Blog: Wes’s thoughts, articles, and insights

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Data integrity reports

By Wes Trochlil | July 9, 2025

Data integrity reports I speak and write a lot about data integrity reports. So I was pleased to see a post recently on ASAE’s Collaborate from Shaun Holloway, Director of Information Technology, at the American Motorcyclist Association, outlining a list of what he called “data hygiene checks.” As a reminder, the purpose of a data integrity […]

The most important training tip

By Wes Trochlil | June 25, 2025

The most important training tip I’ve been sitting in a lot of database training sessions recently, and I’ve been reminded of the following: whether you are doing the training yourself, or you use your vendor or a third-party for training, when you’re teaching a process… Tell them what you’re going to do Do it Tell […]

Be careful about getting tangled

By Wes Trochlil | June 18, 2025

Be careful about getting tangled “We had done a lot to tangle ourselves up.” – Bridget Walsh, Chief Operating Officer at Emergency Nurses Association In a discussion at AMS Fest this week, this is how Bridget Walsh characterized what their AMS of 17+ years looked like as they worked to move from their legacy system to a […]

Discipline. Always discipline.

By Wes Trochlil | June 11, 2025

Discipline. Always discipline. I’ve been producing a newsletter in some form for over 25 years now. I’ve found that certain topics are evergreen; they come up all the time and I feel compelled to write about them again and again. One of those topics is discipline. A quick search of my blog posts shows I’ve […]

Simpler is better

By Wes Trochlil | June 4, 2025

Simpler is better Recently, a client of mine was discussing how they manage membership reinstatements. For example, if a member doesn’t renew within the grace period, is dropped from membership, and then rejoins in less than a year from dropping, are they called a new member, a renewed member, or a reinstatement? After several minutes […]

Older Posts

Association IT Salaries

July 19, 2007

In this post I talked about IT salaries in the general population. At the time I wasn’t aware that ASAE […]

Working with your vendor

July 18, 2007

Many associations struggle with the relationship they have with their software vendor. There are many reasons for this, but a primary […]

L-Soft Voluntarily Enters Bankruptcy

July 17, 2007

A client of mine sent me a note last week pointing out that L-Soft, the makers of Listserv software, has […]

iMIS 15: Color Me Unimpressed

July 17, 2007

On behalf of a client, I had the opportunity to see a brief demo of iMIS 15 last week. My […]

New RFP Shell Available (Shameless Plug)

July 16, 2007

Over the years I’ve frequently heard and read about associations looking for good RFP models for selecting a new association […]

Active vs. Passive Data Management

July 13, 2007

The key to successful data management is not choosing the right AMS (though obviously that's critical) but rather how you […]

Must-haves vs. Nice-to-haves

July 12, 2007

When developing an RFP on behalf of my clients, one of the items we'll discuss is "nice-to-haves" vs. "must-haves" on […]

Checking references; look for the older clients

July 11, 2007

One of the cardinal rules when buying a new association management system is to be sure to check references. Presumably […]

What baseline functionality should an AMS have?

July 10, 2007

I’m often asked this question (or a variant of it) by my clients and others. “Well shouldn’t every association management […]

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