The Blogoclump

Read & discuss at Hilary's blog.

   Maybe I’m overreacting?
Today was the final meeting - and all I got was a free diet coke.
Okay she did acknowledge my advice had made an impact - but still.
Let me go back to the beginning…
Over the years I’ve occasionally helped out the local small biz center’s clients by providing marketing feedback.
A few years ago, […]

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

Kevin Holland says associations? goals should be ?to make them (members) happy.? Refunds, rollovers, freebies, etc. are mentioned as ways of maintaining a positive relationship with dissatisfied members or attendees.

But how far should an association go to make someone ?happy??

If a speaker at an ASAE educational conference (pardon me, thought session) is a bore, is an attendee entitled to a refund?

If a luncheon attendee isn?t crazy about the food, should the association issue a credit for the cost of the meal?

What if a member registers for an association meeting and doesn?t bother to attend. Is the association at fault for not making a more compelling pitch to ensure that person?s participation?

While making members ?happy? is a desirable goal, guaranteeing their happiness may be more than an association should promise.

A lot can, and should, be done to deal with unmet expectations and misunderstandings about association activities without reacting to every petty snipe.

Like many other association matters, good judgment will dictate the appropriate response.

Read & discuss at AEM's blog.

Seth Godin on new expectations for face-to-face conferences: “Here’s what a speaker owes an audience that travels to engage in person: more than they could get by just reading the transcript.” “And here’s what a conference organizer owes the attendees: surprise, juxtaposition, drama, engagement, souvenirs and just possibly, excitement. ” Sign me up for the next conference that offers this!

Read & discuss at Mickie Rops's blog.

Read & discuss at Jeffrey Cufaude's blog.

Read & discuss at Jamie Notter's blog.

Associations commonly assess penalties to exhibitors who break down their booths before closing time.

Grocery stores don?t seem to be concerned about such things. At Jewel-Osco, I frequently find produce bins emptied during the early evening hours while staff cleans, reorganizes, and restocks. Why can?t that be done late at night, when fewer shoppers visit the store?

It?s not unusual for the deli counter to shut its lights and start cleaning at 8:30 p.m., even though its advertised hours extend to 9 o?clock. Employees say they want to be able to leave at nine.

We?ve all worked shows that turned out to be duds. Still, it?s best to staff the booth ? or any other activity or facility ? during the hours advertised, not to avoid a penalty, but to serve the members, donors, and customers for whom we exist.

Read & discuss at AEM's blog.

I know I’m about to sound like a birthday scrooge, but one of the first things I stopped when I became CEO of my association 20 years ago is the office birthday party. When first hired into a staff position, there was a tradition of everyone chipping in a significant amount of money anytime any co-worker had a birthday (and yes, I’m considering $10-$20 or more to be significant) along with ordering cakes and/or headed out to lunch. Multiply that by multiple staff people and it was a lot of personal time and money towards co-worker birthdays. Since I was on staff before being CEO I was already aware of definite division among staff of those who couldn’t wait for birthdays and those who really disliked being “forced” to participate/contribute. (And we all know office dynamics don’t exactly welcome the “if you want” concept.)

Although this didn’t happen at my office, something I’ve heard happens at other offices includes buying birthday gifts for each other (so each person gets a birthday gift from every other co-worker) or having an “anonymous” contribution (or non-anonymous contribution) to a fund to buy gifts — and someone always keeps score whether there’s an intent to keep score or not.

Thoughts:

1. While some believe birthdays are huge reasons to celebrate, many others don’t care about birthdays at all;
2. Anything that suggests or requires employees chip in their personal money for other employees - especially if seemingly directed by the organization - just doesn’t feel right;
3. Anyone can give or send a gift or card “off hours” to someone else (and should if personally inclined to do so) - but once one employee hands a gift to a co-worker in front of others in the office then it’s automatically going to be registered by others - my opinion best to keep that personal unless plan to give something to everyone (and then do you secretly wish/expect gifts in return?)
4. Aren’t many offices sedentary enough without cakes arriving every month or few weeks too?
5. Not everyone wants to share their personal financial situation - or personal funds - with co-workers. Be sensitive that you may not know what’s going on in someone’s life and that money could matter to them (even if doesn’t to you);
6. Hopefully people really do have an outside life with family and friends, so not having the office birthday party doesn’t remotely mean they don’t have a birthday celebration;
7. Some offices give half or full day personal time on birthdays; or use funds that would be spent on cakes to give a gift card (paid by the association) to an employee as an alternative to having a cake or expecting co-workers to fund parties/gifts;
8. Consider shifting the focus to better recognize their time as employees - such as significant employment anniversaries - which is more directly related to being in the office;
9. If need to celebrate birthdays, could economize on employee costs by setting aside one day a year as a birthday celebration day with employees who want to participate drawing names for gift purchases (with a price cap).

Oh - and have a happy birthday - whenever it is.

Read & discuss at CindyAE's blog.

Barack Obama is not the first presidential candidate to make effective use of social media. (Howard Dean launched the first serious attempt.)

But his successes at fund-raising and mobilization of supporters can be copied by associations looking for new ways to attract and retain members and donors.

Obama is also not the first candidate to adopt a new campaign tactic. Martin Van Buren inaugurated the torchlight parade, Dwight Eisenhower is credited with being the first to employ a professional advertising company, Richard Nixon disseminated strategically crafted, emotional messages to market his candidacy, and Ronald Reagan reaped the rewards of direct mail to key market segments.

Associations always need to keep an eye open for innovations in communications. How we talk to members and prospective members can contribute to our organization?s growth or accelerate its decline.

Read & discuss at AEM's blog.

Last night a group decided the #1 online annoyance, other than spam and spoofing, is those who use “Reply to All” to email that doesn’t request responding back to everyone. The “Reply to All” people seem to use that feature with most email they receive, not just select ones. And those who reply to only the sender, seem to routinely just reply to sender (unless requested otherwise).

“Reply to All” is also a typical way that an email goes to those not realized were blind copied and the responder regrets it. As the saying goes, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

I often copy and paste a portion of an email to the sender into a new email rather than hitting “Reply” so my email response can entirely leave a thread. Too many group emails are carelessly forwarded to others, along with comments from others only intended for the sender.

Read & discuss at CindyAE's blog.