Idea Center - November 2008 Archives
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Showing Thanks through Listening & Action
The time of year we reflect back on what we should be thankful for. Putting on your professional hat for just a moment … what do you have to be thankful? Your staff & colleagues? Your members? Your volunteers? Your component organizations?
It really takes all to create a vibrant association.
It’s also the time of year where we wrap up projects and often begin to plan for the new year. It’ll be a tough 2009 if we don’t have the staff, members, volunteer and component organizations working together, yes? But there will be changes. How will you make the best decisions?
I’d like to suggest two actions:
1) Take time now to do a member “inventory.” I don’t mean a needs assessment. I’m talking about finding our how you members are engaging and how they want to engage in your organization. It’s more aptly called perhaps a volunteer inventory. We know from the Decision To Join and the Decision To Volunteer surveys that the more engaged a member is the more likely they are to renew. I’m proposing you take time to build in tracking mechanisms to find out how members are engaging on many levels and perhaps form you own Engagement Score.
2) Join in ASAE & The Center’s new study on the Impact of Local Components on the Decision To Join. This study will further help you understand how members are engaging on the local level. For a reasonable $12,000 and supplying member email addresses, you will get a robust data report on the impact of local organizations in general and specifically to your association. This info could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run (assuming you, like most associations, spend between 2-5% of operating budget on components plus staff) by more effectively directing resources. Contact the ASAE Research Department by email or phone (202-626-2820) for more details.
Sometimes the best way to show genuine thanks is by asking and listening – and then modifying your practice to reflect what you heard.
Connecting the dots
I read a lot of blogs that have nothing to do with associations – at least on the surface. Here are a few postings though where underneath it all there are messages for associations too:
- A Small Change - Measuring the unmeasurable: selling donors – or members – without facts and figures … particularly liked the idea of “generalized” client stories of what a life could be like.
- Happiness Project 10 Tips: yep just what the doctor ordered a checklist on how to get happy … but look again at #1. Don’t start with profundities. How many times do we force our chapters to focus on the deep, the complicated, the lengthy rather than the basics?
- @jtcobb Continuing to spend time on Social Media Classroom. The community is growing. – This tweet caught my eye and visit to the classroom drew a light bulb about how we might draw in our members to develop collaborative – and far-reaching – projects.
- What's Next Blog My Social Media Secret: Just love secrets don’t you? Well here’s one that’s worth letting out … especially to our members, staff and bosses who don’t get it.
- Social Fishing - Tweaking Email Settings: this is all about tweaking your own email preferences but in what ways to help our members tweak their connections with us?
What are you reading and connecting?
3 Ways to Keep Members
Ed Gilligan, American Express Company's vice-chairman, offered three hints that apply to associations as much as they do the corporate audience he wrote to in How To Keep B2B Customers in a Downturn.You have to read about his Sunday midnight call from a client ... its clear American Express has earned its rights to brag that its members have privileges.
Has your volunteer management program hit a bump?
Join in on a great conversation over on Acronym on volunteer management! Nick Senzee got us started with his question Is there a volunteer problem?, then I asked if the Volunteer Program has No Clothes, and Katie Paffhouse asked Can Policies and Volunteer Enthusiasm Get Along?.
Nick noted "many issues we have in small organizations stem from lack of time. Sometimes I wonder if we’re seeing a sea-change among our chapter leaders" and whether we were saddling our volunteers with "with our own sloppy, "just-because" processes or workflow". Katie turned that into a direct question about whether we should implement a policy-light strategy where "volunteers in their first 1-2 years should have little interaction with the policies and procedures, if possible."
The conversation, stoked by commentors including Amanda Gates, Cynthia D'Amour, Shar McBee, David Pratt, Jeffrey Cufaude and Bruce Hammond, has covered many points and ideas. Bruce blogged on it too (and you might also want to read his post on eight things to keep in mind about volunteer management.)
What's your big idea about improving volunteer management?
Self-Forming Groups Are Here To Stay
Over on Association Marketing Springboard, Lindy Dreyer wrote about another self-forming group concept. Looks like more people (okay associations) are doing this. This one is from InfoComm International, a non-profit association serving the professional AV communications industry worldwide.
