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

Seek first to understand

March 25, 2015

One of the most important skills I’ve learned in my 15 years as a consultant is the ability to listen. […]

Re-keying data is never acceptable

March 23, 2015

One of my data management commandments is that data should never have to be re-keyed. That is, once data has […]

How far we’ve come

March 20, 2015

I’ve written before about the amazing advances in technology that I’ve seen in my lifetime (and I like to think […]

Get a Systems Tune Up

March 19, 2015

One of the more important services I provide my clients is what I call a systems audit. The purpose of […]

Maintain regular contact with your vendor

March 18, 2015

When I help associations seek out and select new association management systems, one of the first questions I ask them […]

New Article Posted – "I'm as engaged as I want to be."

March 17, 2015

I believe understanding and measuring member engagement is not a fad; it’s a critical part of every association’s long-term survival […]

"It's a religious issue"

February 2, 2015

I first heard this phrase 20 years ago from my then IT director at a small association I was working […]

Getting buy-in from other users

January 28, 2015

One of the biggest challenges associations face when implementing a new association management system is staff buy-in. How do you get […]

(Even) more transparency from an AMS vendor

January 26, 2015

I’ve written several times about transparency among the AMS vendors, and I received another great example last week from MemberSuite’s […]

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