I had the opportunity to speak with three different groups of volunteer leaders this week and in each case we talked about the challenge of increasing member engagement. What struck me was that the focus of engagement is on the “big ticket items” of event attendance or volunteer leadership (read serve on committee or board). It will be difficult if not impossible for us to increase engagement if we keep this focus so narrow.  And there is a lot at stake.

Given that ASAE’s Decision To Join survey showed a direct correlation between engagement and renewal, it is certainly worth the effort to explore how members engage and will engage in the future. We need look no further than the web to see how people are engaging. They are collaborating, evaluating, sharing, and rating: creating content. And it’s increasingly about research. Before we make a purchase, choose which movie to watch, even visit the doctor, we log on to check out the options.  Engagement is so much more than attending an event, making a purchase or signing up to volunteer.

It follows then that member engagement is evolving too. It’s not just about attending the event or serving on a board, it’s about being a contributor and being an information consumer.
I would propose that the new definition of engagement can be formed by looking both at how many ways members can plug into our association and what they can do once they connect.

The list might include:

• Log onto web
• Call staff or another member
• Email staff or other member
• Join an e-community (our site or public site as Facebook, LinkedIn etal)
• Follow on Twitter
• Subscribe to RSS feed or a newsletter
• Visit the association
• Attend an event

Where they …

• Create/update a profile
• Join a discussion on listserv, blog, e-community
• Write a blog post, article, white paper
• Rate a product, service
• Share a link or resource
• Refer a colleague to join or attend or participate
• Give a presentation
• Complete survey, poll
• Upload pictures, presentations, videos
• Purchase a product
• Talk with members, staff
• Participate in a committee, team or on board
• Endorse our association

These are starting points. Our challenge is to begin to build the list for our associations. So, let’s have a brainstorming meeting with staff to get started. Ask members how they define engagement – not just in your association but in their daily life. In your list, be as inclusive as you can. The idea is that if we can broaden how members can engage, we can increase that engagement.

Of course, we’ll need to figure out how to measure it, for if we can’t measure it, we can’t improve it. What I’ve seen from many associations is a great reluctance to build systems to measure these newer elements of engagement. With one group I heard it’s impossible to track behavioral info to the member record and in any case why would we want to?

One enlightened association exec, Andy Steggles, now Chief Operating Officer & Social Strategist at Higher Logic, was working on this at Risk & Insurance Management Society, where he built a more inclusive engagement model proving it can be done. But as I said to a group of chapter leaders at the California Association of Marriage & Family Therapists leadership meeting this past weekend, even if you have to start by using a spreadsheet that includes the member’s name, ID and then checks for all he’s done, do it. Sometimes the simplest approach gets the job done.

Eric Schonher, Marketing General, recently offered in an ASAE listserv discussion that engagement is “…defined by actively participating in an association activity….” The challenge is simply to build that list. What’s on your list?

I paid my dues on-line today to continue my membership in ASAE & The Center. No, it's not cause to alert the media or sound the trumpets. I've been doing this steadily since about 1981. Some years, it was paid by my association, a few out of my pocket and of course the last 8 through my association management company (read my own pocket). So what's the cause for the announcement? Well, I paid on-line as the result of an annual reminder set-up in the finance folder. The announcement is: I didn't need a 5-step dues billing invoice system to renew.

I routinely pay my professional memberships on the actual month due. I routinely toss-out the reminder notices and delete email notices that come in beginning months ahead because I have it set as an bill payment in my system. I don't expect ASAE to know that off-hand.  It got me thinking though. Like ASAE, each month here at Mariner we send out scads of renewal notices to members. I have to wonder if my members are like me. Do they have it in their checkbook or monthly bill pay without reminders? I'm sure some are like me. Certainly not all. I'm not suggesting that we throw out dues invoicing, but is there a better way?

Most associations provide members the opportunity to set preferences on a myriad of things. Can we add dues billing to that? What if I could set the option to send me an email with renewal link on the expiration month?Or perhaps let me sync a reminder to my Outlook Task list or Calendar? And then I could even choose the reminder time and hit snooze if I can't get to it right away but don't want to forget. Or maybe just a thank you letter with a date reminder and a follow-up after the fact if I forget?

