Association Volunteers! Facebook Fan Page is launched and you're invited to join in the conversation.

What is this? An effort to highlight the energy, enthusiasm and work of association volunteers. It's a place to share our stories and celebrate our work. And it's a place for those interested in volunteering for associations to chat and learn more.

When your association surprises you - in a good way - they've remixed their membership. When your association does something worth modeling in your own organizations - they've remixed their membership. When those two things happened to me, I just had to pick up the phone and find out more. Check out my SmartBlog Insights posting for the rest of the story on how an association shifted how they looked at the membership cycle and rethought engagement.  Love to hear your feedback!

Last week we had an office full of volunteers. The mission was to check-in and validate entries for the awards program. Two volunteers arrived early. Another joined very soon after. Three volunteers arrived late. One sent a last minute email apology. Another - well just didn't. The job got done.

This is not an unusual situation. We all face this at the chapter level.  The question then is - can you call this successful?

The conversation started with a daring confession posted on ASAE’s listserv: an association at a loss what to do with a standing PR committee.  The exec asked if anyone had eked out a meaningful role for their PR committee. I won’t disclose the association because it could be any of us. Nearly every association I’ve met could make that confession.

Three useful points came out of the discussion.

I actually spent six hours hooked up to a livecast, headset and Twitter today so I could be "in the room" for #UnTech10, the unsession that kept the spirit and learning planned for ASAE's 2010 Technology Conference alive.The energy was high and the learning great. Was was even greater was being a part of a great social media experiment and in on the sidelines to witness a great volunteer effort.

Before the second snowstorm could hit, before ASAE had to cancel, a group of intrepid volunteers were working on Plan B for ASAE's 2010 Technology Conference. This morning #UnTech10 was officially opened to association peeps at a cost you can't beat (free). And it also proves a point  the  Decision to Volunteer study pointed out - if the goal is big, the purpose serves the larger group, and there's flexibility in the how, the volunteer will rise to the occasion!

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.

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.

Three bloggers offer quick insight on HR that is equally useful when talking about volunteers.  My partner, Peter Houstle, often says that if we applied the basic principles of HR to our volunteer workforce we’d be ahead of the game. That starts, he says, with a seldom seen position within organizations (be it a staff or key volunteer role) that oversees volunteer management.

Here are two pieces that shine a light on good people management practices and one that offers a look at leadership that all draw from HR to help us manage volunteers more effectively. Enjoy!

This afternoon my association sent me an email with the subject line “Economic Resources Update - 2.27.09 - Will Your Members Stay?, 7 Strategies for a Recession.” It caught my eye. It offered a new service for me as a valued member. The new service is free. It’s easy to access. It offers a variety of channels from the blog to white papers to video clips.