Nick's Book Blog

I've moved...

2008-12-03T14:56:00.001-05:00

To nicksenzee.com... Join me there for some info that's maybe sort of a little fresher.

The Concepts of Lean Thinking

2007-01-31T10:47:00.000-05:00

Doing a little research and found an article that pointed these out:

Sort: Eliminate what is not needed.
Set in order. Organize what remains.
Shine. Clean work area.
Standardize. Schedule cleaning and maintenance.
Sustain. Make lean thinking a way of life.

This is from the book Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth by Womack and Jones.

Hi there -

2007-01-24T15:01:00.000-05:00

If you're coming to visit from Lifehack, welcome and have a look around. I have to say I haven't been keeping up very well here because I've gotten very busy with work and family. However, I'm planning on remodeling and moving to a new site because I've outgrown the book theme.

Nick's Book Blog is simply a collection of notes from my reading over the past year or two. My reading typically is through the prism of association management, which is what I do for a living, although I am very much interested in social networks and web 2.0 trends. I think these things are so interesting because they are related to community, which is what associations have been doing for along time.

Anyhow, stay tuned, and thanks for stopping by...

Conference Website + Musings

2006-11-13T17:02:00.000-05:00

Hey all, I found this website on TechCrunch that association peeps need to know about. It's called ConFabb, a site that claims it's the biggest database EVAR of conferences.

Anyhoo, I'm beginning to think about a new direction for NBB that would bring me more into a true association blog space. I started this blog focusing on my business reading. It has been a great learning opportunity, but now that I'm back headlong in association management, I need to refocus my energies. For my faithful readers (all like, four of you or something), throw your feedback out to me. Thanks.

We've Always Done it That Way: 101 Things About Associations We Must Change

2006-10-22T22:58:00.000-04:00

From what I can tell, the impetus for this book was that the folks who wrote it, Jeff De Cagna, David Gammel, Jamie Notter, Mickie Rops and Amy Smith, were “concerned by the instinctively conservative approach to organizational stewardship that far too many association executives and volunteers continue to pursue in the early years of the 21^st century.”

I took notes throughout the book, and now I realize they are far too extensive to make a very good book review. And I am definitely the choir that this book is preaching to. However, I really, really liked the problems these folks addressed and they pretty much slaughtered and butchered several sacred cows.

This book is not extensive narrative or heavily footnoted, but it is based on the collective experience of 5 people who together have worked with many different organizations, and the collective themes will be familiar to anyone in the field.

On a meta level, this book takes observations of what’s happening in the larger world and does the translation necessary to make it appropriate for association leaders.

So, we must change some things about associations. They are organized around these themes:

Changing the way we think

Upshot: We aren’t protected from societal shifts just because we have such a traditional model. We have to lose some of that tradition and start thinking entrepreneurially—because sooner or later we won’t have any choice.

I really liked Mickie Rop’s piece on not letting uniqueness stifle growth. We’re different, so all the research and best practices and bold thinking don’t apply doesn’t cut it; I agree wholeheartedly. Also, the rousing questions asked by De Cagna at the beginning form a good, broad sketch of the climate we currently face in associations.

Changing the way we lead

Upshot: Renovating governance models and structures. Strategy vs. Strategic Planning. The necessity of outcomes and evaluation. Providing staff leadership and not throwing up your hands when the next volunteer leader comes along. Ensuring diversity among the membership and leadership of organizations.

I especially liked the piece “Outcomes Orientation for Everyone,” by David Gammel. It’s that whole “what do I want to happen here” step that sometimes gets overlooked in the face of little emergencies, but in reality, is the only reason the little emergencies exist.

Changing the way we manage

Upshot: Don’t be incompetent!

Seriously, this section was my favorite. I think every single point I’ve wanted to scream over at some point or other. I liked Amy Smith’s “End the Wild Goose Chase,” where you don’t get bogged down in these vertigo-inducing intrigues between board, committees and staff; I also liked her piece “Organizational Dashboard,” where she talks about keeping track of the metrics that really matter. JNott’s advice on handling silos is imminently sensible, and his piece on building teams is as well. Jeff De Cagna’s piece on “What if there were no dues,” borders on the heretical, YET if people don’t think that way they’re going to have some surprises coming. Mickie Rops’s “Stop Rewarding ‘Hard Work,’” had me nodding in agreement so hard I need to visit the chiropractor. If I recapped all the tidbits in this section, I’d just have to type the whole thing in here and that just wouldn’t be right. Besides, you can go see it on the blog.

Changing the way we execute

Upshot: It takes us too long to do the things we do, and we have to get better at being relevant to our members—especially on the educational side of things.

I especially liked the first piece, by David Gammel, talking about the six-month meeting planning lag. This is kind of emblematic of the sea changes that we’re seeing all over the place.

Changing the way we work together

Upshot: People sometimes are difficult and cause problems that need to be solved. That doesn’t mean you should give up. Issues of cultural and generational diversity.

This is the difficult section, which dredges up all those pesky people problems. Why oh why can’t we all just get along? This section will make you think in healthy ways about what to do when you see dysfunction in the association workplace. These are critical problems when you think about it because we mostly work in relatively small organizations. Bad blood can really cause problems and you can’t just ignore it. People problems need to be addressed, so take a look at this section.

Changing the way we involve others

Upshot: This is the R&D advice for associations. How to read your members’ minds and make them happy.

My fave from this one is Amy Smith’s “Your members are subject matter experts.” In organizations I’ve worked for in the past, I’ve wanted to shout this from the rooftops. They know a lot about what’s happening in the field and so any professional association would be wise to tap into that knowledge by selectively picking people’s brains and crafting cool program components.

I know this review is pretty long, but I wanted to write down my takeaways so I can reread them. The book is very much worth reading, and I wish there were more writing so tailored to the kinds of problems associations face. You can buy the book here.

Never Eat Alone

2006-10-22T22:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've reached the height of laziness. I'll explain later.

My excuse is that I'm on the road. I came back to BYU for a homecoming reunion since I'm the treasurer of an alumni chapter (very easy job, since we have no money). And of course we trashed UNLV at the game! Also, I've wrapped a bunch of work into the trip out west so I'm doing Utah, Idaho, Arizona and possibly Nevada if I get time.

Here is a picture of campus. The Y is on the mountain, and they light it up at special occasions such as homecoming. The reason why there is only a Y is that they started to put BYU up there and they ran out of money or something. So now it's just the Y and that's what we call the school for shorthand.

Okay, so now to the lazy part. I brought a jillion books with me and I'm trying to plow through them and send them back media mail. I read the book Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi. The book treats the topic of networking, and does it really very well--and realistically. But I am not going to review it but rather link to reviews. Here is one that gets the really good stuff. Here is another from Harvard Business School.

I had lunch with JNott before leaving, and we had some fascinating conversation, thanks for that! I am working on digesting We've Always Done it That Way, that will be forthcoming. In a nutshell, it was great.

Get Out of Your Own Way

2006-10-06T09:27:00.000-04:00

This book, by Robert K. Cooper, was on the library's newly arrived shelf. It's pretty good, although if you read biz books a lot, there's a lot you'll want to skim. Still, the principles he talks about are good to think on.

The subtitle of the book is "the five keys to surpassing everyone's expectations." These keys are:

1. Direction, not motion

2. Focus, not time

3. Capacity, not conformity

4. Energy, not effort

5. Impact, not intentions

Each key has three or four supporting chapters that talk about subprinciples. Some things that I identified with from key one is that a) "good and great are the enemies of possible," a quote Cooper attributes to his grandfather. It's pretty self-explanatory though. The other thing
is he talks about "what's automatic, accelerates." Basically, if you can put effort into something until it becomes automatic, you've won the battle. So focus resources on issues and behaviors that will eventually run themselves, and thus produce payouts. He makes this point very well, so I would suggest if you're curious about that to get the book.

Under key two, I really liked the idea of "emphasizing the right moments, not the clock." Although I love my current position and I have a great deal of freedom, those around me are not always as fortunate. They seem to have employers who don't get this point at all. People have pent-up frustration about not being able to apply this principle in their paid employment. The visionary in me says watch out for this issue, because we will see problems with it in the future.

For key three (capacity, not conformity) I want to underline the point that "constructive discontent drives growth." In the literature, the need to accept change is a yawn-making bore at this point. However, the concept of "constructive discontent" is a, if not the, causal force behind this change. So, to quote scripture, we can "act or be acted upon."

Keys four and five are pretty self-explanatory.

I did enjoy the book, which helped me to articulate some of my personal philosophy and things I've observed to work.

In the mail: We've Always Done it That Way: 101 Things about Associations We Must Change

Membership Developments Article

2006-10-04T12:26:00.000-04:00

I thought this was pretty good, so I thought I'd put it here, until they send me a cease-and-desist :)

One of the seven traits of remarkable associations has to do with internal culture in the organization. Remarkable associations feature a close-knit, consistent culture where all employees receive the same information and also see the potential to contribute to a blockbuster production. Everyone, whether in lead or supporting roles, equally shares the responsibility to contribute and add value to the association.

Of course, having a healthy organizational culture is something that we often see in theoretical literature, but it can get short shrift or written off in practice. And, it matters to membership professionals what kind of culture is present in the organization. This is demonstrated time and time again in case studies of troubled organizations: what’s happening inside an organization seems to effortlessly telegraph itself to customers, members or other stakeholders, who then become guarded and disengaged.

How can we as membership professionals contribute to this “close-knit, consistent” culture? As warm and fuzzy as it may seem, a lot of this boils down to the simple concept of trust: we have to be able to trust our members and coworkers.

Now, trust may be a simple concept, but it takes work and dedication to achieve. It involves a never-ending series of negotiations and renegotiations with those around us—and it will be in some cases impossible to obtain. Nevertheless, it’s worth working on.

Here are some keys to maintaining trust with coworkers and with members:

Be open to learning. It has become a cliché that we need to be lifelong learners. But there is a simple reason for this: change, which always was a constant, continues to accelerate before our very eyes. Being open to learning means not only keeping up with technology (which it does) but also being open to learning about people, cultivating a curiosity about what drives people and makes them tick, and of course, always improving skills, among which are interpersonal skills.

This also means you need to ask questions. Somewhere in junior high school—or perhaps graduate school—we mainly learn that it’s easier to keep quiet and not ask questions. You don’t put yourself out on a limb, and no one assumes you’re dumb (at least not right away). And hello, we all know that saying about there not being dumb questions is okay for kiddies, but not for us. Seriously, questions are essential to learning. Most people won’t stop and say, “hello, Steve, today I’m going to tell you my philosophy on business and life. And by the way, here’s what to avoid in your presentation to the board.” But they might just do that if you pull it out of them one question at a time.

Make sure you’re confident in yourself. In order to “contribute and add value” to the organization, we have to feel we’re able to do this. I know! This is in the realm of MENTAL HEALTH. Ahh! But it’s 2006. Our society has therapy, EAPs and drugs, so these are not insurmountable problems. But maybe some time with a self-help book will suffice as well.

Be honest. We hopefully learned that it’s easier, long-term, to tell the truth than to fib. I will tell you: it is sometimes hard to be perfectly honest, it’s easier to tell a lie. And it’s certainly the case that we need to pick our battles. But when you’re having a conversation with someone and you have the choice to tell a white lie, be assured that things will work out better if you figure out a kind and diplomatic way to tell the truth.

