The countdown has begun to the #ASAE11, ASAE’s annual conference in St. Louis, MO.  There are many reasons I am excited including the session I will be involved in on Monday, August 8 at 8:45a. This session, “Design for the Future: Creating a Sustainable Local-State-National Member Community”, shares the journey the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) took to retool their local chapters for the future. With Nadine Merker, AADE director of volunteer services, and Scott Balthazor svp, customer operations, Socious, we will share AADE’s new chapter model and its new online member community.

The three of us probably had more fun compiling the “lessons learned” handout than any other part of the presentation. That’s probably natural since its fun to look back. There’s nothing like being a Monday morning quarterback. Four of the most telling lessons we’ll be sharing – by story – are: ...

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!

Public Relations Society of America Maryland Chapter has tried it all – FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging. Success happened when they focused these on a specific event.

International Special Events Society DC Chapter found success when it followed its members – rather than leading.

Maryland Recycling Network is on Plan B. Plan A, a wiki, fizzled. That was probably good news because it led to a different path that wasn’t even in our minds.

We’re all asking for the secret to building engagement in our social media initiatives.  The path to success is littered (quite literally if you consider the many “ghost communities”) with failures.  I see the failures as being the secret to success. Our missteps have actually driven Mariner and our association management clients to learn lessons about members, grow closer to members in that process, discover new technologies, and improve with each attempt.

Three trips in three weeks gave me a chance to “secret shop” 5 different airlines and 7 airports. It’s really been a lesson in the do’s and don’ts of customer service. Being one who always tries to find the lesson I can use in my business, here’s a few that translate to associations.

The Girl Scouts of the USA is recreating itself – again. Their new efforts are shared openly on their website and are chronicled by Megan Greenwell in Blogs In, Badges Out as Girl Scouts Modernize in The Washington Post, March 2, A1.

The Girl Scouts gave us a number of lessons following ASAE & The Center’s research on 7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t. Today, they are teaching us a few additional ones.