Put Your Data to Work

Put Your Data to Work: 52 Tips and Techniques for Effectively Managing Your Database

By Wes Trochlil, president, Effective Database Management

At the heart of a data-driven organizational strategy is dependable data. And data will only be dependable if it resides in a reliable database--one that is well-managed and understood by not only the IT staff and the membership department but by everyone who uses it. In Put Your Data to Work, membership database guru Wes Trochlil gives us a user-friendly guide to better databases. Among the practical advice found in his 52 tips and techniques:

• Banish data redundancy--and its ugly aftermath.
• Seek and destroy shadow databases.
• Test early. Test often.
• Pursue success, not perfection.
• Open the database--once and for all.
• Query your database. Use the answers to refine strategy.

It doesn't matter whether you're the CEO providing the vision of what will be important to your community in the future, and therefore what data should be captured, the chief technology officer with overall responsibility of your information management systems, or the marketing or membership director, both of whom would undoubtedly benefit by knowing as much about your members as possible, implementing the sound tips in Put Your Data to Work will help your organization operate more efficiently.

"As a CEO, I'm not involved in the nuts and bolts of managing our database, but data is one of our greatest assets. This book made it easy for me to understand how investing in good data practices strengthens the whole organization."
Mary Pat Paris President and CEO International Registration Plan, Inc.

Sample pages

Partial Table of Contents
Book Sample Page
Book Sample Page 2

More about Wes: For nearly 20 years, Wes has worked in and with dozens of associations and membership organizations throughout the US, ranging in size from three staff to over 700. In that time Wes has provided a range of consulting services, from general consulting on data management issues to full-scale, association-wide selection and implementation of association management systems. Having written over 50 articles and hundreds of blog posts, Wes is the most published author on data management in the association market. In addition to his writing, Wes also speaks regularly to association audiences across the US and Canada on a wide variety of data management issues, from selecting and implementing an association management system, to leveraging the data for better marketing and communication.