Last night I learned a lot about girl bullying and relational aggression.
As part of my volunteer commitment this year to the Jr. League of Ann Arbor, I’ll be joining a team of members who will work to spread the word in our community about the increase in girl bullying - and how parents can help their […]
Care2, which describes itself as “the largest online progressive network, bringing together socially and environmentally responsible nonprofits, businesses and its 7 million members,” has created a tool to calculate an estimate of cost and return on investment for the recruitment…
If you are trying to get the attention of member CEOs, it’s useful to have the headhunter who placed them in the their jobs place the phone call. For the last five years, I have had the pleasure of collaborating…
Two years ago my wife and a dear friend from Louisiana were finishing a vacation in Portugal when we got the news about Katrina coming ashore. We sat riveted as we tried to help our friend make contact with her eighty year old father to make sure he was ok.
In honor of the people who […]
If I said “Pecha Kucha”… you would say…? …… Gesundheit?
If you lived in Tokyo or maybe Europe and were a designer or web techie, chances are you and your friends know all about Pecha Kucha (Japanese for “chatter”)
What is it? Think rapid fire presentations meets “open mic” poetry […]
A question about sample PR policies for social media came across a list I am on. I responded by saying that before writing policies, it’s important to know how you want to engage online and to what purpose. Without that, any policy is going to be irrelevant, at best, or more likely harmful.
I have […]
Read & discuss at david@highcontext.com (C. David Gammel)'s blog.
Given the current dearth of good bedtime TV (apart from the unquestionably hilarious Top Gear on BBC America), I finally had a chance to read “Unfashionably Late“, an e-book by Max Christian Hansen recommended by Bmart.
The author is a blogger who explains in the book how he stopped and started blogging three times: “early, when blogging was unheard of”, “when blogging was immensely popular and the blogosphere was heady with promise”, and “when blogging was in decline”. This resonated a lot with me. Not so much specifically about the blogging, but because I think that those of us who are into “new media”, web 2.0 etc., often find ourselves eager to learn, eager to share - but held back in terms of really being able to move our associations forward using these tools because our members and volunteer leaders are just not ready for them yet. That was the essence of the post I deleted a few days ago about not telling board members anything they don’t need to know; it seems like it’s better, with care of course, to try new things out ourselves (as association people) if we can, with small “focus groups” (if that’s what you want to call them) of interested members, before even attempting to institutionalize these new processes. But whether you do that or not, you often find yourself having to stop and wait for a few months or years before you can try again. It seemed like it was a similar push of momentum followed by a pull of circumstance (whether internal forces or external circumstances) that stopped Hansen each time, until he found he was ready to start again, but of course finding each time that things were a little bit different.
It’s the crux of the “we have always done it that way” attitude, too - there’s a real fear of trying new ways of working, of governing, of encouraging participation. That’s something we have to fix, because the world is changing faster than anyone can keep up. There needs to be a nimbleness in how we approach change that just isn’t there yet.
Something else I found interesting about Hansen’s book is that he talks a lot about “currency” of blogging - where in order to be heard among the “noise” (the more of which there is, the less the quality of the sounds), you need to be able to get linked from “A-level” bloggers. He talks about driving traffic to your blog, likening the blogosphere to the example of Speakers’ Corner in London where anyone can stand on a soapbox and talk, but no-one really listens. But to me, as a wide-eyed newbie to this, it’s not about that! I’ve been to Speakers’ Corner - the point is not to have a large audience of listeners, the point is to have a “space” where talking is encouraged, and where, if you are lucky, three strangers will watch you talk for a few minutes. Blogging for me is more about the act of writing, of putting thoughts down, like a diary (natch). Of course it has a wonderful added benefit that you might start a conversation with it, whether it’s with one person or many. But I would be very surprised if any new blogger starting out today has the expectation of reaching (or desire to reach) the millions.
Hansen’s right about something, though - the “bubble” of the blogosphere is so big now, you have to find your own small Speakers Corner. I’m pretty happy in mine, so far.
Recently while driving along the GW Parkway (just outside DC) I came upon an electronic road sign (you know, the kind that tells you about upcoming events or road construction). The sign read (and I quote): "On or about August 19th, roadwork begins."
That's it.
Ntohing about what kinds of roadwork. Nothing about how it would affect […]
During the closing session at their conference, incoming ASAE Chairman Tom Dolan had only a few minutes to thank people and talk about his vision for the coming year — but notably chose to use time to end his remarks with personal words to the thousands of association executives listening. Tom said, “I think we could do a better job with each other” — and highlighted three areas.
1. Urged us to talk with at least one student about our profession, to build the future.
2. Encouraged each of us to mentor other association executives, and not make excuses.
3. Reminded us to help other association executives who are in job transitions.
I couldn’t agree with him more, and appreciated that ASAE elects leaders who believe that association executives also need to have responsibility for the future of our profession, and the future of each other.
Here are a few of many examples I’ve seen of those three thoughts:
1. Watching a colleague’s (Gar’s) daughter grow from a little kid into an extraordinary young woman - and learning she’s now studying association management. Was in a program break-out session with her recently, and amazed at her insights and ideas.
2. Ways I was helped/mentored — local association execs telling me the “car talk” after Directors meetings (to learn what to fix), being invited to dinners/functions by an AE to get to know “important people”, AEs volunteering time to facilitate or teach programs that helped my members (and me), having presentations critiqued, ideas from talented new AEs, etc. Should there be efforts to mentor other AEs even when you have no time? Absolutely.
3. AEs leave positions for many reasons - happens all the time to even the best and brightest. Two things I’ve found they talk about first - how they were terminated, and who reached out afterwards. Even those prepared for a termination still find it’s a huge blow, then instantly concerned about ever being hired again. Calls of support from other AEs, offers to be a reference or to review a resume, suggestions for where to look, giving their name to headhunters who call you, opportunities for consulting projects at your association or others, having lunch to talk, inviting to dinner with groups of colleagues when they’re trying to network - can help them both professionally and personally.
So even though I’ve never met Tom Dolan, and was only one in audience of thousands, I believe he had great advice - and focused on the right things.
Several has expressed interest so the virtual book club is on. First book: Clear and To the Point by Stephen Kosslyn. My copy should arrive today (along with several other books - as if I have time to read them any time soon…) If you’re interested in reading and discussing the book in a virtual format (TBD), comment to this post or send me an e-mail. As soon as we’ve got the interested group identified,…
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