The Blogoclump

I caught a couple of interesting headlines on Patti Shock’s blog: Delta Calls In Todd and Rande To Spruce Up Airline Food and Drink; and The New Mile High Club: Forget the Hotel Room.

The first is about how yummy the new food-for-purchase will be on Delta once celebrity chef Todd English has a whack at […]

Read & discuss at Sue Pelletier's blog.

It’s an auto spammer!

Read & discuss at jeffpi1@gmail.com (Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation LLC, the association community's leading voice for innovation!)'s blog.

I almost said yes.
Today I got an invitation in the mail from a local nonprofit.

The front of the invitation was cute.
I liked the band they have playing.
The date might have worked for us.

But, there was no ticket price on the invitation nor the response card - just a bunch of blanks.
Perhaps the group was trying something new where […]

Read & discuss at Cynthia D'Amour's blog.

Why aren't more of your staff comfortable with working in your association's database? One reason may be micro-management.
I've been working with a client and recently realized that a huge hurdle they face is that their executive director micro-manages everything they do. As a result, staff is fairly paralyzed and unable to make any decisions on their […]

Read & discuss at Wes Trochlil's blog.

Read & discuss at Tony Rossell's blog.

The world of do-it-yourself (DIY) seems to be rather in vogue these days. In fact, with such media properties like 24/7 cable channels and print and web versions of Make magazine you might think DIY is the newest cool thing. Nope. Ask my Dad.
My Dad has been and always will be […]

Read & discuss at Peter Turner's blog.

Read & discuss at Nancy -The Cajun Chestnut's blog.

In addition to being an association executive, I’m also married to one. We were introduced at a Board of Directors meeting at a national association convention; and today is our 20th wedding anniversary. These thoughts about marriage of association executives … may also apply to you …

1. Don’t do each other’s jobs. Easy to fall into a trap of deciding to “help” run your spouse’s association too - when they don’t want or need a co-CEO.
2. Our professional mentors are not each other.
3. If you have kids, seriously consider not attending many spouse functions until later years. You both likely have too many functions with your own job. (Except functions in Palm Springs. Go to those.)
4. When you attend as spouse, forget you’re an association executive. Even if you’re dying to fix the AV or get their registration line to move faster.
5. Agree to be aggressive about saving money “just in case”. Nature of association management is you stay until it’s time to go - be ready financially.
6. Confidential info related to your position should never be shared - including with your spouse. Associations can have conflicting agendas.
7. Being with people all the time is part of the job, and part of your life — helps to do things by yourself (alone) too — (e.g., my husband has golf trip alone, I’m going to Amsterdam alone — neither interested in other’s choice — don’t need to include friends)
8. There’s natural idea sharing and stealing between association execs. Even at home.

And if/when you have kids … as soon as they walk it’s not too early to teach to collate and help with lit drops for candidates. Skill-building 101.

Read & discuss at CindyAE's blog.

Read & discuss at Jamie Notter's blog.

rollercoaster
Originally uploaded by bkmcae

I recently subscribed to a Technorati search for my Internet handle (bkmcae), and was a bit surprised to see that this photo of me and my friend Nate sharing a special moment turned up on a blog post about branding.

For a long time, people like me have been telling people like you that you need to subscribe to a Google alert for your association’s name and URL. I’m afraid it’s not so simple anymore.

I’ve recently come to discover some other Google (or Technorati) alerts that we all should be subscribed to if we aspire to be full participants in the online conversation:

1. Websites of sister organizations and programs with their own web presences (Political Action Committees, Foundations, Public Relations campaigns, etc.). You might even go as far as to subscribe to alerts for your chapters’ websites or blogs.
2. Blogs of particular importance in your industry. I have subbed to alerts for a few of my members’ blogs. I may eventually decide to subscribe to alerts of friendly or not-so-friendly organizations.
3. Anywhere you have a bio or public profile (official ones, like on your association’s website, should show up in your regular URL search, but unofficial ones, like on LinkedIn, for example, wouldn’t).
4. Web profiles of your CEO and elected leaders (official or unofficial).
5. Your internet handle.

What do you think? It might be overkill, but simply citing your association’s name or URL in a blog post is NOT the only way that people will talk about you online. When you’re involved in a conversation, you don’t just listen to what people say about you. You listen to what they say about others. And in some cases, it’s good to know what others are saying about certain others.

I’ve just started doing this, so if you’re interested, I can report back on how long it’s taking to monitor this stuff and if anything useful has come of it.

Tagged: Association Management; Associations; CAE; Certified Association Executive

Read & discuss at bkmcae@gmail.com (Ben Martin)'s blog.