Blog: Wes’s thoughts, articles, and insights

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My most recent posts

Improvement is never linear

By Wes Trochlil | June 10, 2026

Improvement is never linear One of the many lessons one learns over a lifetime is that improvement, regardless of what you’re trying to improve, is never linear. That is, you’ll always have days where you’re better, and days where you don’t improve, or maybe even fall back. And so it is with data management. Even if you […]

Don’t forget to take a “before” picture!

By Wes Trochlil | June 3, 2026

Don’t forget to take a “before” picture! Whenever I start on a big home clean up or renovation project, I like to take a “before” picture, so that I can see the progress that was made when the project is complete. (Ironically, even though I’m the son of an award-winning amateur photographer, I often forget […]

Are you being penny wise and pound foolish?

By Wes Trochlil | May 27, 2026

Are you being penny wise and pound foolish? Two quick customer service stories to illustrate a point: First story: I’ve used the same email provider for more than 20 years. But for technical reasons, recently I needed to switch providers, so I canceled my service with them a few weeks in advance of my renewal. […]

AMS Products are getting better – and what that means for you

By Wes Trochlil | May 20, 2026

AMS Products are getting better – and what that means for you I’ve been working in and with AMS products for 36 years (27 years of consulting, nine years as an association staffer). And I can say with great confidence that the systems available today are much better than they were 36 years ago! (Shocking, I know.) But […]

Using AI beyond content generation

By Wes Trochlil | May 13, 2026

Using AI beyond content generation Recent surveys by ASAE and others suggest nearly 90% of associations are using AI for some type of content generation (e.g., creating blog posts, newsletter articles, “canned” responses to inquiries, etc.). That is great, but when it comes to data management, there are so many more opportunities for leveraging AI. Here are some ideas […]

Older Posts

Don't ask me to volunteer if you're not going to use me

January 15, 2016

I received an email from a software company whose software I use. The software vendor asked “Can we share your […]

Low-hanging fruit

January 13, 2016

I’ve always loved the phrase “low-hanging fruit.” It creates such a great visual in my mind, the idea that I […]

Data management is never "done"

January 12, 2016

One of the most common services I provide my clients is system selection and implementation. Simply put, I help my […]

Budget for training AFTER go-live

January 11, 2016

As I noted in this post last month, one of the most common complaints I hear from my clients is a […]

If your dropdown menu has more than seven choices, it's useless

January 8, 2016

Which dropdown menu am I referring to? Any of them. The paradox of choice is that the more choices we […]

Better tools get better results

January 7, 2016

For Christmas I received a new cookbook, The Food Lab (which I highly recommend). Several pages of the book are […]

Do your webinars really need to be live?

January 6, 2016

I was working with a client recently and the issue of webinars came up in the conversation. The association represents a […]

New Article Posted – Using Interactional Data to Increase Engagement and Revenue

December 22, 2015

Association management systems (AMS) as a specific software product have existed for more than 30 years. Not surprisingly, the original […]

Mistakes will be made

December 10, 2015

One of my favorite comic strips was “Life in Hell” and one of my favorite strips from that series was […]

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