I know I can already hear the naysayers ... people will just ignore that. Or will they? Some may, but for those that don't, you've saved the mail and email costs.

And, I might add it wouldn't leave me feeling a little cold like the generic, pseudo-personalized invoice.

A number of years back at a trade association where I was membership director I did an analysis of our dues payments and found the majority paid the month the dues were due using the first notice sent. So they held on to the first notice, tossing the others, and paid when it was due. We revamped the dues invoicing and saved money without losing members. It's time to analyze again and I think I'll start by asking my members ...

How do you want to be billed for your dues?

People volunteer to be part of something larger without being larger than life in that project.

Glenn Yonemitsu, chair of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants, a volunteer for the Olympics shares his journey and the excitement of seeing one of his members carrying the torch. 

Of all the responses I received to my request for help in setting an agenda for 2010, the one that gave me most pause was from Jeff De Cagna (like I was surprised?):

In 2010, association leaders need to ask a fundamental question: how can we make everything we do more social?  This question is not primarily a technological consideration, but a strategic and human one.  The challenge is to look beyond the tools at the diverse relationships they enable and the deeper meaning they nurture.

Jeff is reminding us ever so succinctly that at the core it’s the relationship– it’s me being able to reach out to friends on Twitter to ask for help and, because we have relationships, getting rich advice back. It’s me knowing that the ones that replied care about me (no I’m not going Sally on you!). It’s knowing that trust and respect is mutual.

Earlier this week, we hosted the monthly ANEX brown bag lunch & idea swap in Columbia, MD. Our topic was “Big Idea Month Revisited” which sought to extend the great conversation from last month on Acronym (read my take here). One awesome big idea that certainly relates to Jeff’s advice came from Shaun Callahan of Groupsites.com: he makes it a point to get on the phone with people. If he gets an email that requires more than a simple yes or no, he picks up the phone. And he ends every conversation with a simple entreaty to find out if is there anything else he can do for you. Again it’s the relationship.

Is he all talk? No. At the end of the gathering I was in a quandary because I had to find a book for my 16-yr right after the meeting. Shaun right there and then made two calls that helped.

As I travel through the new year, I hope that I will spend as much time nurturing relationships as I do anything else. And I offer this challenge – if I have failed in my end, let me know.

PS If you haven’t already, read Jeff’s post in Acronym on new work of governing from more food for thought that extends his simple advice here.

Bruce Butterfield's question and Peggy's earlier post on the comparison of associations to newspapers begs a fundamental question…

”Is that all there is?”

If associations define themselves simply as purveyors of information (filtered or not), I would respectfully suggest they’re doomed. We may be able to “microprice” our information products to better compete with other sources, but I suspect the real problem lies in our consistent inability to place a compelling, visible value on the elements of the benefit package for which associations often have a significant competitive advantage (peer-to-peer networking, professional recognition, legislative/regulatory representation, etc.).
Micropricing will succeed in a “customer-oriented” business model. Associations will only succeed in a “citizen-oriented model” where members recognize that their participation is essential to the value they receive from their membership.

P.S. Perhaps some newspapers have successfully re-engineered themselves (see Dana Milbanks’ The state of The Post: Not too bad as apocalypses go) and, in doing so, present a news model associations might emulate.

I crowdsourced my 2010 action list and received a great reply from colleagues. The ideas included “quick actions” which I shared in my first post, tips for listening, several thoughts on integrating social media (which will come in future posts) and this checklist for building relationships from David Nour, author, speaker and consultant. 

David was on my list to reach out to because of his philosophy that focuses on relationships as currency. He describes this in his book, Relationship Economics, but really lives it day-to-day as I experienced first-hand when I reached out to him with my simple question.

I first met David at ASAE & The Center’s 2009 annual meeting where he gave two presentations. He described his early introduction to  the concept of relationship as currency when as a child he accompanied his father on their weekly errands at the bazaars of Iran. His dad got things done through relationships or what David terms “favor economy”.  Later, he said, a business trip to China reminded him that “the rest of the world builds relationships first, before they do business.”

