The Blogoclump

Read & discuss at Matt Baehr's blog.

Don't forget, in addition to these great posts, I also post new articles to my website once a month or so. You can sign up to receive notices of the new articles here.

Read & discuss at Wes Trochlil's blog.

Read & discuss at Jamie Notter's blog.

Vendor review. I hate getting stonewalled. Answer my questions and be straight with me…don’t give me a song and dance. #
Call is getting better. Had to tease out the information, but we got it. #
Working on creating a new governance structure for our virtual communities. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Read & discuss at admin's blog.

   Spent in class - not with Mickey.
This weekend, James and I participated in Ford Saeks’ marketing intensive event.
I hadn’t looked forward to what I thought would be a grueling learning experience…

10-14 hour days in class.
Having to sit still for such a long time.
And let someone else do the bulk of the talking!

Ford’s […]

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

The 5th annual Games for Change Festival is coming up soon, and while I don’t think it is in the Mission to Learn budget for me to attend, it seems like a good time to poke around and see what sorts of educational games might be out there that are geared towards making a difference […]

Read & discuss at jtcobb's blog.

There are news stories about creative things businesses are doing to encourage the public to spend their economic stimulus checks with them. A grocery chain is offering a 10% bonus for any groceries gift card purchased using an entire economic stimulus check. A car dealer will match dollar for dollar any check amount used towards a car purchase. Several retail stores and travel companies are offering incentives or promotions towards this program.

Have any associations targeted any of their efforts towards the economic stimulus checks? Are we trying to improve our own industries by suggesting ways to use those funds? Even if our message may be to save the money.

By the way, if you’re interested in how much you may (or may not) receive, here’s the IRS economic stimulus online calculator. Be sure to have your 2007 tax return for amounts. And here’s the link to how checks/payments will be distributed.

Read & discuss at CindyAE's blog.

Sam Phillips is a singer/songwriter of quiet intelligence and mystifying obscurity. Her next album, “Don’t Do Anything,” will finally be released on June 3 and I can’t wait. Here’s a video for one of the new songs. And, here’s an older song with an admittedly cheesy video from 1994 (this song somehow showed up on […]

Read & discuss at Kevin Holland's blog.

Travel woes and troublesome policies experienced by association executives call to mind another problem common among national and international organizations.

There just isn?t enough face-to-face contact.

Major problems that arise with combative leaders, disgruntled members, unsatisfied vendors, or hostile competitors, are generally handled by telephone or e-mail, when a face-to-face meeting might have been far more effective at resolving whatever problem has surfaced.

The time and expense of traveling to another city to meet with an individual often can?t be justified until the problem becomes so great that even a seasoned executive may not be able to contain it.

State and local association execs, on the other hand, can usually dash over to someone?s office and meet with them personally to diffuse a potentially explosive problem.

Additionally, national and international associations often hold committee meetings in conjunction with Board meetings, leaving little time to undo a bad committee decision or soothe ruffled feathers.

Solutions? Keep in touch with key leaders and members as frequently as possible. Schedule face-to-face meetings before conducting teleconferences, so participants will know each other and work better as a group. Meet personally with up-and-coming leaders so they?ll be familiar with you before they have to work with you. Talk to people individually at board and committee meetings.

Despite the availability of myriad technological innovations, nothing is better than a face-to-face conversation.

Read & discuss at AEM's blog.

In a post I wrote earlier this month about pre-requisites to knowledge sharing, Ellen asked about what do when the same old question keeps popping up even if it has been resolved or hashed over ad nauseam in the past.
This question highlights what the title of this post sums up: there is a difference […]

Read & discuss at david@highcontext.com (C. David Gammel)'s blog.