Shana Rieger, the social media program manager, shared with Lindy their story which is basically focused around launching a site, InfoComm Community, to help introduce Special Interest Groups. By the end of the summer they had over 300 subscriptions to eGroups which now number ten SIG eGroups with over 500 subscriptions. In a nutshell, the InfoComm Community allows individuals to connect online with other professionals in the AV industry, write blogs, find resources and join online Special Interest Groups.
Have you tried casting to see what can happen?
PS: check out their InfoComm Community page for a great example of how to promote association pages on LinkedIn and Facebook.
The Cat Hasn't Meowed Yet for Chapters Either
In A View of Social Media from the Inside: The Cat Just Hasn’t Meowed Yet, Terry Starbucker shares his company’s thinking about embracing social media and in doing so hits upon some on-target questions for all of us. But he zeroes in on a key point which relates directly to the value of chapters in our world of associations:
“… particularly in a service business like ours, nothing beats direct voice to voice, or better still, person to person, contact.”
I wrote about a session on virtual communities in which we talked about the value of creating conversation platforms on the web and underscored though that these virtual communities are not replacements for on-the-ground, face-to-face communities. I will again suggest that the fix for struggling chapters isn’t to go virtual, its to go free.
But read Terry’s posting - what do you think?
PS Also click through a read Terry’s philosophy Half-fullism.
Cheap Tools for Volunteers
The start of a great conversation going on over at Acronym about Creating Cheap Member Benefits which focuses on ways to help volunteers work effectively within shrinking budgets ... I just found another "cheap" Inspiration on Demand - Create a Swipe File that could help boards and volunteers and you collect and share ideas.
The question of finding great tools is relevant regardless of the economy ... got any to add?
Lessons from Chapter Leaders
I just spent several hours with a number of very talented, passionate chapters members talking about the value of the national and local partnership in delivering value to the member. I was struck my a number of comments that you may also find as "food for thought."
- These member volunteers never once indicate they want an "organization". They talk about instead network, community, activities (like education, social events). So why do we respond with showing them how to incorporate, write bylaws etc.?
- Over and over again I heard that they didn't know what to expect when they took their job ... how much time was required, how to know what to do first, when to know they were done. I'm not suggesting that associations don't make this info available but...
- Its too complicated! (association volunteering that is!)
- Its really hard. (so they aren't having as much fun as they should ... need to pick up Cynthia's D'Amour book on the lazy leader as soon as it comes out!)
When you listen to your member volunteers do you hear similar messages?
Values Matter - But Do Associations Get That
“People are looking for value in their work in addition to profit from it.”
“While association members still expect career benefits from their professional volunteering, they are also interested in volunteering for reasons bigger than themselves.”
The first quote comes from Douglas LaBier, a business psychologist and psychotherapist and director of the Center for Adult Development in Washington, writing in the Washington Post Tuesday Nov. 11 Health Section “You’ve Gotta Think Like Google”.
The second quote comes from The Decision To Volunteer study findings written by Monica Dignam and Beth Grazley.
From two different corners we’re being told that values matter. Are we in the association world talking about values when we talk about getting involved in our associations?
Douglas’ article is an interesting read on several levels (check out the comparison to Google and definition of a psychologically health adult), but the part that struck me was the statement about values and getting alignment. Our members (26,000+ individuals from 23 co-sponsoring associations) that responded in the Volunteer survey noted that they do seek alignment. Values drive volunteer choices both for charitable and professional organizations.
Imagine a campaign for members or volunteers that began with “be part of something big” rather than “5 ways to save money and build your network”. Or if we connected building a stronger local chapter or SIG to building a stronger profession (or trade). Or what if made a more concerted effort to embrace a social responsibility initiative – could that make the value equation stronger?
We’d like to collect your stories on how you are connecting the value to your association ... so tell us!
Seth Godin's List of Top New Jobs
Community organizer. That's the top pick of three new jobs Seth Godin suggests you might want to consider adding to your staff. Interesting choice and strikingly similar to the component relations professional position that is frequent in many associations. His definition:
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Find and connect and lead a tribe of dedicated users that contribute to and benefit from the work you do.
What other positions in association fit this profile? And are we really valuing and supporting these key positions?
Always in search of ideas.