I was curious then to know what David would suggest as important to add to my 2010 list. He offered his top 10 in 2010 which by no surprise focuses on building relationships:

1. Version one is better than version none!  Get on and try it before you claim "it doesn't work"
2. Worst thing you can do on social networks is to sell - it inevitably turns people off
3. The best thing you can do on social networks is to listen - louder!  Engage, influence, learn from those who matter.
4. If you don't want it found, do not put it online!
5. Use discretion before you blog, tweet, or friend others.
6. Are you building fans or followers - the former is Relationship Economics at work!
7. Get your off- and on-line presence, in-line!  Make sure you're consistent and congruent with the brand called you!
8. When it comes to social networking, consistency is a lot more valuable than creativity.
9. If you think of social networking as yet another "have to" you'll never get it!  Leverage social networking to help you get things done!
10. Add value with every interaction - would you want to read your tweets?

It’s a list that has simple ideas, provoking thoughts and admonishments. One item jumped out at me: #10. In the simple world of social media, this helps us rein in our interactions. But that’s not why this jumped out at me. Every day we have thousands of interactions and how many of them add no value or more likely detract value ... the sigh when I pick up the phone to answer a member’s call ... the reply to my teenager without looking up to acknowledge him ... the inching closer to the car in front to block the merging vehicle.

Hmmm – David, thank you for this simple, yet challenging list!

Thoughts, reactions to David’s list? Or send me your own suggestions for 2010.

Conservative estimates put the number of service projects on MLK Day of Service at more than 10,000.
From President Obama and his family to kids and their families at an elementary school in DC, people took a “day on not a day off”. Twitter crackled with news coming in from all parts about in impromptu and very-organized activities (follow #MLKDay).

One of aspects of this service that went unreported are the hours put in by association volunteers on the all-important business of their associations. I don’t mean in any way to discount the work of many for communities and charities, but I would like the shine a light on the thousands of volunteers who toil for their professional and trade associations.

These volunteers are doing important work that impacts many of us in ways we’ll never quite see. Association volunteers help develop and set standards that affect professions as diverse as medicine to computer languages to recycling. Association volunteers help enact laws and regulations that protect consumers. Association volunteers develop training and education programs that prepare professions to care for or minister to the public – think diabetes educators, radiological technicians, CPAs and massage therapists. Association volunteers produce books, magazine, research, wikis and so many other resources that the public taps to answer questions, to find solutions, and to make their lives better. Association volunteers mentor young people and older workers seeking career transitions to find employment and succeed in careers. Association volunteers perform thousands of hours of service to communities raising money for charities, doing service and supporting their schools.

Yesterday, just among my association management clients, I had members put in a full days’ worth of work. Five volunteers attended an important teleconference on responding to legislative agenda that will impact lives in North Carolina.  Others volunteers worked on shaping up training events for event professionals and one for PR professionals. Volunteers for the Maryland Recycling Network worked on a two professional development issues.

Over the course of just one month within the five associations that Mariner’s manages, our association volunteers will log no less than 250 volunteer hours. Some months this more than doubles.

So, association volunteers take a bow and then please keep on working – you are making a difference.

Two-dimensional thinking by newspapers has put them in a precarious spot. They aren't the first industry to be in this same spot. In fact, they have reported on the many before them. They have in some cases even predicted the situation to come. And yet, they watched smugly by.

One of my very favorite association thinkers, Bruce Butterfield of The Forbes Group, reminds us that our industry - associations - is patterning itself after the newspapers. Maddie Grant, another of my fav thinkers, captured Bruce Butterfield's latest thoughts in a post with the intention of getting us talking. Will talk help?

In December, ASAE hosted its Big Idea Month on Acronym. About half-way through, Shannon Otto asked what's going to happen with all the talk.

A number of years ago, I attended a leadership meeting at ASAE and we talked about creating a incubator for associations to create the future model. We urged ASAE to create a safe haven for associations to explore.The project hasn't (yet?) reached the light of day. But this would take the talk to action.

Today, I am working with two associations that are venturing out of the safe world to create a new future. They are finding the path unmarked. They are gambling with resources. They are fielding questions and jabs. They are the brave ones though. They may be the survivors too.

So, read Bruce's comments and the growing number of replies. Add you own. But don't stop there. Talk didn't save the Rocky Mountain News or the hundreds of others shuttered in 2009.

