I was checking into a hotel last week, only to discover that they could not find my reservation. The confirmation number I gave them also yielded nothing. As the woman at check-in searched and searched for my reservation, she suddenly looked up at me and said “Oh, do you go by Wes?” I replied that […]
Back to Basics – Watch how you do your lookups Read More »
Association Laboratory has released their most recent environmental scan of the association industry. Go here and read it as soon as you’re done reading this post. What you’ll discover is that the greatest concern among associations’ members is managing the amount of information they receive. Your members are inundated with information, from your association and
It's all about information management Read More »
Interesting article here on ZDNet about the rise of the “chief data officer” in the corporate world. As the article points out, CIOs are already overloaded with responsibilities, and now “many CIOs are also expected, explicitly or implicitly, to manage data and information…The problem is that the backgrounds of many, if not most, of today’s
Chief Data Officer? Read More »
In late October there was an article in The Washington Post about poor financial controls at DC non-profits. Last week there was yet another article, this one about a woman stealing millions of dollars from AAMC. As you read the article it’s clear there were very poor financial controls in place. Don’t let this happen
Yet another article in The Washington Post about embezzlement at a non-profit Read More »
In a meeting with a client recently, we were discussing some of the challenges the association was having with managing their data. Although they have decent technology for managing the data, they were still struggling. As we discussed some of their issues, we determined that one problem they had was that staff didn’t really know
You won't learn if you don't want to Read More »
I’ve written several items in the past about why associations are better off with off-the-shelf association management software rather than trying to build their own. Another reason that I prefer off-the-shelf association management software is that when software is already designed, by definition it creates restraints. And restraints are good things. I was working with a
Another reason I prefer off-the-shelf software Read More »
If you’re a manager at a non-profit, this story in The Washington Post is a must-read. As I wrote here, two decades ago I had a part-time person on my staff stealing from my association. As the article explains, the thief was caught very quickly after the accounting department discovered some anomalies during the monthly
Why Financial Controls are SO Important at Non-profits Read More »
You can still listen to the non-dues revenue webinar I participated in with ACGI Software earlier this week. Here’s a recap of the webinar from ACGI Software with a link to the recording.
In case you missed it Read More »
I first heard this advice from Alan Weiss, consulting guru. The idea is that extrapolating a rule from a single instance is a bad practice. What you may be experiencing is the exception, not the rule. I see this far too often with my clients. For example, someone on staff (usually a senior staffer who
Don't Generalize from a Specific Read More »
On Tuesday, September 24, I’ll be having a conversation with Dan Kasprow, CTO of ACGI Software, on growing non-dues revenue. This is a free webinar hosted by ACGI Software. Click here to learn more and to register. Hope to “see” you there.
Hear the man – Free webinar on growing non-dues revenue with Wes Trochlil Read More »