Make time for people. It is easy to get slammed with work and to focus on crossing things off our lists. But make time to build trust with people. Go to lunch with your assistant, talk about work if you want, or not. But let people know you care about them. (If you don’t care about them, omit this step.)

I was watching a program on employment issues the other night. The person on the program said that when you get a job, you master it and become independent. The next step though, is the path to true employment Zen: you reach a point where you help others achieve their best as well. Trust is key to reaching this level, and it’s an important part of having a remarkable culture.

Some Thoughts...

2006-09-27T11:05:00.000-04:00

Here's a couple of things I wanted to write down.

1. This is interesting: a blogger who intends on liveblogging a conference, asks his readers which session he should go to. I don't have time to pre-digest what you could do with this concept, but it's interesting.

2. Really cool 2.0 app, GroupLoop, that is highly relevant to associations. I see that the peeps over at Acronym have noticed this already.

3. Am listening to "Getting to Yes," the treatise on negotiations. While a lot of it is good information and bears paying attention to, I wish it drilled down in its examples more. It either uses simplistic, made-up scenarios, or it uses huge macro-level geopolitical examples. The subtitle of the book is something like "how to get what you want without giving in." Yet, as I go through the content, it seems like they are indeed advocating giving in a lot more than ideal.

The 7 Steps of Naming

2006-09-19T18:20:00.000-04:00

I found this sidebar in Baltimore SmartCEO while waiting in my doctor's office. They apparently reprinted this from Boscobel Marketing Communications. But this looks like a good tipsheet that people could use when these issues come up. However, I think if you're in a small organization, you would certainly want to free yourself from creating the kind of volume this suggests.

1. Discovery. Gather information about the organization and its competitors and analyze target audiences. Use sources such as the organization's executive team, existing collateral/marketing material, websites, media scans, and interviews with industry leaders to develop a clear picture of the marketplace and environment.

2. Criteria. Develop a set of criteria that the name must adhere to using research from the discovery phase. This "name roadmap" will allow the team to evaluate the name on its own merits, and help remove subjectivity from the final decision.

3. Preliminary Name Candidates. Hold a brainstorming session with your naming committee and create a list of all suggested names. The "long list" usually contains between 50 and 100 potential candidates.

4. Qualified Name Candidates. Evaluate each name on the long list against the set of established criteria and conduct information legal research using the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov). Eliminate names that do not meet the criteria or are already registered for use through the USPTO. The "short list" is deliverable to the client and typically contains four to six qualified candidates.

5. Validation Screen. Conduct comprehensive research to determine which names will pass through legal approval. Testing may be done in several ways, including focus groups or in-depth phone interviews. Screen potential names through search engines, foreign language dictionaries and phone directories to identify conflicts or issues.

6. Formal Legal Research. Submit the final name candidates to a patent and trademark attorney or the organization's legal department for approval.

7. Deliverable. Present the final name candidates, rationale and recommendations. Show the candidates in a plain typeface to give an accurate representation of how the name would appear.

How to use your 990 as a marketing tool

2006-08-29T17:40:00.000-04:00

I got a flyer in the mail for an upcoming seminar given by WhitefordTaylorPreston and the Reznick Group with the title "How to use your 990 as a marketing tool." Topics include:

"Do you know who is looking at your 990 and why?"
"How would your 990 look to a first-time reader?"
"Who prepares or reviews your 990?"

Day two focuses more intensely on issues of executive compensation, compensation of board members, payment to independent contractors, program expenses, lobying activity reporting, relationships with other organizations, and unrelated business income activity.

While I these issues generally apply more to charity-ish types of organizations than to professional or trade associations, it does bear thinking about. Your 990s are available to anyone who wants to look at them. What story do they tell?

In the mail...

2006-08-29T17:16:00.000-04:00

I got a catalog from Board Source. Their cover book is called "Taming the Troublesome Board Member." Looks worth a looksee.

Also in the mail is Cal Clemon's The Perfect Board, which he was nice enough to send me a few weeks ago. A quick skim through shows it to be a worthwhile read, and definitely a good training piece for incoming board members. I'll give it a fuller review later.

Six Thinking Hats

2006-08-24T14:12:00.000-04:00

This book, by Edward De Bono, is a really good framework for attacking issues. Of course, every one who writes a book wants it to be revolutionary, and to "change the way the world's most successful business leaders think." But today, I'm feeling cynical, and I think that changing the way people think doesn't happen very often.

However, this book is useful, and it could be easily tailored to the point of even becoming (wait for it) AN ASSOCIATION HACK.

Basically, the point is that you engage different kinds of thinking when you're deliberating. You can be interested in numbers, in feelings, in growth, in creativity, etc. So De Bono lists these attributes and gives them a hat of that color. The hat is symbolic (altho it could be concrete, I suppose), and basically, it allows you to communicate what's going in to the thought processes. It helps the user of the framework to be more explicit, and therefore there's less playing of "guess what I'm thinking". Here is a much more in-depth review of the book, with a free worksheet.

I would say, definitely get this book if you're frustrated in group decision making processes. Then, I would come up with a fact sheet based on it, strip it down and explain it to the group before the next meeting. Definitely worth a try if your meetings are in a nonproductive rut.

Toes in the water of 2.0

2006-08-23T18:02:00.000-04:00

So while all my association peeps were in Boston, we worked all weekend on our weekend project, RecipeThing.com, which is in beta (I think!). Lemme know what you think!

The Four Agreements + Companion Book

2006-08-14T13:35:00.000-04:00

I saw this book on Oprah's reading list and thought it would be worth a looksee. It's pretty fluffy, but underneath that fluff are some good principles. Though really, it's enough to just read the actual four agreements:

1. Be Impeccable with Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. User the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection or their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

So that's pretty much it. Now, the style of the book is cloying and new-agey. But it has some good points that are worth hearing.

Unconferences

2006-08-11T12:53:00.000-04:00

Here's a good article on the whole unconference thing. HT: Chris Brogan

Brain Dump

2006-08-10T10:11:00.000-04:00

Here's what I've been reading and working on these past days.

First, Break all the Rules, by Buckingham and Coffman
The book is written by these folks from Gallup who worked with a HUGE cohort of managers to find out what makes the best ones tick. It's interesting methodology and the conclusions are good. There is a list of things that they say every manager should be able to communicate to his/her employees and if their employees can be assured in those areas, everything will turn out fine and the employees will be happy--and turnover will be low. Here's where you can find that list.

A lot of the discussion centers around what a manager should do with an employee's talent (or lack thereof). The manager should be engaged in using what the employee has to offer and not trying to "put in what was left out." Sounds a lot like volunteer management!

Anyhoo, very much worth while. Again, here is a more in-depth review of the book that gives a detailed summary of points raised in the book.

Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Buckingham and Clifton
This book takes the ideas in the first book and has you apply them to yourself. Pretty interesting. You decide what you are good at and the idea is that you focus on those things and just worry about keeping your weaknesses from sabotaging you (as opposed to laboring over your weaknesses and not developing your strengths even more).

Buckingham is working on a "strengths-based" management moving you can learn about on his website.

Turnaround, by Mitt Romney
Now, I read quite a few non-fictiony business type books and this one was different. That's because it was really pretty technical, like a case study. For those who don't know, Mitt Romney is the venture capitalist governor of Massachussets. This book chronicles his handling of the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics. I was living in Utah during a big chunk of the time period covered by this book, and, although I knew there was scandal surrounding the bid process, etc., I didn't realize the extent of the huge problems faced by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. It was a mess, and Mitt fixed it. The book tells you how he did that, and that's what makes it different. It's not an A-list book, but if you're interested in real life examples of how things get done, this is an interesting read, and a page turner. Romney may also run for president, check out this site for more on that.

In unrelated news...

A post from the Blog Business Summit will probably be interesting to some of the blogoclump, since it reports on some research detailing styles that can be used/are observed in corporate blogging today.

An association hack is definitely Google's new spreadsheet application. It's web-based, BUT IT'S FAST. Also, you can share it. It is an awesome solution for committee and taskforce work and the versioning problems that come with it. To paraphrase the Good Book, "train up a committee in the way it should go, and when it is old it will not depart from it." What I mean by that is that of course, you'll have to tell people how to use it. But they should easily see the benefits.

An idea for free, ASAE

2006-08-08T11:21:00.000-04:00

I've been a bad blogger lately. Sorry, I've been quite busy with projects that I shall unveil in due time. However, I wanted to say that ASAE should whitelabel something like this to sell to associations. Members could come back from their conferences with really comprehensive reports which they then could turn around and use to justify their memberships. I think it's a good idea.

Some links

2006-07-19T16:57:00.001-04:00

So I've got my RSS life back together and have been keeping up with my blog reading lately. So I wanted to pass along some interesting bits.

Boing boing highlights a Pew Center study of blogger demographics. Fairly interesting.

A new website that tells you which bike routes are good. HT: Treehugger

My guy Glenn Reynolds talks about the long tail. HT: PicoBusiness. Take a look at my review of an Army of Davids, which is mentioned in both places.

Bakardo talks about how social networks are killing email. As I read this, I thought how true it is and will become. I know I'm not as good at emailing consistently as I once was, and sometimes I have to make myself remember that people expect responses. I start treating email like an RSS reader. Which is weird.

Also, Jeff De Cagna asked me to let you know about his new education programs for the association community

Blogoclump in Print

2006-07-12T21:50:00.000-04:00

Looks like a good month for the blogoclump in the newest issue of Associations Now. Jeff De Cagna has a big spread on what associations can learn from Google via his interview with John Battelle, author of Search: How Google and its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed our Culture (say that three times fast). I have to admit having seen the book at the airports and not having looked at it because it appears with some copycats and I haven't known which one of them to pick up. Batelle is a techno journalist who speaks quite cogently about issues of 2.0 and the like, and applies them to associations. I agree with the conclusion in the article that Google et al represent more of an opportunity than a threat. But interestingly 2.0 means "that associations need to have good answers for questions that might be asked of search engines." Good point, and not everyone is sensitive to these issues.

And Ben Martin has a page on how he hates the word orientation. He'll send you directions for speed networking if you send him an email.

How to keep your corporation from not being dissolved

2006-07-12T12:30:00.000-04:00

Doing a little research on state-by-state incorporation stuff, and I found these tips from Arizona's Corporation Commission. Their website is really hard to follow, so I've liberally adapted them here. Mind you, I'm not a lawyer, so don't get sued on my account or anything.

Keep your corporation from being dissolved

1. If you move, tell the corporation authority. You register an agent with the state. They keep that address on file forever. They won't know you've moved unless you tell them. They'll send all your notices to your old address and you may never know. And they can be unforwardable. This means missed filings and lots of bad stuff. It can also roll over to your communications with IRS which of course we want to avoid miscommunication with the IRS. So go online and fill out your state's form. Also, make sure that if you have a statutory agent that that info is kept updated as well.

2. Know the date your report is due, or if you have one. This is hard to boilerplate because every state is different. Some states require annual reports. If yours does, keep up with it. Some states require a biennial report. Know that too.

3. Don't never change the corporate name, due date, filing number or fee amount printed on the form and don't create your own form. This is bad.

4. Follow the directions. Always a good idea with these things don't you think?

5. Check the state authority's website freqently to see if they have changed anything you need to know about.

This stuff is kind of tedious, and I always fear that people aren't keeping up with it (or aren't even aware that they need to).

