Blog: Wes’s thoughts, articles, and insights

My most recent posts

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

Baseline Reports

June 1, 2007

While attending a users group meeting yesterday, I asked how many people in the room were using the baseline reports […]

The Missed Value of a New AMS System

May 31, 2007

When implementing a new AMS (association management system), we typically see all value of the functionality it brings: Things like […]

Your Vote Counts! ASAE Releases Data Standards Draft

May 30, 2007

The ASAE Data Standards Task Force announced the release of a draft standard for expressing constituent records in XML. This […]

Documenting Your Processes

May 29, 2007

I spoke at a users group meeting a few weeks ago, and asked if anyone in the audience had a […]

Do Your Business Rules HINDER Success?

May 28, 2007

I was reading this article about the introduction of IBM's Thinkpad laptop and was struck by these two thoughts: At […]

JL Systems' Users Group Meeting

May 25, 2007

I spent the day at the Users Group meeting for JL Systems last week. JL is introducing a new product, […]

Weeding the Garden and Data Management

May 23, 2007

I was weeding my garden the other day, which is an activity I engage in exactly once per year. As […]

It's About the Money

May 22, 2007

I’m working with a client who has a custom database application to manage their website and database. It’s actually a […]

Some Fascinating Data Management Statistics

May 22, 2007

I had not seen these stats before, but they are striking. From a 2004 Gartner report entitled "CRM Demands Data […]

Scroll to Top