Why I write Thirty years ago, I started a new job as director of membership for a small trade association. It was my first real membership position, having worked in marketing and communications for four years prior at another trade association. While I knew how associations worked, I had no real idea how to recruit, manage, and retain membership. […]
DAN – The Data Analytics Network I’m a huge fan of users groups (both internal and external!). After all, users groups are just associations by another name, and having spent my entire career in the association space, I know their value. There is a great, informal group called the Data Analytics Network (DAN) for professional and trade
Process before technology In a conversation with a client recently, I was reminded (yet again) of how important people and process are when it comes to managing data. As we discussed their technology options, the client said, “You know, even if this technology is free, it won’t do us any good if we haven’t established
Opting out and communication preferences Last week’s newsletter discussed the need for associations to collect mobile phone numbers for use in communications. Several readers noted that I didn’t address opt-outs. Opting out should be implicit in all our data management, but I’ll address it explicitly here. As a rule, we need to provide our members, customers,