Cool website, again

2006-07-11T09:43:00.000-04:00

I got this tip from one of the listservs I'm on. It's called emurse and it's a 2.0 site that archives your resume, helps you keep it up to date, etc. All I've got to say is where were you when I needed you?

Everything old is new again

2006-07-11T09:07:00.000-04:00

Here's an article from the Sarasota (Florida) Herald Tribune that talks about a "new breed" of philanthropist. It sounds like an awesome program. He is training low-resource people to be medical assistants, which is great, especially given the local context where the job market for medical services is rather good.

A quote from the article

"These are people who have learned to solve problems, and they're now bringing their money and the critical thinking skills to bear in the nonprofit sector," said Leo Arnoult, a fundraising consultant and past chairman of the Giving USA Foundation, which publishes an annual report on giving trends.

Unlike donors of the past, who were content to write a check, knowing that their money was supporting a good cause, entrepreneurial donors take a more hands-on approach.

However, even if rich folks may have taken a hiatus on this style of giving for awhile, the foundations of philanthropy in this country are based on "entrepreneurial" giving, for example Carnegie who very much believed that he should use not only his own money, but also his skillset to tackle society's problems. See here and here for more of this kind of thing.

Note: I'm going to use more pictures on my blog, because a) I like pictures and b) I've been inspired of late by Ben Martin's use of the visual medium, and also I really like the illustrations in Creating Passionate Users. So imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all that, now you know.

Cool website

2006-07-06T17:33:00.000-04:00

I just used this online faxing service, faxitnice.com. I bought some credit for $20, scanned in my sheet and sent off the fax for .18. And it archives your faxes for you, which really brings out my OCD. Finding a fax machine is a drag but many of the online services want you to pay monthlies. This is a good way to do it.

Happy 4th of July!

2006-07-04T18:11:00.000-04:00

Here is a lovely picture I found. Not that I can be bothered to go down to the mall mind you, but we hope to on Saturday.

The sign at the grocery store said 101 degrees today and then it started pouring down rain. That's pretty typical fourth weather I'd say.

Notes on Tax-Exempt Organizations

2006-06-30T09:19:00.000-04:00

I went to Bruce R. Hopkin's seminar on "The Law of Tax Exempt Organizations," which used his text of the same name. It was last week in Arlington. The guy is a nonprofit law rockstar and, where I found applications to what he was saying, the content was fairly interesting. When he got off on charities and museums and all that stuff, I kind of glazed. Most of the people there were CPAs or tax lawyers, so it was quite a high level of discourse.

My big takeaways were this:

1) The tax code is very complicated, and it's okay to have even fairly basic questions. People who are afraid to act dumb and ask the questions are sorry later when they're asking even dumber questions.

2) The tax code sucks. Why should it be so complicated and why should an entire industry have to exist to keep people from losing their shirts to the government? And UBI is a minefield.

3) The IRS is riding nonprofits really hard right now, and congress could tighten up on them. I have mixed feelings about this, especially viz points 1 and 2. Nonprofits are often staffed by volunteers and the aforementioned volunteers can be clueless about how to file their taxes, etc. Of course there are fly-by-nights taking advantage of the code but there is a high ignorance factor that makes me scared for all the clueless out there.

He gave us a few copies of his newsletter, which you can find here. And his website, which has interesting discussions of current cases, is here.

UPDATE: I forgot I wanted to make mention that I finally figured out what the difference between the terms "nonprofit" and "not-for-profit" is. I quote:

The word nonprofit should not be confused with the term not-for-profit (although it often is). The former describes a type of organization; the latter describes a type of activity. For example, in the federal tax setting, expenses associated with a not-for-profit activity (namely, one conducted without the requisite profit motive) are not deductible as business expenses.

From The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, p. 4

Associations in Space

2006-06-30T08:26:00.000-04:00

The space people won an ASAE award. Now, everyone was doing something for Katrina relief but I'm not convinced how useful classroom grants are in the face of widespread devastation. It seemed to me that what would have been useful is folks going down there and actually rolling up their sleeves and shoveling muck. But I am not the fount of all wisdom, alas.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

2006-06-29T09:08:00.000-04:00

So I'm back in reading mode just a little. I've started reading the books we have here in my new office, which are pretty good! I enjoyed this one quite a bit, and since this was my first experience with Lencioni, I didn't have this reaction (from Slacker Manager) to the narrative portion of the book. The narrative part has a CEO walking her dysfunctional team thru the five dysfunctions, which are shown as a pyramid in this order:

Inattention to results
Avoidance of accountability
Lack of commitment
Fear of conflict
Absense of trust

Basically, it all starts with there not being trust and the others sort of flow from that. The narrative piece is useful because it walks you thru what this could actually look like in real life. And the exposition of the model in the back is useful as well.

The narrative story ends up fixing the company, but the CEO had to fire someone, and someone had to quit. I guess that if those things hadn't happened the fictive company would have failed.

Back with the living

2006-06-21T19:46:00.000-04:00

Well, I quit posting quite precipitously there for awhile, and now I'm back. I hope you didn't miss me too much. Here's the deal: I came back from a trip to Michigan one fine Monday in May morning and decided to make a change on the work front. I put out a resume the next day and by Friday I had a new job at a highly respectable allied health care association. YAY!

So I ate bonbons for a couple of weeks and started work on Monday, June 19th. (Although I did attend my new gig's conference in San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend, and had a blast.) In between there, I was really actively trying to sort of "fast" from the internet, professional stuff, etc. I did read a lot, but you know, I read things like The Scarlet Letter and gardening books. I also got caught up with some "administrivia" around the house.

I also went to my spousal unit's conference in San Antonio, which was great. Our hotel was right on the River Walk and I spent some time at the pool and I went to the San Antonio Botanical Garden, which was good but you basically run across burning silica from one plant to the next.

I noticed that ASAE has a blog called Acronym and that's great. I also have been moving around on different computers, etc., and so I've been having a hard time keeping up with my RSS feeds so I'm a little out of the loop. I'm starting to get the feeling that I don't have anything else to say blogwise. I'll snap out of it though, but I may have to refocus. Stay tuned.

Oh, I wanted to mention, my brother Paul now has a blog. He programs X-Box games for Electronic Arts in Orlando, Florida.

Oh, and my article in Associations Now came out. Hope you liked it.

Some links for your delectation and delight

2006-06-15T16:02:00.000-04:00

Actually, these are for my delectation and delight. I'm doing this to follow Julie Morgenstern's "Keep the Source, Lose the Paper" mantra. These are two articles I marked up from the October 2004's issue of Association Management.

Linking strategy, budget and outcomes... (Lang and Tecker)

Essentials of project management... (Rebecca Moore)

More later, I'm back in the land of the living :)

The Hipster Handbook

2006-05-02T16:08:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I'm reviewing this book, but since I got the recommendation to read it in a professional context, here it goes. I actually thought the book was hilarious. I mean, I sat in a parking lot and was laughing at it. I think it was funny because you've met people like this. I mean, at least they have some things in common with the people who are described in the book.

I am fairly far from being a hipster: a) too old; b) too much body fat; c) way too Mormon; d) correct use of semicolons when punctuating a list. However, I did get two out of the six questions right on "how to tell you're a hipster." I won't write anymore because you can get a much better gist by just looking at the website. Very funny.

More Lifehacks

2006-05-02T09:43:00.000-04:00

Check out my newest posts on Lifehack.org which are on the scintillating topics of:

Using a time map
Exercise can make you smarter

So there you have it. TTYL.

Blink and Tipping Point

2006-05-01T13:07:00.000-04:00

I'm just going to bundle these two in the same post since they've kind of blurred together in my mind anyway, along with Linked, that I blogged about earlier. And I know I'm late to the party with the Gladwell books, so bear with me. And if you've not had a chance to read them yet, I'd say they're definitely a good real.

They are both really good, and I think if you're the kind of person who likes to observe abstract phenomena in society, you'll really dig both of them.

Now, I've reduced the thesis of Blink down to a single phrase that Gladwell uses: "thin slicing." Thin slicing means that you can do a lot with a little, so to speak, informationwise. In other words, we have so much information thrown at us on a daily, hourly, minutely basis that less is more. Thru the use of loads of examples, Gladwell explains why we can size up a situation with precision accuracy when we're given just enough information; the inverse of this is that too much information can give "analysis paralysis" and make us dumb.

Gladwell expounds on the dark side of this intuition as well, points to incidences of violence and racism and other things that happen "in the blink of an eye," as well as the beneficient elements. So he looks at the mechanism whereby this can happen, links it to survival mechanisms, long-inbred predjudices, etc.

I would say that if you're using your intuition as part of your Unique Selling Proposition at home or work, give this book a read and use it to understand better how you tick.

On to the Tipping Point, which I'm going to shamefully reduce once again. The book talks about how fads, trends, epidemics, etc. all follow the same course to spread. He talks about three kinds of people who make these things tick: Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople and points to their specialized skillsets as the thing that makes these societal phenomena really take off. Connectors are people people. They know tons of people and "collect" people the way others might collect plants or mp3s. They will see something that'll be of interest to someone they know, then they might call them up or send them an email telling them they'd be interested in thus and such. It's a category that made me think immediately of a lot of the lobbyists I know.

The maven is the person who has some freakish knowledge of something like prices or an industry or something else. Then that person connects with people thru their knowledge of that particular thing. The person loves helping people by sharing with them some of the knowledge that he/she has learned, and that person trusts the maven because he/she is so darned knowledgeable.

The salesman is also a people person but has the added gift of being able to persuade. The example Gladwell uses is a financial services guy who has a black book a mile long, knows intimately all the reasons why you should use his services, or how they'll help you PLUS he genuinely loves people. And apparently it works very well for the gentleman.

The books feel like sequels and they both get into similar veins of argument so I've grouped them together. Let me know what you thought of them.

Lifehack

2006-04-26T10:53:00.000-04:00

Pleased to report I'm a guest blogger on Lifehack.org. Now I need to come up with something :) If you're a first-time visitor, have a look around, and welcome!

Update: Check out my first post about dealing with manipulative people.

New blogs + 37Signals yoink

2006-04-25T11:29:00.000-04:00

I got an email today from MailChimp, which is a web-based mass emailing app. I use their stuff and it has been a good experience so far. Today they sent a newsletter which has a study of open rates and subject lines. Highly interesting. Also from it, I discovered a new blog, bly.com, which is the blog of a professional copywriter. Good stuff. I'm going thru a marketing phase right now because I've figured that's what I need to be doing in my current position.

I sent a message out to the ASAE listserv asking about how to do my marketing plan in an association environment since obviously pretty much every resource is out there to sell "stuff." So it's helpful to a point, but you always have to adapt it. A delightful woman from the American Chemical Society wrote me a couple of lengthy emails explaining her process and it seems just fantastic. So back to work for yours truly.

Also, I wanted to point out today's post from 37Signals, which has loads of great links and observations. You know, the more experience I get the more I agree with their premise that every blessed thing is just waaaaaaay toooooo complicated. They link to a paper that talks about Toyota's business processes adapted to web design. It doesn't sound terribly applicable to associations, however, I believe anything called "lean thinking" is something we could use lots more of.

The importance of failure

2006-04-24T16:10:00.000-04:00

Here's a post via a blogger I've been following a long time, Ms. Jane Galt. It talks about the importance, essentially, of saying yes instead of saying no. Of course there's the argument that saying yes is risky, but in most of the professional situations I've been exposed to (i.e. small programs, small offices, small business), the risks are hardly ever that big. But the risk inherent in pissing people off is rather large.

