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

New Article Posted – Developing a Cycle of Virtuous Data Management

June 23, 2014

In last month’s newsletter, I discussed the Cycle of Doom, which I see repeated too often at many associations. But there […]

New Video on Avoiding the Cycle of Doom

June 3, 2014

Personify interviewed me last week on my recent article, Improving User Adoption and Avoiding the Cycle of Doom. In the […]

Thoughts on the ASI Partners Conference

May 20, 2014

I had the opportunity recently to attend ASI’s iNNOVATION Conference in Florida. This conference is for ASI’s partners and re-sellers. […]

Inconsistent processes leads to inefficiencies (and errors!)

May 12, 2014

Standing in line in airport security last week, I noticed that half the people in line were taking their shoes […]

Sunlight is the best disinfectant

March 28, 2014

This phrase is often used in the political arena. It means that the best way to root out corruption is […]

Are you deluging your members with email?

March 27, 2014

Here’s Tony Rosell, one of the brilliant minds at Marketing General, in a tweet about how associations are using email: […]

The rise of the "Chief Data Officer"

March 25, 2014

Here’s an interesting article from IBM on the rise of the Chief Data Officer position within Fortune 500 companies. This […]

"Are we the worst you’ve ever seen?"

March 24, 2014

This is not an uncommon question for me to hear from my new clients. As we start digging into how […]

What's a Director of Data Integrity? – Interview with Chris Dugmore

March 20, 2014

Chris Dugmore is the Director, Data Integrity, for the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. When I first […]

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