right team members, and grow into even better leaders in the future. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speaker: Ryan MacTaggart, PhD, Associate Director, Professional Learning, EDUCAUSE
Tue 8/29 at 1 p.m. – Everything You Want to Know About Engagement Scoring (But Didn’t Know to Ask)
Dive deep into the nuances of creating an engagement scoring model that truly reflects what you value most in your members, and what they value most about your association. Learn the do’s and don’ts of building the right model for your association and walk away with tips on how to get started. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speaker: Greg Pollack, SVP of Sales, Association Analytics
Wed 8/30 at 3 p.m. – The Importance and Effects of Creating a Culture of Inclusivity Regarding Accessibility in Your Organization
Explore the importance of accessibility in the workplace and how it can benefit employees and the organization as a whole. Hear about the moral and ethical obligations surrounding accessibility, the business advantages of an accessible workplace (such as increased productivity, better employee retention, and improved customer satisfaction), and strategies for promoting accessibility in the workplace including training, resources, and technology. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speaker: Taylor Dorward, Life Hacks365
Thu 8/31 at 1 p.m. – The Path to Learning Business Maturity
In a world where competition, learner expectations, and the need to deliver real impact have increased dramatically, learning businesses must take their operations to a new level of maturity in order to thrive. Learn about the Tagoras Learning Business Maturity Model, its components, and how learning businesses can—and do—implement the model in a way that puts them on a clear, measurable path to greater maturity and, by extension, greater reach, revenue, and impact. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Tagoras/Leading Learning
Speakers: Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele, co-founders of Tagoras
Thu 8/31 at 1 p.m. – What You Don’t Know About Payments
Learn about four important payment trends which emerged from the pandemic and are here to stay, two key changes you should make with your payment and credit card collection practices, what you are not being told about credit card fees and why that is costing your organization money, alternatives to credit card collections that the ecosystem supporting Visa/MasterCard and AMEX don’t want you to know about, PCI compliance and security issues, and how to do an RFP for Merchant Services. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speakers: Julie Duncan, Association Practice Leader, and Jenni Glaze, COO, U.S. Transactions Corporation
Association Brain Food Weekly is published Friday mornings. If your organization offers free professional development for the association community, please send me the link via email by Wednesday afternoon the week before it’s scheduled.
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Association Brain Food 
Ha! You actually wrote “no shit, Sherlock!” Love it!
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Oh, and a tip we learned on our italy trip this summer for pesto: put your food processor blades in the freezer before you whip up the basil leaves. That keeps the heat lower so you’ll get better flavor. (This is why the Italian chefs use mortal and pestle to mash up the basil; no heat.)
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Thanks, Wes, I will put that tip to work on my future batches of pesto. Tomorrow, I plan to salvage (harvest) the leaves that have withstood the mildew. Re Sherlock… yeah, I’m feeling more spicy these days.
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