I feel like sharing...

2006-04-24T08:29:00.001-04:00

Things are really busy at the ranch these days, but I wanted to post related to something I saw this weekend on HGTV's Mission Organization. This is related to the article I have coming out in June's issue of Associations Now.

Basically, the organizer goes to this guy's room and it's a total wreck. You can tell by looking at the room that he must not use any of the stuff because there's no way he could access all of it or retain in memory what comprised the great meteor of paperwork and schlock. Mind you, I'm not casting stones or anything, because we all do this to some degree or another unless you have OCD and then you take Zoloft until you're able to once again.

Ahem, back to business. The organizer walks him thru the process of stoppping the insanity. They go thru all the crap and sort it using just four (4) categories. [ed. I like to use parenthetical numbers, it makes me feel official like I'm writing a government report]. The categories are:

- I love it
- I feel like sharing
- Not for now
- Ditch it

Now, my premise in my article is that you can use structures like this to solve a million different problems, whether it's with junk or ideas. It's kind of like David Allen's GTD: if you get all your ideas out of your head, you can sort them physically using this or a similar process.

So I'm going to get to work sorting today, and hopefully I'll get some reading in sometime soon :)

We should build a house

2006-04-18T14:06:00.000-04:00

37 signals nails it on the head with this entry where Ryan talks about the "illusion of agreement." Darn good illustration of something we see happening all the time.

Back from Colorado

2006-04-16T09:52:00.000-04:00

I was done with conference last week on Wednesday, but I've taken some time to relax. I had some very long days, and since this was my first conference with this group there was a learning curve on absolutely everything. So it wiped me out. After the conference was over I drove up in the mountains to decompress--something I always used to do in college. This time was different, however, in that my point of departure was a five-star hotel :) Anyway, I drove up to this road leading to Mt. Evans. The map says it's the highest road in the United States. It was really pretty and worth the $47 for a rental car.

Paid board members?

2006-04-16T09:48:00.000-04:00

I found this interesting article from the Indianapolis Business Journal about whether nonprofit board members should be allowed to be paid. The concensus seems to be that they shouldn't be paid, but that doesn't really speak to whether they should or should not BE ALLOWED to be paid. I think that in some cases, that would be worth looking at. Some organizations really struggle with having committed board members. And, it's human nature to not take things as seriously if there's no money on the table to seal the deal. But it's definitely an interesting debate.

Nonprofit mergers becoming popular

2006-04-07T08:23:00.000-04:00

There's a pretty good piece in yesterday's Globe about the rising popularity of merging nonprofits. The article focuses for the most part on small, regional human-servicy types of organizations, and it points to the increasingly challenging environment for nonprofits. Of course times are challenging when everybody and their pet llama has started one, and so many organizations' main contribution to society is reckless waste (albeit on a small scale) and fuzzy thinking. To quote the article:

Interest in mergers and alliances among nonprofits has become so hot nationally that a California firm specializing in the issue, La Piana Associates, Inc., has seen inquiries on the topic increase more than 50 percent over the last two years, said Bob Harrington, a senior manager who specializes in strategic restructuring.

I think this trend is definitely something we should within the 501-c community. Nonprofits are great, voluntarism is great, but people need to do their research and not create crappy redundancies that sap resources from the system. That's my bit of venting for today.

Conference Blogging

2006-04-07T08:02:00.000-04:00

So blogging has been decidedly light. I'm in Denver wheezing my way through our conference set up. Registration starts today, so I'm going to be working my butt off, and trying my best to help create a good experience for everyone who's coming. It should be fun.

We're staying at the brand new Hyatt in Denver. It's very nice and the service--from a guest's perspective--is unbelievable. The hotel is 37 stories tall and two banks of elevators, one that covers thru floor 17, and the other skips that and heads to the higher floors. Now, our president's suite is on 37 and so I ran up there a couple of times yesterday. The elevator is sooo fast that it kind of makes you woozy. And when you come down you have to swallow to make your ears pop. Wild. Also, re the elevators, each elevator has a flat-panel monitor put in it that's like got some live photography on it, and it changes all the time. One scene is a field of sunflowers during an approaching thunderstorm, and the audio is set to play the thunder approaching. Here is the view from my window on the 16th floor:

Then, last night I ordered room service and here is what the apple pie looked like:

But anyway, that's enough travelogue for now. I am currently working on reading The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, by Henry Mintzberg. It's really good, but I'm only halfway through. The main takeaway that I've got from it right now is that we put so much energy (i.e. money) into strategic planning and there's not much evidence that it WORKS. Scary, huh? How very practical to actually examine whether something is working or not.

Nonprofit IPO

2006-04-02T15:09:00.000-04:00

Fast Company has a cool article in their most recent issue on nonprofit IPOs. It's framed as something new and exciting for nonprofits. Obviously, the goal for investors is not cold-hard cash, but return on philanthropic investment. The poster child is an organization called College Summit, which helps low-income students get into universities, who secured funding for a four-year growth plan using the method. The article also spotlights an organization called NFF Capital Partners, who are an investment bank for nonprofits.

I think this is a tremendous idea, which taps into a Carnegie-esque style of philanthropy. And, perhaps more importantly, it actually funds infrastructure, which is not typically done, although who the heck knows why?

Public sector information design

2006-03-30T21:08:00.000-05:00

Here's an article from the UK's Design Council talking about how information design is important in public-sector efforts. Of course, it's helpful to everyone, but this is a good example of the universal need for better presentation of information--and more design.

Linked

2006-03-28T15:49:00.000-05:00

This is the book I finished on the plane ride out to L.A. It's a fascinating read, a real page turner if you're into research on how the world works. While the subject is technical, it's presented here in a reasonably easy-to-read way. The subject is "the new science of networks," as the subtitle reads, or in other words, the mathematical processes that shape the way networks work.

And after reading the book, I realize that a lot of things that we don't normally think of as networks, can be easily described using these terms.

Basically, you can boil it down to this: a lot of the phenomena in the universe are caused by the way networks work. For example, the way fads or diseases spread. You can describe the way these kinds of things happen not by using a bell-curve, or a normal distribution, but rather a power law distribution--think long tail. Also, this same probability distribution is at work in the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 principle of some popularity among readers of business books.

The book gives lots of examples of this, from the way the AIDS virus initially spread--and also why it remains a problem, to airline routing systems.

Anyway, I am not smart enough about math theory do get into a better summary, but I will tell you that the book left me with new ways of describing what we observe happening in the world around us. Further, even though I basically am a mathophobe, the book was still accessible and informative.

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, the author of the book, is professor of physics at the University of Notre dame and this book obviously draws on his professional research into networks in general and other stuff like the Internet, more specifically.

Linked, by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
ISBN # 0738206679

Getting Real

2006-03-28T13:53:00.000-05:00

And, speaking of design in organizations, I made it thru 37 Signals' new e-book and it was a great read. Basically, I don't know what I can say about it other than that it's revolutionary, but ought not to be. Getting Real talks about how to build software, but it doing so it outlines a path that has the potential of leading to elegant business practices, good relationships and just plain fun!

It was just refreshing to see them strip away all the trappings of so-called "professionalism" and really get to the heart of what makes business work--it's about the people, IMHO. Now, I understand that some people have problems with 37 Signals' approach, e.g., they're arrogant, they are simpliste, etc. However, in reading Getting Real, I'm convinced that they have things figured out far more than that analysis would allow for.

Why? Because of the way they think of customers. Do they say that you shouldn't try to please everybody all the time or to solve everyone's problems? Do they think that once in a while customers can be not only wrong but dead wrong? Absolutely. But, they also recognize that customers are the point of it all--as well as being the starting place for product improvement, etc. Is this oxymoronic? No, I think it's common sense that's based on a reasonable reading of statistics, frankly.

Here's a quote that illustrates the kind of realism that the team advocates.

Unless a document is actually going to morph into something real, don't produce it.

Build, don't write. If you need to explain something, try mocking it up and prototyping it rather than writing a long-winded document. An actual interface or prototype is on its way to becoming a real product. A piece of paper, on the other hand, is only on its way to the garbage can.

So the book is really appropriately named. Getting Real cuts thru the "thick process," of the business world, process that accumulates pretty darn fast, even in small organizations. Even if you're not in the best position to implement the advice given in the book, it will be a breath of fresh cool air in the desert of status quoism.

You can buy the book online at 37signals.com. Just a note on the e-book format, it was super-fantastic. I printed it out and took it with me on the plane and as I finished pages, I jettisoned them and my bag got lighter. Then, I kept the pages that had something interesting on them. Win/Win/Win.

Greetings from Los Angeles

2006-03-28T13:37:00.000-05:00

I'm in L.A. for a big design show, NeoCon West, trying to get our membership numbers up and make some good contacts.

It's been a lot of fun so far, although I have had some really crappy service at the Biltmore hotel in downtown L.A. But at the show, I've made lots of friends and all is going well.

I attended a session yesterday called "Good design is good business," which was given by interior designers Barbara Dunn of Gensler, and Jan Belson of the Design Arts Group. Their presentation was focused on the ways design is becoming more integral to business practices. This would impact certainly the spaces in which people work, but further, they discussed ways in which design is making itself felt in the actual processes of business administration and problem solving. Good stuff, based on a lot of Dan Pink and Virginia Postrel, with a lot of emphasis on the importance of creating customer experiences.

Cause marketing...

2006-03-26T11:16:00.000-05:00

Good advice on "cause marketing," from CAE Weblog. He points you to resources you should check out to keep you on the right side of the law.

Chance favors the prepared mind, etc.

2006-03-24T12:33:00.000-05:00

A co-worker gave me a feng-shui calendar when I first started this new gig. Today's bit says this:

Pure luck, man-made luck and heaven luck are components of your destiny. You control your man-made luck through your thoughts, words and deeds.

Another bit of wisdom (from Mary Chapin Carpenter) tells us:

We've got two lives, one we're given and another one we make.

So my takeaway is that it is the natural course of events for people to get screwed over, but don't forget about the part you can do something about. The therapists say you need to "own your problems." So that is my bit of menschdom for today.

Associations can help your career (duh)

2006-03-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

I put "duh," but sometimes this point is not that obvious, even to folks who work for associations.

Via the lifehacker, I found this article that talks about how to move along in your career, how not to get fired, etc. The thing I noticed about it was that near the end, it talks about signing up for a trade publication as a starting point for beginning to network professionally. I've found that associations (in my case, ASAE) are a super place for someone just starting out to get to know the ropes. I think that's because if you volunteer on a project, or suchlike, the others working with you are so glad to have help they don't care if you're young or not. That stands in stark contrast to the way things are in the office where you're busy paying your dues. If you have a brain on your head and shine in the volunteer setting, it'll go along way. That's my idea for how to tap into generation x, y and beyond: show them that your association's contacts will help them kick butt.

The Innovator's Dilemma

2006-03-21T11:30:00.000-05:00

So, I ran into this book on someone's site and I thought it looked like something I should read. Now, it is almost 10 years old, and since many of the examples Christensen uses to illustrate his points are now in the realm of the historical--and since the book goes into fairly great technical detail about the affected industries, the book doesn't read as easily as it might have once.

However, the book is still really relevant because of the principles it uncovers. For one thing, Christensen coined the term "disruptive technology," which has become a very common way of speaking about the topic. Quoted below, from the oracle of wiki:

a disruptive technology is a new technological innovation, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology in the market, despite the fact that the disruptive technology is both radically different from the leading technology and that it often initially performs worse than the leading technology according to existing measures of performance.

