Archive for February, 2006
February 28, 2006
A Blogosphere of Lies
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Yesterday at lunch, David Gammel asked me if we were going to do a blog for our organization’s conference this year. I said, “No, I just don’t have the time right now.”
(Actually, after going through our blogging panel and then sitting in on a few other workshops, I thought, jeez, how can we not do a conference blog, particularly since our theme this year is “Break the Rules,” and what’s more rule-breaking than blogging, right? … Okay, so it’s not really all that rule-breaking anymore.)
Cross your fingers, we may even do some podcasting on it …
February 27, 2006
Links & Resources
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For those who attended this morning’s session on blogging, here’s the Word document that collects all the links mentioned and a few extra ones.
February 27, 2006
A Dose of Reality
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Ben asks five questions about the Long Tail and its impact on associations in the real world. The first three make excellent points: more members are learners than teachers; we all face a qualified volunteer deficit; and the Long Tail concept seems to work better for resellers than content developers (though points two and three could be dealt with by associations that realize they may be better suited to be resellers than content developers).
His last two questions, however, while being valid questions to raise, both include statements I disagree with.
” … members are entitled to roughly equal levels of service commensurate with their dues investment. This is a fundamental principle of association management.”
I don’t think that’s a fundamental principle at all. Admittedly, this may be because Ben is a professional society type, and I’m a trade association type (and I’m not one to have much truck with “fundamental principles” in the first place). In the trade association world, it’s common for members to pay different dues based on company size, and it’s also common for smaller members to avail themselves more of certain association services than larger ones (who pay more dues) do. This may very well be a model that needs revisiting, but it’s the reality of what happens.
In addition, this point seems to suggest that “anyone who joins” is entitled to an “equal level of service.” I don’t believe this to be the case, as it is entirely appropriate (and in my opinion, recommended) for associations to choose who they want their members to be — based not only on the organization’s mission but on how profitable those members are. An unprofitable member is not an asset to an association, whether you think in terms of either bottom line or mission (and you need to think of both).
In any event, with the Long Tail, however an association chooses to view such a model, the goal is to leverage technology and intelligence to gain more “profit” from members within smaller niches — not to spend more resources on them.
“Overlap is inefficient.”
That’s like saying the free market is inefficient. Competition is good, but I’ve made that point before.
Finally, I followed Ben’s reference to Bradley Horowitz’s post on “Creators, Synthesizers, and Consumers.” The model Horowitz drew on the 1/10/100 model for “groups” is the same model we are all very familiar with in the trade association world. It’s how most of us work: small number of leaders and active volunteers, slightly larger (but still comparatively small) number of members, producing resources that benefit the entire community of members and non-members alike. Interesting to see the “online social community” folks realizing it.
February 26, 2006
Mood Music
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E-venting gets it right with a post on music selection for a conference. So many associations think of music as background, and leave it up to the AV people to select. In fact, music plays an integral role in establishing the mindset of your audience for the entire meeting. As Mike at E-venting notes:
You actually
shouldhave to create an event mix. It’s your responsibility to set the show tone. If you’re not much of a musicologist, outsource the task to someone who is. But give it the same attention as you do the design of signage or the composition of the show book. Attention to detail makes or breaks a show, and music is an important detail.
In a post I wrote last August on the importance of the walk-in, I wrote:
Music is not background noise. We take special care in creating the mix used during the walk-in. The songs are not selected because they match our locale (we didn’t play country in Texas or zydeco in New Orleans), and they are not selected because they are songs our members like (our members are probably more country and adult contemporary oriented).
February 25, 2006
In San Diego
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I’m in San Diego for the ASAE Great Ideas Conference for the next few days and will be posting at the Great Ideas blog with some of the usual suspects. Should be pretty lively.