Blog
Novelty for Novelty’s Sake
As associations, we have to be wary of “we have always done it that way.” And if you read this blog regularly, you know that I rail against unwillingness to change pretty frequently. I would…
Read More →Is It Time for a New Model of Membership?
I recently spoke on this topic as part of the April Alexandria Brown Bag focusing on Grassroots Membership Strategies, where I shared the story of my fab client the American Medical Student Association. About a…
Read More →AMS, CRM, and “So Now What?”
This is the final post of launch week for the new Spark whitepaper, Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management: We’ve looked at CRM as an approach, CRM as software, how AMS and…
Read More →AMS v. CRM
From the new Spark whitepaper, Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management: The once distinct line between AMS and CRM is blurring. CRM systems are increasingly able to integrate with third party solutions…
Read More →CRM: The Software
From the new Spark whitepaper, Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management: Now that we’re on board with CRM the concept, what about CRM the software? One of the major differences between CRM…
Read More →CRM: The Philosophy
From the new Spark whitepaper, Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management: CRM, properly understood, supported, and implemented, helps us manage customer (member and non-member) relationships in a coordinated way across our associations…
Read More →Announcing: Member Relations
I’m excited to launch the second Spark whitepaper – Member Relations: An Association-Centric Approach to Customer Relationship Management, which, with the assistance of George Breeden and Tom Lehman, I recently completed. This week, I’ll be…
Read More →What Makes Community?
Back in the mid-1990s (so, in Internet time, 500 years ago), I was a member of a thriving online community on the Runner’s World website. We shared training regimens, asked each other questions, told race…
Read More →Are You Creative?
If you ask a group of kindergarteners if they can sing, dance, draw, paint, act, etc., every single one of them will raise her hand. If you ask that same group if they can read…
Read More →What Is Your Real Mission?
Last fall, I had the opportunity to participate in The Boondoggle. Organized by Joe Gerstandt and Jason Lauritsen, it provided an opportunity for 10 people who didn’t know each other to sit in a cabin outside…
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