So the point of the book is simple. Big companies, by being good at what big companies do best (think process optimization, good controls, etc.) put themselves at risk for being overturned by the latest and greatest "disruptive technology." Basically, the company gives others the tools to compete effectively and beat them at their own game (or at least knock the wind out of them). In a nutshell that's it.

Clayton makes this argument in The Innovator's Dilemma, but then I need to read the next book, The Innovator's Solution, to figure out what one is supposed to do in these situations.

Update: Here's a great link from CIO that has an interview with Christensen.

Another update: Upon further questioning of the wiki oracle, I found this to be quotable--which treats what to do if you find yourself being disrupted:

Christensen recommends that existing firms watch for these technologies, invest in small firms that might produce them, and continue to push technological demands in their core market so that performance stays above what disruptive technologies can achieve.

Okay, sorry, one more update: Just came across this relevant tidbit from the New York Times via Signal vs Noise, where they're talking about Craigslist "underdoing" Microsoft.

The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
ISBN # 0875845851

The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change

2006-03-18T12:06:00.000-05:00

I found this book off BusinessWire and wrote to its author, Jonathan Peizer, for a review copy which he was kind enough to send. To me, it seemed like a topic that's been needing exploring for awhile, especially for me personally in light of my recent stint at a patient advocacy, donor-centric organization.

Peizer is an IT consultant working in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, and is a pretty impressive guy, working on some pretty impressive things. The book covers his professional experiences and shares the lessons learned. Many of the examples given come from the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute, and covers what's called in the book ICT, or Internet Communications Technology. The Open Society Institute was originally founded to help countries transition from communism. I must admit I didn't know about all the work that Soros had done toward promoting democracy, and the projects are quite impressive. (In an email exchange with Jonathan, I told him I thought Soros had jumped the shark with his activities around the 2004 elections, but that's a topic for another day, non?)

I am impressed with the book's straightforward assessment of the nuances (dysfunctions?) of the nonprofit sector, and of the challenges inherent in them. The text gives some good examples of how to deal with these (largely people- and personality-centered) issues. Getting buy-in, establishing quality relationships, are all put at the forefront of what some might consider to be purely technical endeavors. Peizer rightly prioritizes these kinds of people efforts as being the lynchpin to a successful program.)

Here's a quote that talks about the effort to build (or shall we say, foster) the kind of community that in turn made a successful program:

Together with the local foundation, the program identified various population segments in each country where Internet access would greatly benefit the enahcement of civil society and where the targeted constituency was ready to adopt its use. The major population segments targeted included: academic and research institutions, secondary schools, independent media, NGOs, libraries, medical institutions, museums and nonaffiliated individuals.

I like the way this is laid out, step one, step two, etc. This kind of systematic thinking is needed more in nonprofits. Even though you can see that it's based on relationship, there's a coherency about it, and a planning that's evident and conceivably there'd be an easy explanation as to why each consitutency had been targeted.

So, moving along, I feel like the author really "gets" some people issues that others miss, and these bits are shared in the contexts of his lessons learned. One people issue is keeping up with the Jonese or wanting to have what others have. Another is demonstrated below:

Concerning new ideas, if you throw a punch at someone, naturally they may defend themselves and may even retaliate. Forcing technology (or any new idea) on someone who is not ready for it elicits an equivalent intellectual response. Similar mental defense mechanisms and associated dissonance come into play. [...] People do not wish to look less than competent in front of subordinates. It is not unusual in an NGO for managers who are expert in other areas to be less proficient using a computer than their younger administrative assistants. A minefield of cognitive dissonance lurks in every ICT project. The most treacherous is forcing solutions on those not ready to accept them.

File that one under "we have learned through sad experience."

Another minefield explored is that the biggest challenge to an organization's mission may come from inside, where Peizer examines the clash between administration and programs. He talks about the need for "unselfish management," which reminds me of another book. Preach it, brother, is all I've got to say. There are more egos out there than you can shake a stick at.

Anyhow, this post is already plenty long, but if you are looking to have examples of how to implement a technology program (or any program, really), and would like to have some fresh case studies at hand, this is a good choice. And it's really good to have it come from a nonprofit person who understands that the personality element is key to success.

The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change, by Jonathan Peizer.
ISBN # 059537240

Ten things

2006-03-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

This post from PicoBusiness rang true for me. Here's the ones that had me really nodding in agreement.

Bad things usually happen right after you give up trying to prevent them because they haven’t happened yet.
People will lie to you about just about anything, mostly to make themselves seem more important.
Husbands without a timeconsuming hobby will cheat on their wives. [ha! - ed]
When someone is mean to you, it is almost always because they are jealous.
Most people trust anecdotes more than they trust statistics.

What's a good retention rate?

2006-03-15T14:11:00.000-05:00

This tidbit came over the ASAE communications listserv yesterday, and I was kind of taken aback to actually find some great content! It's from Stephen Carey, who's president of the Association Management and Marketing Resources group. It's in response to a question that asked for "a summary of averages and ranges of association annual retention rates." The person asking said they felt like an idiot for asking, but I don't think it's a weird question at all. I think that kind of info is kept close to the vest. It reminds me of a saying about innkeepers that they'd rather talk about their sex lives than their occupancy rates. Anyhoo, here's the quote:

Most of the surveys for both trade and professional associations find that the average retention rate falls between 82% and 90%. The average rates 5 years ago were a percentage point or two above this. Some groups are running above 95% and others below 70%. If you are running below 85%, you probably need to tune up your retention machine and develop additional incentives, which address your value equation. If you running below 80% your value equation is probably in need of a major overhaul. Benchmark several like associations in your industry and use the average as your guide.

Our rule of thumb, is that if your combined membership rate after drops and adds is 3% or better on average, you're probably doing ok. We would also recommend that you figure your "true retention rate," which is your drops minus those drops that have changed fields, passed away, have budget problems or other issues you cannot control. This will give you the best guage as to whether your value proposition is out of whack and you really have a problem.

The most important thing in association membership first aid is to "stop the bleeding." This means spending as much if not more on the retention program as you do on the recruitment program. If you don't, you're just throwing new members into a net with a hole in it and you are wasting your recruitment dollars. We still find many association that have not mastered this piece of strategy yet.

This bit of information is good for me to know. I know I'm trying to stop the bleeding right now. But the question still remains, what are some good sources to research this kind of thing? I haven't seen it in anything from ASAE, but maybe I've overlooked that.

An Army of Davids

2006-03-15T12:55:00.000-05:00

So, I've been spending some time with Glenn Reynold's book (Glenn being of course the seminal and highly influential Instapundit), and I must say that it gives me lots of language I can use to talk about phenomena that are easily observable right now. I think you could say that Glenn Reynolds has done for technology what Virginia Postrel did with design topics.

Which is to say, they beat the drum and say, hey, look at what this democratization of knowledge can do for you! In that vein, the book is really pretty visionary, pointing out the magic of the internet age. And I for one see it as magical. You know how Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pa in Little Town on the Prairie said to Laura that it was an amazing time to be alive (that was in the 1890s)? I've been actively thinking that to myself for the past few years, and An Army of Davids gives me ample evidence to back that up with its talk of citizen empowerment and the "comfy chair revolution."

The theme of "ordinary" individuals being empowered to create, and then to benefit from the fruits of their labors is a big one in the book. This is making me think of the Business Week article I read at the gym this week, where they were talking about the validity of the measures we use to guage the strength of the economy. One of the things they mentioned was the amount Americans spend on education, which is, of course, huge. The number crunchers chalk that amount up to consumption, however, the article's authors were looking at it as a form of investment, which of course it is. It's these kinds of individual choices adding up to sweeping societal changes that An Army of Davids is really good at articulating.

Toward the end of the book, there's a lot of emphasis on Kurzweil's Singularity, which Kurzweil defines as "a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed." Even though that definition is broad enough to drive a boat show into, it's something that we all see every day. What's potentially frightening about it is that there are so many people who don't know about the shadowy optimization that is occuring at the fringes of life. There are so many people who still proclaim proudly, "I don't do email," and the like. What's going to happen to them? It's a form of illiteracy already, not to mention what it's going to be like 5, 10, 15 years from now.

This is not to say that Glenn holds back on some of the more awful sides of the democratization of knowledge and resources, e.g., Bioterror for Dummies and the like, but I think what comes through in the book is an inherent trust in human beings, i.e., la technologie c'est un humanisme. Because, when everyone is empowered, the good guy stands a lot better chance of winning.

Notes for myself and others involved in association management. You know how we have a hard time getting and keeping members, and also quality volunteers, etc? My conclusion from reading this book is that our boards and staff are asking a lot of people--asking them to give up their free time when they could be "volunteering" for themselves. And I don't think that's selfish, either. When someone could put together a website and manage an effective program, whether professionally or for a cause, we had better make sure that our programs are just as effective. Also, I think associations should focus on what they're good at: providing credentials and/or education as a cost-effective alternative to the bloated universities, and lobbying the government. IMHO.

Army of Davids, by Glenn Reynolds
ISBN # 1595550542

Book blog?

2006-03-12T08:52:00.000-05:00

I'm realizing I haven't blogged an actual book for quite awhile. I've actually been getting some reading done, but taking the time to formulate something I'd not be embarrassed to post has been another matter... It won't be long :)

Brain drain

2006-03-10T09:17:00.000-05:00

The Bridgespan Group, a consultancy for nonprofits, has identified a leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector. My take on the problem's cause? (I know, no one asked.) Likely there aren't leaders because lots of talented people in the sector who show potential are deemed threatening and/or uppity by petty leadership--and their efforts at success are sabotaged. I'm sorry if this sounds snarky, but I believe it could be easily documented. So that's why has to stop, IMHO. This applies to trade and professional associations every bit as much as the more fluffy cause-oriented groups.

Conference thoughts

2006-03-09T11:48:00.000-05:00

From Chris at Social Customer Manifesto. I don't have time to break it all down, but it's pretty relevant to what we do in associations. The conference wiki is, of course, a great idea. I actually proposed one last week for our upcoming conference, and the idea went over pretty well. We'll see if it happens...

Nonprofit administration resource

2006-03-09T09:09:00.000-05:00

This came into my email today, it looks like a good set of links to lots of matters nonprofit-related.

Recruiting volunteers

2006-03-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

So, I've begun to be active in an affiliate group of my university's alumni association. Their handbook is a good one, and here's the list on recruiting volunteers that I found to be quite well put.

Do not assume that people are too busy. Sometimes busy people like to be busy.
Be a friend and make sure they are welcomed.
Do not belittle the job.
Do not make it sound too easy.
Give the job a name, define a timeframe, provide guidance and relay expectations.
Do not add to the responsibilities during the job.
Make sure the task is achievable and the goal is obtainable.
Speak the language of the person you are trying to recruit. Ask yourself, what do we do that would be of interest to them?
If you are not personally committed, assign someone else to do the recruitment.
Always recruit volunteers on the basis of the service to clients, not to the needs of the [organization]. People work for people, not things.
Tell people what they will do, how long they are expected to do it, and who will benefit.
Remember that you are trying to remove people's reasons to say NO, not force them into volunteering.
Never use guilt when trying to recruit.
Be honest and upfront with people when recruiting. Do not minimize the work or time required.

