Blog: Wes’s thoughts, articles, and insights

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My most recent posts

Why bother with a consultant when I have AI?

By Wes Trochlil | October 14, 2026

Why bother with a consultant when I have AI? As AI becomes increasingly powerful, the value of using an AMS selection consultant (and many other types of consultants!) starts to come into question. After all, with very well-constructed prompts and responses, an association could develop a very solid needs analysis and RFP that could be used to […]

Guardrails can be helpful!

By Wes Trochlil | October 7, 2026

Guardrails can be helpful! When selecting a new AMS, I find my clients are often very tempted by custom software or “platform” systems (e.g., built on Salesforce or MS Dynamics) because these systems are infinitely configurable. After all, if I can make the system do anything I want, that’s a good thing, right? Well, maybe. In […]

“If you knew this information, what might you do differently?”

By Wes Trochlil | September 30, 2026

“If you knew this information, what might you do differently?” I had a conversation with a client recently about developing KPIs, reports, and queries from their forthcoming data warehouse. My client said: “We have a ton of requests for KPIs and reports. How do we determine which to focus on first?” My response: “When someone requests a dashboard […]

Showing is not teaching

By Wes Trochlil | September 23, 2026

Showing is not teaching In my experience, when new staff members are taught how to use their AMS (or LMS, CMS, FMS, etc.) they aren’t really taught how to use the system, they are shown how to use it. So what’s the difference? In a nutshell, showing only covers the “how” and “what.” But teaching […]

Data management is improvisation

By Wes Trochlil | September 16, 2026

Data management is improvisation I was listening to a podcast recently featuring TV writer Rob Long. During the podcast he said (I’m paraphrasing) that, in order to be successful, one needs to learn to improvise, because nothing in life ever goes as planned. One of my favorite sayings is, “If you want to make God […]

Older Posts

Take the SCIPP Association Information Security Assessment

October 13, 2015

  SCIPP International is a nonprofit organization interested in finding out – and sharing back – the extent of the association […]

Data Breach – Not if, but when

October 9, 2015

  Many associations, because they are small and have relatively low volume on their e-commerce sites, believe they are not […]

A Can't-Miss event for senior-level execs in professional development

October 1, 2015

In less than a month, I’ll be serving as one of the select faculty at the Leading Learning Symposium, presented […]

Are you testing training effectiveness?

September 25, 2015

When you do training (you ARE doing training, right?) in your association management software system, are you testing for learning […]

“Sage on the stage becomes guide on the side”

September 24, 2015

I heard these words at a recent luncheon hosted by Tagoras Consulting. Jeff Cobb was talking about the change in […]

Two upcoming events

September 23, 2015

I’m speaking at two events on Thursday, October 1, one virtual and one in-person. At 1pm eastern I’ll be speaking […]

It's about the fundamentals

September 22, 2015

In football, coaches will often refer to “getting back to blocking and tackling.” Usually this is in reference to how […]

New Article Posted – You're not marketing too much, you're marketing wrong!

September 21, 2015

“One of the problems we have is that we’re marketing too much. We’re sending too many emails to our members.” […]

Sometimes it doesn't make sense to market…

September 18, 2015

Although I’m a marketer at heart, I  know that sometimes it doesn’t make sense to do certain types of marketing. […]

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