Posted by AEM under
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The Crain?s Chicago Business article (May 19) revealing the growing acceptance in corporate offices of pantsuits for women reminded me of Scott Briscoe?s recommended dress code, which is very sensible and serves associations well.
A great deal of ?business attire? is impractical ? high heels that force women to walk on their toes, ties and jackets that choke us in the summer, open-necked coats that let in shivering breezes during winter. We don these ?uniforms? merely to show our rank in the business world.
Fortunately, the ascendancy of business and association leaders who don?t adhere to these codes has helped whittle away some ridiculous restrictions.
Still, pantsuits are just as formal as business suits. They eliminate gender discrimination but don?t alter the definition of ?business attire.? Some customs, it seems, are slow to change.
Posted by Maddie Grant under
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I was going to do a post all about how OpenID is not working for me because I can’t remember my OpenID login - but this great post (thanks to David Hinson, via Facebook) summarized the issues for me quite nicely! Score!
Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend!
I am heading over to Artomatic tonight, and will go next door afterwards to dance to DC’s own Saeed at Ibiza DC til the wee hours. Join me if you are local and have nothing else planned. : )
Posted by CindyAE under
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This is the second in my random installments of money tips. Once when managing the finances for a candidate for a national association office, her campaign co-chairman suggested that rather than continue to raise funds, we just look at what we really didn’t need to spend. It was good advice.
Tip 2: Stop Spending.
An obvious way to have more money is to stop spending money, yet it’s one of those tips that always need to be listed. Numerous friends and colleagues have found times in their lives where a serious financial situation - illness, job loss or salary downsizing (personal or spouse), personal emergency or even huge college costs - made them need to immediately look at spending.
It might be tremendously easier than you’d imagine to seriously look at what spending money on, and just stop or significantly decrease. And then you’ll wonder why you didn’t stop years ago. If in a two-income family, try living on one salary for a month or two and saving the rest (or cut 1/3 if one salary). Might be more manageable than imagined, and could cause you to consider spending less generally.
Same is true with association finances. When the economy falters, money is often needed but it’s also often considered a bad time to seek more money. Check ways to stop spending.
Why wait for the financial emergency?
Posted by AEM under
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These association pitches are very appealing:
National Storytelling Association tells non-members, ?What this story needs is you.?
Wisconsin Society of Association Executives directs non-members to ?Associate with the Best.?
Oak Park Runners Club invites you to ?Run with Us.?
I like these because they offer a direct invitation to individuals (rather than a general boast to the world) and use words that address their core mission. They are friendly, personal, and relevant.
Posted by CindyAE under
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At my daughter’s baccalaureate last night, a minister (who’s the father of twin classmates) gave a sermon. Fast forwarding through the tear-jerker parts about what it’s like to be a parent on the eve of high school graduation, he gave an analogy to a story he read.
Jazz great Wynton Marsalis was playing trumpet in a little bar in NYC - a ballad from the thirties - and hitting emotive notes reflecting the song’s title. The last two notes, not yet played, were disrupted by a cell phone ringtone in the audience. The man rushed out to answer a call, and it appeared to ruin the moment. Instead Wynton started playing the notes in the ringtone over and over, riffing on them, and then finally perfectly merging them into the last notes to the song that had been interrupted. He got a standing ovation.
The minister told the students there would be many times in their lives they would be interrupted, but they need to play on.
It reminded me of a situation at a meeting where someone was really angry about a decision and arrived at a meeting furious, wanting to address the group …. and did. He was the ringtone. It could have been considered an interruption, but rather was considered a tone that needed to be heard, and then incorporated into the final version of the decisions. Sometimes we just play on. Other times we blend old music, with new sources of music, and hope the outcome can lead to a standing ovation. Disruptions can be healthy for organizations.
Posted by Mickie Rops under
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Not a lot is written about why or how to retire (disband, discontinue) a certification. Few certifying organizations have policies addressing this potential situation and without a policy, programs tend to linger on, especially when there’s politics involved (and when isn’t there?). Here are the minimum components that should be included in a policy and associated procedures: Circumstances leading to retirement consideration / decision - such as declining trends in number of applicants, number of…
Posted by Lindy Dreyer under
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Has anyone else noticed the switch?
Lately in the association sphere, rather than being asked “why would we ever do that?” in reference to social media technologies, I’ve started to get asked, “how do we get started?” YAY!
Here are two strategies (not mutually exclusive) to read up on if you’re taking the conversation in your organization from why to how best to leverage social media.
PREP
Jeff De Cagna explains his PREP approach which stands for Purpose, Readiness, Experiment, Practice.
POST
Josh Bernoff explains Forrester’s POST approach which stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology.
I like both approaches. The PREP method is great for getting yourself up to speed fast and it keeps you open to learning about new and better ways to leverage emerging technology. The POST method implies a certain maturity with your understanding of social media. To make POST work, you need to already have the PREP under your belt.
As marketers and communicators, it’s our initial instinct to try to drive this process and control the message in these new spaces. Fight that instinct. It’s better for us to come into these conversations completely open to new voices and shared ownership of this new communication space. This is our chance to let the behind-the-scenes experts and accidental spokespersons speak up and add depth to what used to be a one-way conversation.
Let’s all stop talking to ourselves!