Post on non-dues revenue

2006-03-06T09:36:00.000-05:00

From Ron at VanDamme Associates. It looks like a really good articulation. Would be useful in work with committees or boards.

Iffy nonprofit accounting

2006-03-06T09:17:00.000-05:00

Here's an article from the San Luis Obispo Tribune that talks about how to do some investigative work before giving to nonprofits. There's so much of this kind of accounting that goes on, it's hard to tell whether the folks are just clueless (often) or deceptive. This kind of info is helpful to both donors and organizations, if people will take the time and do the research. Why don't people do the research? I think people are maxed out on the time they can give to this kind of stuff.

Transformation Design, Part Deux

2006-03-04T14:27:00.000-05:00

I mentioned the new study of "transformation design" in an earlier post. Briefly, it's using design principles to rework organizations. I think it's a great way to think about it, and anyone who cares about optimizing anything ought to have the topic resonate with them. Thanks to Chris, who emailed me that the UK Design Council's full paper has been uploaded to their website (it was previously only an excerpt).

More than 30 years ago, Charles Eames, the American multidisciplinary designer, was asked, ‘What are the boundaries of design?’. He replied, ‘What are the boundaries of problems?’.

This point is as relevant today as it was in 1972, but the way we view problems has changed significantly since then.

Traditionally problems were seen as complicaed challenges that could be solved through breaking them down into smaller and smaller chunks – like fixing a car.

RED believes that the most important modern problems are complex rather than complicated. Complex problems are messier and more ambiguous in nature; they are more connected to other problems; more likely to react in unpredictable non-linear ways; and more likely to produce unintended consequences. [...]

Traditionally, organisations have been designed for a complicated rather than a complex world. Hierarchical and silo structures are perfectly designed to break problems down into more manageable fragments. They are not, however, so effective handling high levels of complexity. For this reason, many of our most long standing institutions are now struggling to adapt to a more complex world.

As they say, read the whole thing! My thoughts are that of course this has to be a) workable and b) totally useful - the paradigm shift that we're needing to make at this point societally. I'm surprised, but not terribly so, by pushback from designers. I think the argument that something's designer is the ultimate authority in its form is highly overstated. Designers design loads of things that continue to be improved upon, transformed, etc. Not to mention the fact that if you look at what happens to an architect's work, say, at a zoning meeting, that argument kind of flies out the window, doesn't it?

Anyway, I think that design is a great way of looking at the problems of organizations, and the problems organizations are called upon to solve. The people aspect is precisely what calls for design. After all, you can build a house as a piece of art but there's a small market for that. Mostly, you build a house to function as a house, and the better the architect understands the way people work, the better he'll be able to do that.

Astroturf reform

2006-03-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is a good read that puts lobbying reform in an association-centric context. Exerpt

Today, it's easy for trade associations and major lobbying firms to conceive and fund so-called "grassroots" issue campaigns that bear no mark of their sponsors or betray their Beltway origins. This form of public advocacy has acquired the unflattering appellation of "astroturf" campaigning.
Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman want more disclosure and more transparency. They believe that voters are persuaded more easily by arguments that appear to come from "real" citizen-based groups. And that the grassroots lobbying laws are easily abused to allow lobbyists to manipulate both donors and the public.

DoD supports associations...

2006-03-03T08:57:00.000-05:00

Here's a press release to this effect. This would be a good advocacy effort for lots of folks, eh?

Too many charities?

2006-03-03T08:51:00.000-05:00

Here's an article from Business Week talking about the number of charities in the U.S. Having worked for one such "charity," I think the author is right. More means that the nation is richer, more means market forces will drown the inept nonprofits and discourage "nonprofit empire building." I love working for associations, but when I was involved in the charity scene, I definitely was confronted with a lot of sketchy motives and a distinct lack of outcome-orientation.

Nice website...

2006-03-01T08:58:00.000-05:00

I came across this website and I wanted to remember it (I suppose there's always del.icio.us for that kind of thing, but I thought I'd blog it). It just strikes me as representing a group that's got it together. The website seems well thought out and very usable. Unfortunately, that's kind of rare among associations, don't you think?

Non-dues revenue idea??

2006-03-01T08:46:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting thing some folks could do with this kind of legislation proliferating...

Feng Shui Tip

2006-02-28T07:58:00.000-05:00

Our conference director gave me a Feng Shui calendar when I first started working here. Here's one from February 24 I thought I could give a try: Enhance your money luck by planting in the SE (wealth) area of your garden or yard, any vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants that you hope to sell or submit to a competition.

That area in my yard is really shady, but maybe I can specialize in hostas and grow some award-winners.

Membership Marketing Director

2006-02-27T18:11:00.000-05:00

Here's a job description I came across when I was doing some research trying to figure out how I can best do my job. I think it came from ASAE, but if you know where it came from, feel free to let me know.

Position Description

Basic functions: Develops and maintains membership in the association, directs service programs for members and interprets profession- and/or industry-wide marketing information.

Job requirements: Experience in the development of direct mail pieces and statistical analysis. Good writing skills, ability to speak in front of groups, ability to develop and maintain budget effectively. Ability to manage people and write departmental policies. Should have strong organizational skills such as planning and forecasting. Knowledge of computer systems management and knowledge of telemarketing techniques useful.

Specific Responsibilities:

1. Develops and administers a process for identifying, recruiting and registering potential members.

2. Ensures maintenance of membership records in sufficient detail to support communications and research.

3. Ensures that the membership directory is complied in cooperations with publications department.

4. Publishes periodic reports on membership status and membership development.

5. Analyzes the membership and recommends steps for retention and expansion.

6. Serves as a point of contact for individual members seeking information or assistance on membership.

7. Supplies information for member billings and subscriptions and other services to members.

8. Develops, monitors and controls department budget.

9. Identifies trends in the profession/trade and prepares forecasts.

10. Responsible for formal and information evaluations and assessments.

11. Determines potential membership population through research.

How long do I keep this stuff?

2006-02-23T09:28:00.000-05:00

I developed this over the course of some other work I'm doing. I found that I needed to distill the very (overly?) comprehensive documents out there. Of course this is not comprehensive, however, if you use a boilerplate policy, you’ll find yourself bogged in in how long to keep your supply chain FIFO documents. Most small organizations don’t get into this level of complexity.

Financial records, 7 years. Pretty much everything related to routine money maintenance is kept for this period. This extends to any kind of contract or lease. If space is scarce, look into scanning your old papers. This will help focus you on what’s important and what’s not. And computer memory is cheaper than real estate! If you have developed charts of accounts or depreciation schedules, you should keep those forever. Ditto for depreciation schedules, bills of sale and end-of-year financial statements.

Keep any insurance information or legal information for 7 years.

Keep employment applications and post-termination employee records for a period of three years.

Keep your routine correspondence for 1 year. That means you get to have a purge fest once a year. Try lighting a fire and burning an effigy.

Keep anything foundational forever. By this I mean Articles of Incorporation, Charters, Bylaws (each version should be kept), IRS determination letters that prove nonprofit status, etc. If you don’t have these you should do a little research and recreate them. For example, the Articles of Incorporation can be found on file with your state’s Secretary of State.

FWIW

Why do people join associations?

2006-02-20T13:51:00.000-05:00

As Ben mentioned, I've been involved in the ASAE supertrend convo happening in the little online spheriod called Icohere. That's a scary name, isn't it? Be that as it may, the convo, along with what I've got going in the job they actually pay me to work on have got me thinking about how to supercharge the whole membership scenario, and I've been going to school on how to make something happen.

So these bits of information come from what I've liberally summarized from an ASAE publication based on a survey done in 1986, called The Decision to Join. Although that's now 20 (!) years ago, I can't imagine the reasons have changed all that much. Most of this stuff seems pretty darn fresh. You know, one thing that I see in reviewing ASAE's print products is that you see a lot of ahistoricity. Like, the problems we face are always the same, like the sky is falling. Yet everyone's still here. I'd like to see some kind of longitudinal study that addresses whether associations as an industry have made progress or not. Or does it just follow along with the trades and/or professions that we represent? Anyway, now on to business:

Four reasons people join associations:

1. Specific association services. These would be things like newsletters, magazines and also things like lobbying or representation. People also seem to dig trade shows and ranked that up there among things they value.

2. Professional or business gain. If you're a member of a trade association (an association whose members are companies or institutions), then you'll join because of the marketplace-like environment. If you're in a professional association (an association whose members are individuals, and practitioners of a certain profession) then you'll join because of the individual cachet you get, the networking opportunities, and the opportunities for career advancement.

3. The association's image. The association is big and visible and projects quality.

4. Benefit to the industry or profession. People want to be in a position of influencing the direction of the organization and/or industry.

What do people like their associations to do?

1. Professional members dig educational programs [ed. this is probably less true now than when the survey was published].

2. Government relations matters most to trade types.

3. Everyone likes a friend. Peer contacts are a crowd-pleaser to everyone.

Why do people continue their memberships?

1. Peer pressure (just say no, right?) and the need to know. Some groups are lucky in this because state laws or other structures require continuing maintenance of one's professional knowledge.

2. Association performance and professional loyalty. People feel obligated to the association because they benefit from its work.

3. Trade folks are more outcome-oriented (surprise, surprise). Not that this is a bad thing. Outcomes can cover a multitude of sins. Or something like that.

Why don't people join associations?

1. No perceived personal benefit. "I'm not a joiner." And, "I hate meetings." I take your point.

2. Disillusionment with past memberships. People disagree with association priorities or the way associations spend dues money.

What can we do to get more people to join?

1. Clearly define benefits. We discussed this specifically during the Supertrend conversation. The upshot was that we need to tell people how much $$ they can make by being active in the association world. To me, this makes good sense, given the general societal trends (I'm thinking of The New Job Security here) and given what it takes to have a successful career these days.

2. Greater responsiveness and upgraded services. One thing the survey cites is less of a focus on social stuff. The guy they quote says: "If I want to eat a good dinner, I can choose my own time and place." Again, point taken.

3. New approaches to industry problems. "A few respondents said they will not join the association until it takes a more informed and realistic approach to industry and member problems." Hard to argue with that one.

UPDATE: Ben was good enough to send me two resources that build on this. This one is from the NY Society of CPAs, and the writer comments on this study. Another, more lengthy, entitled Will Demographic Trends Transform Association Membership?, is very comprehensive. It comes from the Center for Association Leadership.

The Affluent Society

2006-02-18T11:51:00.000-05:00

This book is a classic econ treatise by John Kenneth Galbraith, who was a presidential advisor to many in the middle of the last century. Although Galbraith is considered a liberal thinker, the book is such an historical artifact that that doesn't show much given the current state of world affairs. Apparently this book gave rise to the term "conventional wisdom."

Anyway, I pushed "publish" instead of save, so this got out before I wanted it to. And now, I've lost interest with it. I started to read some meta-commentary, and that only made it worse. I'm not having patience today, so go have a look at it on Amazon and see what you think.

Organizing Your Life

2006-02-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

I'm writing an article about organization for ASAE's magazine. One of the resources I looked at that I thought would be of general interest was Georgene Lockwood's Compleat Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life. The book goes into lots of detail, from organizing your stuff to balancing your checkbook. It's very general, and I didn't use it much aside from my initial research. However, I want to recap here her "Ten Laws of Stuff":

1. Stuff breeds. The more you have the more you need.
2. The useless stuff crowds out the good stuff.
3. Dust, bugs, rodents and moisture all love stuff.
4. Stuff tends to stay where it lands.
5. Stuff expands to fit the space available.
6. Over time stuff becomes invisible.
7. Stuff costs you money more than once.
8. Stuff has a powerful effect on your state of mind.
9. Stuff takes value only when it is used.
10. Stuff doesn’t make you happy, you do!

