I often hear from association executives (particularly from very small associations, e.g., under five staff) that they can’t afford to buy an off-the-shelf association management system (AMS). Thus they will continue to use with a homegrown Access system or a bunch of separate Excel lists and Outlook distribution lists, and suffer the consequences of the […]
There ARE "Affordable" AMS Systems Read More »
By some accounts, the federal government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program has been a spectacular success. Hundreds of thousands of buyers took advantage of the program and $3 billion was allocated for it. But as this Washington Times article points out, the roll out of the program was less-than-stellar. The US Dept of Transportation had to
Don't Let Your New Process Become a "Cash for Clunkers" Panic Read More »
Just returned from four great and exhausting days in Toronto for the 2009 ASAE Annual Meeting. I’ve attended 10 of the past 11 annual meetings (when ASAE was in Hawaii, my wife was inconsiderate enough to give birth to one of our children at the same time). This was a good meeting, but not ASAE’s
Thoughts on ASAE's Annual Meeting Read More »
ASAE is hosting a series of 25-minute sessions of ASAE authors at the ASAE bookstore during ASAE’s Annual Meeting in Toronto. I’ll be speaking at 2.45pm on Monday, August 17, discussing my book, Put Your Data to Work: 52 Tips and Techniques for Effectively Managing Your Database, published by ASAE. You can buy the book
Come Meet the Author in Toronto Read More »
Over the past two weeks I’ve been contacted by two associations who were in the market for a new association management system. In one case, the association had already chosen a vendor but then things didn’t work out, and they had gone back to the drawing board. In the second case, the association had begun
Go ahead, DON'T take my advice… Read More »
OK, last time I mention this, I promise. Tomorrow, Thursday, July 30, at Noon Eastern I’m presenting a web conference with Boston Conferencing. The title is “Thriving with Data: Using your organization’s data to improve marketing and communications with your members and customers.” Here’s what you’ll learn: The Trochlil Data Management Hierarchy, where your organization
One last reminder: Thriving with Data Webinar Read More »
In my book, Put Your Data to Work: 52 Tips and Techniques for Effectively Managing Your Database, tip #25 is “Create and regularly execute data integrity reports.” The point of the tip is that data integrity reports can help you identify potential data problems within your database and are an excellent method for proactively keeping
The importance of data integrity reports Read More »
Just a reminder that next Thursday, July 30, at Noon Eastern I’m presenting a web conference with Boston Conferencing on Thursday, July 30 at Noon Eastern. The title is “Thriving with Data: Using your organization’s data to improve marketing and communications with your members and customers.” Here’s what you’ll learn: The Trochlil Data Management Hierarchy,
Don't Miss my Web Conference on Thriving with Data Read More »
For the third year in a row, I’m conducting a one-question survey about associations and their database challenges. This will take you no more than two minutes to complete. Over the past two years, more than 250 of your association colleagues have responded to this survey, and it provides for some very interesting insight (here,
Take my One Question Survey Read More »
This is a pet peeve of mine, but too often I’ll hear someone say something like: “The average age of our members is between 50 and 65.” Or “We average about 50 to 100 hits on our website each day.” These are both nice thoughts, but what is being provided is not an average, but