“Every association does this.” One of the most significant values I bring to my clients is perspective. Specifically the perspective of having worked with several hundred associations of all sizes and types. It is not uncommon for me to hear from my clients “I don’t understand why our AMS doesn’t do things this particular way. Every […]
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Trust your gut When I help associations with selection of a new technology system (e.g., AMS), I have a time-tested process to follow to help them make the best decision for their organization and their needs. With this process it is not unusual for my clients to narrow their choices down to two really good options.
“People more frequently require to be reminded than informed.” “People more frequently require to be reminded than informed.” – Samuel Johnson I came across this quote recently and immediately thought “Exactly!” A lot of my consulting is actually reminding my clients to do things they already know to do, but have allowed themselves to get
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Problems without solutions are not problems, they are facts of life “Problems without solutions are not problems, they are facts of life.” A form of this quote is attributed to James Burnham, a philosopher and political scientist. I’ve always loved this quote because there are so many “problems” in the world of data management. One that
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Perfect is not possible We’ve all heard the phrase “Perfect is the enemy of good” and I like to think that most of us believe it. But oddly enough, this phrase tends to get ignored when it comes to data management. In my experience, too often associations believe that if they discover anyerrors in their data
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“Different” isn’t necessarily better or worse. One of the biggest challenges I face when working with my clients is getting them to think differently about things. Whether it’s a wholesale change of systems (e.g., a new AMS) or a change in how data is processed within an existing system, thinking about things differently is difficult.
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The Rule of 100 and 1,000 and automation I originally coined the rule of 100 and 1,000 in relationship to data conversion (here and here). I extended that rule to ongoing data management here. The rule of 100 and 1,000 can also be applied to automation. Simply put, if you’re managing fewer than 100 records
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Once you know, what will you do? I’ve yet to meet a client who didn’t require, in some form or another, some way to analyze their data. Whether it was simple queries or reports, or more advanced dashboards or analytics, everyone wants to be able to analyze their data. And that’s a good thing. But
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If it’s not in your AMS, why not? I like to tell my clients they’ll know they’ve reached data management nirvana when the answer to any question about data is “It’s in the database.” And I don’t mean the obvious questions like “How many members do we have?” or “Who has registered for next week’s event?”
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Why checkboxes and tags are awesome and dangerous One of the most common functions in an AMS is the concept of checkboxes and/or tags (your system may have both!). With checkboxes and tags we can easily “group” otherwise disparate data sets together. For example, need to create a VIP list of people to invite to
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