I’m often asked this question (or a variant of it) by my clients and others. “Well shouldn’t every association management system have [fill in the blank] functionality?” The answer is, “Well, maybe.” I’ve pondered this question for several years, actually, and I’ve finally decided there are only four basic functions any product that calls itself […]
What baseline functionality should an AMS have? Read More »
Frank Sarlo from PDA recently posted the following to the ASAE technology listserver: "Our Programs and Meetings Department is researching online conference registration systems that are separate from our AMS system. Their current choice is Cvent. What are your thoughts about this separation of systems? Can the advantages gained outweigh the additional systems integration and
One System or Multiple Systems? Read More »
I’ll be taking a rest from blogging during the week of July 4th. My typically brilliant posts on data management will resume on Monday, July 9th. For those of you in the US, have a happy Fourth of July! (I suppose those of you outside of the US can have a happy Fourth of July,
Some rest from blogging Read More »
There’s an old saying: “There are those that back up, and those that will.” And as I mention here, it’s critically important to back up your data. I learned the lesson the hard way, many years ago, when I deleted all the data from a database I had been working on for two days. Ever
Do as I Say, Not as I Do Read More »
There was a thread on the ASAE technology listserver a few weeks back about whether an association should choose an AMS based on .net or PHP or something else. There was some interesting responses, but one of the best was from Bob Nedbal, Director of IT and Web Services, at the American Educational Research Association.
.net vs. PHP and Technology Architecture Read More »
It was 20 years ago this June that I took a summer job at my college alumni association. I had no idea I would some day be in the association management business, but there I was, doing “data entry” for an association. And what did data entry entail, exactly? Well, it was three other guys
Data Entry, Then and Now Read More »
Update: Many thanks to Lisa Junker at ASAE for sending me her copy of this post. I published a post yesterday about doing data entry at my alumni association. I've accidentally deleted that post and there is no back-up for it. (Don't ask, I'll explain in a later post.) If you happen to have the
I’ve ranted in the past about getting your mass emails right. Well it seems that even the big guys have problems when it comes to this stuff. I received an email from Gartner today offering a free report. I clicked through and got to the web page that was offering a pdf download of the
Even the BIG Guys Get It Wrong Read More »
On Wednesday of this week I spoke at ASAE's Marketing & Membership Conference. Another sold-out show for the MMC, which has become a premier event for membership and marketing folks. My presentation, along with Mary Pat Paris of IRP, was on managing the email opt-out process. One of the points that struck me as particularly
Managing Multiple Systems Read More »
On Nick Senzee's blog, he writes about his experience with ASAE's Annual Meeting registration process. Nick raises some good points about the registration process that all associations should be aware of. Nick's primary complaint is that ASAE asks a lot of intrusive questions during the registration process. Ben Martin adds that ASAE should be able
Online Registration Read More »