These I've found to be true, and thus of general interest!

Creating community...

2006-02-16T09:34:00.000-05:00

I know Guy Kawasaki is like this instant internet celebrity and like a million people are probably linking him, but I wanted to reference this "Art of Creating Community" post because it's so applicable to what we do in associations. It *is* what we do in associations. In particular this is my job!

Assign one person the task of building a community. Sure, many employees would like to build a community, but who wakes up every day with this task at the top of her list of priorities? Another way to look at this is, “Who’s going to get fired if she doesn’t build a community?” A community needs a champion—an identifiable hero and inspiration—from within the company to carry the flag for the community. Therefore, hire one less MBA and allocate this headcount to a community champion. This is a twofer: one less MBA and one great community.

Does this mean I'm accountable now? ;')

Leadership and the Problem of Bogus Empowerment

2006-02-16T08:45:00.000-05:00

Blogging has been fairly light. I'm quite bogged down in administrivia, so I'm hoping to surface from that one of these days. However, we all know how that goes long term...

Anyway, I wanted to sit down and write my notes about a lecture I listened to in my car which is called Leadership and the Problem of Bogus Empowerment. The lecture was from the Chatauqua series, and was by a Richmond University biz professor called Joanne B. Ciulla. She had many good points, and the link above is pretty much the same text as the one I listened to. She was engaging and a good speaker.

Regarding the substance of the talk, like I said, there was much I found to agree with. The problem of bogus empowerment pretty much sums it up: you can't claim to empower people and then not do it. A lot of the examples of employer-as-body-snatcher were funny.

I think, however, that this is not very forward-looking, and maybe that's just because the material is going on ten years old. But, as a comp lit professor of mine said, things should stand the "tooth of time." (Who knows who he was quoting.) Not very forward-looking, like I said, because she's very focused on the big, bad company. Not a lot of room for personal responsibility there, not a lot of faith in humanity. Which I think is bad.

Also, she comes off schizophrenic in her views on the utility of labor unions (background). In my opinion, unions have been very necessary in the past to get our society where it is. In the future, they may be very necessary again, and we definitely are in need of protective labor legislation. But there's no denying that older companies tied to the union model are not supple and are not competetive. They are also failing in huge numbers. She was kind of pollyanna-ish on this issue, trying to sidestep those failure rates, etc. During the question and answer period this came out quite a lot as questioners attempted so suck up to her.

Not to bash her talk, I thought in the ensemble it was quite interesting, and I learned the acronym BOHICA.

Nonprofit growth

2006-02-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

This article is from the San Jose Mercury News. It talks about the growth of nonprofits over the last decade. While the content is somewhat local in nature, it does bear reading as it's almost certainly representative of the sector in general. This reminds me of the lecture I listened to where Diana Aviv also references new entrepreneurial nonprofit types. Although, as I mentioned before, Carnegie I think was the first to do that, and that's been quite a while.

Association Mag Review: CIO Executive Council

2006-02-12T17:40:00.000-05:00

The second in my series on association publications, this time I'm doing the CIO Executive Council's magazine which is called, appropriately enough, CIO. The article I focused on was a pretty good one that focused on strategic partnerships. Here's a graphic that illustrates the issue. I thought the magazine was very well done and pretty slick. The production quality was seriously like Newsweek.

Anyway, the piece featured Campbell Soup's CIO, a woman called Doreen Wright. Here's a case study of the issue from IBM themselves. Anyhow, the article was pretty good--but it made partnering sound pretty scary--at least that was my takeaway. Apparently "strategic partnerships" fail like 50% of the time. Above is a graphic that covers some of the issues one needs to look out for.

Not being a member of the Executive Council, I thought the magazine did a good job of covering current issues in the field and talking about big-picture stuff. I'm not sure how I would feel if I were in a smaller organization, it was fairly focused on Fortune 500 types of issues--maybe that's their overwhelmingly predominant demo. The other thing I noticed is that there weren't many plugs for membership, and the sense of community was not there, it was pretty advertiser driven. I wonder if they sell a lot of subscriptions to nonmembers. Would be interesting to find out.

Fortune cookie...

2006-02-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

About me

2006-02-12T15:50:00.000-05:00

I haven't known quite how to do this for awhile, but here goes. My name is Nick Senzee. I live in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, where I've lived for four years. I like it here. I am originally from Kansas City, Missouri.

I earned my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in French and Francophone literatures from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Although Utah is in the mountains, I never learned to ski while I was there. I think it was a combination of limited cash flow as well as fear of skiing with my black-diamond friends. Provo was great, but after awhile my wife and I decided it was time for adventure. Since we got our degrees in French, we decided to do something very French and move to the capital to make our fortunes (like so many Balzac heros and heroines before us).

I studied French because, well, I speak it pretty good. After my degree was over with, I figured out I wasn't very good at doing postmodern readings of texts I didn't care about. Also I had to hide the fact that it was all kind of stupid. (No offense, former profs, I love you all). So I decided to get a job, which DC was willing to help me out with. Thus begins my affair with association management.

I started working for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy as their "Division Affairs Manager," which other people would call "Chapter Relations." I learned a lot in the position, and the best part was working with all these wonderful therapists. I would come home from a conference and feel really good about myself. When it was time to move on from AAMFT, I went to the Alpha-1 Association, a patient-advocacy organization for individuals with a rare disease.

After a brief stint as membership director for the Color Marketing Group (a professional association for designers who, among other things, forecast color trends), I came to work at a larger healthcare professional association in Alexandria, Virginia. I am active in the American Society for Association Executives (ASAE). I have written a piece for their trade magazine and for the chapter relations newsletter, played a small part in their environmental scanning conversations and educational development. And I enjoy making connections with other professionals in Association Management. It's generally good fun.

For me, association management is a good fit for a career because I get the opportunity to do lots of different things each day. It's people-intensive, so it doesn't get boring very often. And I've had the opportunity to learn more about the workings of the federal and state governments, as well as to do lots of work with Canadians (always fun, since I speak French with a PQ brogue) and other cultures as well through my fairly short career.

For fun, I like to putter. This means keeping in touch with friends, gardening and working around the house, etc. I like to read, mostly nonfiction. I also like to work out and go running when I'm motivated. (Don't ask me to explain that.) I also sometimes enjoy writing and I have several book and article ideas that I work on whenever I'm feeling manic.

Elements of Graphic Design, Chapter 1

2006-02-12T15:27:00.000-05:00

My library trip has been postponed due to the snow in our nation's capital. So I've got this book and am raring to go.

Chapter 1 is entitled "Space is emptiness."

Emptiness is an essential aspect of life. It is the unavoidable opposite of fullness, of busyness, of activity. It is the natural and universally present background to everything we see.

How can this principle (or element) apply to the nonprofit, or association environment? Or, to the business environment for that matter? Usually we don't think about our organizations in the context of absense, but rather, of presence.

But background is important, whether to design or to organizations. The book goes on to talk about how few people actually "see." We look at things, but we don't see them. I came across this link yesterday that talks about asking questions. I think they'd agree that asking these questions, eliciting unobvious answers, is all about "seeing" clearly.

RESOURCE: Introduction to Questionnaire Design. This might seem random to my readers, but I want to be able to refer to it later! Also, a usability study from the government provides a good model. These types of activities can help us see, I think.

So, let's look at the principle of white space. In graphic design, the white space is obviously the part of the page that is black or unused. But it's important. If I want to apply this principle to an organization, I'd say that the "white space" is the areas where the organization IS NOT. For example, staying within mission is an example of using white space and defining the message by what you're not doing. Any other ideas?

A couple of other interesting points from chapter 1. "Space is context." So the context in which an organization works is meaningful. I'm thinking an analog to my work would be audience, potential audience, profession or trade, generational differences, etc.

"Space adds quality." The book talks about retailers. If you think about a place like Banana Republic, Armani, or Zegna, there aren't racks upon racks upon racks of clothes to display. (Even Armani's website is amazingly sparse.) There is room to spread out and to think. I think lots of associations could use this model more. I haven't read the book, (I have put a hold on it so it'll be along soon) but The Paradox of Choice, Why More is Less, by Barry Schwartz, seems like it must address this facet of organizational design.

By Alex White
ISBN# 1581152507

Mission Statements for Associations

2006-02-12T14:55:00.000-05:00

Whether the words “mission statement” make you shudder or not, the matter comes down to a simple question. Why should you exist? You as a leader should be able to answer that question and it should provoke more than a grunt in your listener!

Here are some sample mission statements, some reasons to exist:

We provide support, education and advocacy for people with a rare medical condition.
We provide Internet solutions at a low-cost in an effort to help non-profit animal rescue and placement organizations end the plight of homeless animals.
We advance the professional interests of Marriage and Family Therapists.

A mission statement is something that you can point to at every board meeting and ask yourself, is this what we’re doing? Is this decision going to bring us closer to our mission or further away from it?

As a board member, you should evaluate your activities using your mission as a guide. If you have staff, your staff should evaluate each of the organization’s many activities using the mission as a guide—and the board should hold them accountable using the mission as a guide. You get the picture!

In a nonprofit environment, it can be difficult to focusing the organization’s efforts. This is because many different things are “worthwhile,” and the people factor is huge. We’re all volunteers, we’re all in this together, and we don’t want to spoil the feelings of collegiality and community that are at the core of the nonprofit sector’s staying power.

Even so, you can still end up wasting time and being ineffective if you don’t pay close attention. A mission statement can help with this. Is this car wash that only has a 7% return on investment really that important or are we just doing it because an influential board member is really stubborn about it? Should we take a stand against a sponsor’s product that’s potentially harmful to our community? Or should we keep quiet because they keep the bills paid? Our Executive Director sure hasn’t convinced us that anything is actually happening to realize our goals. Should we let her go even though it will be very emotional?

A strong organizational mission can help with these and many other issues. Now, a mission can be adjusted or adapted over time, but from day to day it remains an anchor for the organization’s activities.

Blogging in associations...

2006-02-11T12:58:00.000-05:00

Here's a post by a firm called Gulo, who're writing about some more technical "blogs may be the silver bullet but how do I actually generate content" type of stuff. I generally think the comments are worthwhile, although, I kind of take exception to the "it's unfair to ask staff to blog," line of thought. Seems to me that it's a matter of creating an open culture where staff would have to see a model, and then be encouraged to try it out. Although I can see that not every staffer would be cut out for blogging, I bet one or two would love it--and it probably wouldn't be the communications person, who is probably sick of having to generate content.

Also I agree wholeheartedly with the fact that some members would love to get their views out there, and I don't think you'd have to pay them anything. After all, members volunteer for lots of other jobs without the promise of remuneration.

Worth the read. See what you think.

The Elements of Graphic Design

2006-02-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

So, as a follow up to yesterday's designy post, I wanted to blog this book. I am not a designer, but I have always been a self-aware consumer of good design. As an organization person now, I have tried to leverage design as best I can in an environment that doesn't always care about it. Currently, I have the luxury of working for an organization where design is bread and butter, so now I can indulge myself a little design wonkery. As I've discovered design has a great deal in common with organizational process, etc., so I've made up my mind to expore this more comprehensively.

