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

Do You REALLY Know What Visitors Think of Your Website?

October 22, 2012

My friend and colleague Ray van Hilst at Vanguard Technology is conducting an association benchmarking survey about website redesign. Ray […]

Coming soon – iMIS 20

October 9, 2012

I had the opportunity to get a sneak-peak at iMIS 20, which ASI is releasing on December 6, 2012, at […]

Technology philosophy #7 – Have a disaster recovery plan

September 25, 2012

This one isn’t so much a philosophy as just a sensible business practice. You MUST have some type of disaster […]

See the 5 Realities of AMS Implementations Interview

September 24, 2012

Bryan Kelly of Association Mavens interviewed me last week on the Five Realities of an AMS Implementation. You can watch […]

Technology philosophy #6 – Everything comes with a tradeoff

September 24, 2012

This is somewhat related to philosophy #5, in that no matter what decision you make about technology (or any other […]

Technology philosophy #5 – Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it has no cost

September 21, 2012

The internet is awash in free software. I love it, of course. So much software, so little time! But just […]

Technology philosophy #4 – Outsource when you can

September 20, 2012

If you’re like me, when you have some type of internal challenge with managing information within our organization, you may […]

Technology philosophy #3 – "Less, but better."

September 19, 2012

I first came across this line in the great Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. “Less, but better” was the […]

Technology philosophy #2 – Just because you CAN automate it doesn’t mean you should

September 18, 2012

Because I’m a tremendous geek and love software, I’m always open to exploring new software programs that may somehow make […]

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