In the waning hours of the Aughties (or Double Ohs??), I sought advice from a cadre of friends and colleagues to help me set some goals for the fresh decade. I tweeted to about 30 peeps:

peggyhoffman pulling together a new years list for social tips/to do for 2010 - let me add one from you ... dm okay?

Come to think of it, this was a most appropriate exercise to end the Search Decade (so named by Micheal Kruse in his article in the St Petersburg Times). The responses back were all over the board and yet all on the board. I’ve since spent the first couple weeks of the new decade pondering this advice. What I’ve come up with is one major action item:

Dance.

To some dance is simply a set of movements. But dance is really more than that.  It’s a philosophy that keeps you lighter than air, flexible, and in concert with space around you, the people in the dance and the rhythms surrounding. It draws equally on art and science (notably physics). And a dancer is always exploring and always ready to move.

So in 2010, I will dance with technology, with people, with change. I will embrace the rhythms of the social sphere – that on the web and outside my door.

Having said that, the advice I got from back from my simple tweet is so rich, I have choreographed it into a series of posts and offer the first movement here which I call Quick Actions:

lindydreyer hmmm. Ok. Ask for Twitter user names on event reg forms.

lindydreyer or spend 20 minutes a day commenting on member blogs/tweets.

cardcat To Do: Find all the blogs about your industry and put together an RSS feed of all those blogs and publish for your members.

kikilitalien Great idea, lady! My SM to do for 2010: Use Tweetake to backup Twitter friends, DMs, followers, favorites in CSV format.

lindydreyer or become a fan or member of your association's chapter pages/groups.

ISES_DC My tips: DO - follow & reply to industry leaders and journalists; DONT - try to constantly sell yourself.

MissLynn13 I guess my 2010 socmed resolution is to stop using "Check out" in social media postings. I see it to often, it's becoming insincere.

lindydreyer put together a detailed inventory of your associations social spaces. Include mbr-created.

DeirdreReid I like to filter my Tweetdeck by "?" and see whose questions I can answer. It feels good to help out. Twitter karma, I suppose.

WhitmoreGroup Mine may be too simple: Just meet 5 new people IN PERSON! If it's a comfort problem, have someone else with you.

Look for more in the next couple of posts and add your own! And follow these great advice givers for more ideas and cool thoughts!

With the New Year finally in I’m ready to commit to New Year’s resolutions. Very simply it comes down to (1) spend as much time as possible with my family, (2) enjoy biking indoors and outdoors, (3) dance often and (4) get answers. The first three are easy because I have control over those (note I work out of a home office, teach spinning and am in a dance group). The last one, now that’s like pledging to lose 30 lbs. You see I want to get answers to some exasperating questions:

• How can I best manage IMAP email accounts without exchange server in Outlook 2007 on Windows 2007 platform?
• How can I save emails sent from Blackberry to my Outlook?
• How can I selectively sync Outlook contacts to my Blackberry (so I don’t have to fight having 100s of contacts on my Blackberry)?
• Which is better – keep this blog here in Drupal or move to Wordpress – and if I move to Wordpress how do I keep in right here embedded in my website? (I have lots of other questions related to my blog but I suspect Wordpress answers most of those.)
• Where can I find a SME (subject matter expert) who can give me a lesson on tips and tricks to optimizing my Blackberry? 
• Ditto for Word 7?
• Ditto for PowerPoint 7? (Admittedly I can probably figure out this and previous two but frankly I’m more of a show-&-tell type than read-the-manual type!)
• Where can I recycle perfectly good half-full cans of paint (in or near Laurel, Maryland)?
• Where can I find a pair of swimming goggles that really are leak proof (so I can wear my contacts) but don’t leave me with “goggle-face” when I remove them?
• What’s the best way to prepare my son, who’s 16, to be a safe driver?
• What are some great projects that would grab the interest of 13-year-olds in religion class?
• How do we get the C-suite in associations to sit down a talk strategically about components and member communities within their association?
• Who’s willing to really test the chapter of the future model? (Call me if you are!)

Got answers to any of these or have a suggestion? Email me, DM me on Twitter, message me in LinkedIn or Facebook or hey – call!