So, reading this book in function of association management is a good start. First chapter talks about the job of a communicator. I think we can see that that's a useful thing to look at.

To design means to plan. The process of design is used to bring order from chaos and randomness. Order is good for readers [ed. members or other stakeholders of your organization], who can more easily make sense of an ordered message [the image your association or organization puts forward]. An ordered message is therefore considered good design (1).

Alex White (the author of the book), does a tremendous job of writing clearly about the discipline of design, and of course, gets in to some (fairly but not overly) technical details about graphic design specifically. I will use this book as an outline for more writing about how to use design more as a metaphor for abstraction in organization, but for now, I have to give the book back to the library because I've had it too long. Guess I'll go out and purchase.

By Alex W. White
ISBN # 1581152507

UPDATE: While I'm on about design subjects, just read Emily Chang's thoughts on Design 2.0. Reminds me of a Google "quote of the day" a few weeks ago from Antoine de St-Exupery: "You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away."

Transformation design

2006-02-09T14:49:00.000-05:00

You know, since I work for a design-related association--and I've had these thoughts even before I started working here--that really, organizational design has tons in common with traditional design, i.e. "let's create something cool." Anyway, apparently this idea is becoming more mainstream, which I'm all for. Where do I sign up for the PhD program? j/k I need another degree like I need a hole in the head.

For-profit envy...

2006-02-09T10:47:00.000-05:00

Funny line from an article I found. Read the whole thing.

Association Mag Review: IHRSA

2006-02-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a new series here at Nick's Book Blog. I'm going to do a review of association/trade magazines. How am I going to choose which ones to review, you might ask? Very simple. Whatever trade publication is sitting in the magazine rack at the Golds Gym in Baileys Crossroads is fair game for the blog. There are usually two or three there at any time.

Now that we've got that out of the way, today's featured magazine is published by the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, entitled Club Business for Entrepreneurs which is a supplement to Club Business International, February 2006 issue.

In general, the magazine is pretty attractive. Lots of ads, clearly there are quite a few advertisers who are wanting to speak to this market. The ads are mainly for exercise machines, industry-specific software, etc. The lead article is about a woman who overcame some hardships of her own and now owns a health club. It's nice, feel-good stuff, and I think it's very appropriate to use the magazine space to highlight community-building types of stuff.

They have articles and departments. I took note of one particularly useful department called "IHRSA asks 7 questions." The magazine basically interviews a member, finds out what makes that person tick. Importantly, they ask the member what member benefits she finds most useful:

"I love sampling programs. We distributed free Kashi bars and coupons and they were a big hit. I've told my members about the Passport program, which is also a great benefit."

I passed that one on to my boss because I thought it was so useful.

They also plugged their 4th annual legislative summit. Typical set up. Come to Washington, get trained, meet with your member of congress. Here's what they're working on on Capitol Hill:

"A primary goal of this educational event is to ensure passage of the Workforce Health Improvement Program (WHIP) Act, which is currently being considered by Congress. This bill would boost your corporate membership sales by allowing employers to deduct the cost of health club memberships for their employees and ensuring that this benefit would not be classified as additional income to employees."

Good, solid publication from IHRSA.

Core Governance Issues

2006-02-05T12:28:00.000-05:00

I missed the memo on this one, but I'm making a note of this report for my own reference. It's a report from Moody's Investors Service--the people who do credit ratings and risk analysis--treating issues of governance in the not-for-profit healthcare sector. Now, this clearly centers around hospitals and the like--obviously a different issue than that which us association people face. Nonetheless, the lessons from this report could be useful to many. In particular, the "core dimensions of governance" are ones which should always be on the front burner, regardless of size of what have you. They are, according to the report:

1. Development of Organization's Mission
2. Selection and Evaluation of Senior Management
3. Board Composition and Performance
4. Understanding and Interpretation of Financial Reporting
5. Use of Performance Metrics Based On External Benchmarks to Regularly Review Institution's Performance
6. Maintaining and Building the Organization's Financial Resources
7. Avoidance of Conflicts of Interest

Bono in WaPo

2006-02-05T11:03:00.000-05:00

Via Ben Martin, here's a write-up of Bono's speech to ASAE and the Centre. Blogging has been light lately, not that too many people would notice :) I have been trying to get caught up on some things at home and work. These will be useful for me. Also, I just joined the board as secretary of a group called RescueGroups.org. I went to my first meeting yesterday, and it was a great group of folks doing some cool stuff. I'm very much looking forward to it, and it's just fun meeting new people.

Resolution

2006-02-01T12:13:00.000-05:00

So it's now February but I need to start implementing my ideas better. I have decided that it's an implementation problem. In order to make a change happen, you have to advocate for it. In order to advocate effectively, you need to keep good records and keep track of your ideas. Not big ideas, mind you, the small little innovations that make a tight ship. I need to be better at documenting problems and recommending a coherent solution. All this takes discipline, so I'm going to work on that.

The Purple Cow, Disc Two

2006-01-31T16:38:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned earlier, Purple Cow is the second of Godin’s books that I’ve ventured into. While Permission Marketing was solid and worth the effort, the Purple Cow is inspirational to the point of making me sit in my car in the parking lot without turning it off. It very much articulates a philosophy that I very much identify with, by expanding on some of the ideas from Permission Marketing. Godin is an astute observer of trends in society and in business and is very good at reading people and figuring out why they do what they do. As I mentioned in my first Purple Cow post, according to Godin (and this passes the sniff test with me), the reason people act so herdlike is fear—but ironically, when people don’t take risks, their chances of failure are much higher.

Here is a red-letter list that Godin asks us to pull over for and write down:

1. Don’t be boring
2. Safe is risky
3. Design rules now
4. Very good is bad

Godin says, I think very rightly, that people want to be safe. What they teach us in school is to do reasonably well, not stick out, not ask too many questions, etc., etc. The problem with this is that it doesn't make us different enough to succeed in the marketplace.

So I read Ben's post today about whether associations will be able to sort-of harness the energy happening in these online communities. I think that yes, if they start thinking along the lines of Godin's list. It's risky to let passionate staffers cultivate online communities and write blogs on behalf of the organization, but I think it's the way to move forward.

UPDATE: This line of thought reminds me of Creating Passionate User's awesome post on "Death by Risk-Aversion."

By Seth Godin
ISBN# 159184021X

Target and corporate giving

2006-01-29T09:29:00.000-05:00

This is a fascinating article in today's WaPo. It's the kind of thing that the warm and fuzzy nonprofit types decry, but that actually makes a difference. I think it's awesome, and it's very much in line with Carnegie's philosophy for philanthropy.

The K Street Project

2006-01-29T08:44:00.000-05:00

We've been talking a little bit about the lobbying scandal, ASAE's position therein, etc. I found this editorial from the Philadelphia Inquirer this morning, which seems to take a fairly balanced approach to the whole situation, wrapped in the context of Santorum's role in the new proposal.

O Canada, terre de nos aïeux

2006-01-28T16:40:00.000-05:00

From Bubble Generation, this story is relevant to those of us who work with professional associations, even if it is presented here as a problem in the great white north. I would love to look into this further.

Nonprofit accounting

2006-01-28T13:21:00.000-05:00

This looks like it would be a great seminar. And free too! Too bad I'm not in Cali or I would go.

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

2006-01-26T13:31:00.000-05:00

Not sure what to make of this, but here is my result. Thanks to Dr. Helen for the link.

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Sucking up to China

2006-01-26T12:52:00.000-05:00

I found this interesting new Pajamas Media blog via Instapundit. The blog's subject is the "China Syndrome" aka "sucking up to China." Now, for me the topic isn't on my front burner, but I do witness the phenomenon right here in the association community via the ASAE's International SIG. I have to snark on this one, that listserv really bugs and I'm subscribed at this point out of a sort-of rubbernecking ethos.

IRS, Nonprofit Governance

2006-01-26T10:34:00.000-05:00

Interesting article from one of Ben's cohorts at the New York Society of CPAs.

Re: Meetings Part Deux

2006-01-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

This came across Signal v. Noise yesterday. Highly useful model. Use it!

The Purple Cow, Disc One

2006-01-24T10:28:00.000-05:00

So, as a follow up to my lengthy and comprehensive synopsis of Permission Marketing (LOL), I'm venturing into the next Godin book, The Purple Cow. I think I first heard about this book in ASAE's magazine, Associations Now, although clearly I'm out of the loop because Mr. Godin has this huge cult following. Here is a great taste of it from Fast Company magazine.

Full disclosure, these are my notes from listening to the audio version of the book. I have a subscription to Simply Audiobooks and they send me CDs to listen to, Netflix style. I like the service, but so far a couple of the CDs have been scratched, and therefore, they skip some. So that is a bummer, especially when I'm all excited to have a new book to listen to during my commute.

Anyway, back to the topic of The Purple Cow. Why the Purple Cow? It's an object lesson. Godin tells the story of his family's trip to France, where they saw many "picturesque cows" (interesting adjective to use for livestock, but hey, I'm game). After awhile, he relates, the setting got pretty boring, even though it was initially really nice to look at. Therein the necessity for a Purple Cow. So this is a metaphor for the marketplace. It's like, okay you have a good product, so does everyone else.

Interesting discussion of Geoff Moore's chasm models, early adopters, etc. Godin's take is that these early adopter types (and, more specifically, the ones with influence on those around them) are the only people it's worth advertising to. So, those people should be sniffed out and targeted before doing anything else. A refrain of the author is that TV is dead--he allows as that he's prone to hyperbole--but I personally think he's got a huge point. So the permission thing is huge, the relationship building is huge, and most important of all--the PRODUCT is where you have to spend your money, not the marketing.

Funny thing, this book has been out awhile--to me it makes such common sense and yet in today's issue of Advertising Age the lead article's headline proclaims "Toyota to Saatchi: Move Forward." It continues, "Carmaker pushes agency away from crutch of TV." So, let me get this straight, the CLIENT has to tell the ad agency what the new trends in marketing are? Not good publicity for Saatchi. Maybe the agency world should stop all the navel-gazing that passes for professionalism and actually follow the market. Sorry for the snark.

Also fear. He says the reason it's so easy to be remarkable is that people are afraid of it. People are afraid of confronting criticism and the world isn't set up to make people think outside the box, to abuse the turn of phrase. So, the field is white and ready to harvest for people who are willing to take risks. But as it turns out, he concludes, being "boring--in other words, seeking the path of least resistance--is the riskiest thing that an organization can do. For me, this rings true as well. Think of the "New Job Security." That's basically the gist behind that argument--what used to be safe and comfy is now dangerous and leaves you unprotected against marketplace or individual whims.

How does this apply to associations? A couple of thoughts:

1) Many associations represent professionals or industries, so if the profession or industry is booming, so will the association. If not, that's a problem of the association. But what should an association do if the industry is cruddy or going thru a slow patch? I think there's a real opportunity for an association itself to shore up a flagging sector or to help the sector reinvent itself. Discuss.

2) The association community can be fairly inward-looking. This I think comes from the fact that not many people outside the association really know what it is we do. So we may suffer from keeping to many apples to apples. Lots of ideas can be had from observing the world, and particularly, always be focus group testing your members (informally of course) to really determine what their needs are. Then be prepared to act. Godin goes off about how if there's a will to implement these new ideas, then there will be a way to make it happen. This rings true.

Enough bloviating for now. TTYL.

By Seth Godin
ISBN# 159184021X