2012

At the session I presented at the ASAE Technology Conference last month, one of the points I made was that you should never collect data you’re not going to use. Seems obvious enough, but I still see many of my clients collecting data out of habit: “Oh, we’ve always asked for their highest degree attained. […]

A session attendee at the Tech Conference said (I paraphrase): “In all the proposals I’ve received from AMS vendors, the amount of training proposed seems ridiculously low to me. Why do the vendors underbid on the training aspect of their product?” I invite the vendors to respond here, but I think there  are several things

At one session I attended, an audience member asked the question quite plaintively: “How do we deal with the fear and pain of selecting a new association management system?” First, you’re not going to eliminate the fear. People will be worried/concerned/scared. You can’t change that. Second, there is going to be some “pain,” regardless of

I can’t remember who said it, but along the way I heard someone say something simple yet profound. When it comes to selecting and implementing a new association management system (AMS), staff need to modify their expectations. That is, they cannot expect the system to be all things to all people. It will have weaknesses.

I’m a huge proponent of internal users groups, which I’ve written about here and here. At a session I attended, Jamie DeSimone of the Independent Electrical Contractors asked how one should go about setting up an internal users group. Here are my suggestions: Identify the key players, who are typically the power users. On occasion you

Over the course of the next couple of posts, I’m going to write about several things I heard at ASAE’s Tech Conference last month. These will be in no particular order, but all of them arose from discussions I had with attendees at the conference. First item on the list is how and why to choose