Smart Blog – The Smart Association

Hey … let’s get engaged

March 2, 2022

Nonprofit associations need to do more with less. That’s an even bigger challenge today given post-COVID staffing shortages and tighter budgets. So, who do you turn to for help when members continue to expect the world and demand you deliver it? Smart Association Management … that’s who! Engaging members is key to the success of every association. It’s how you show value and earn loyalty. That’s why it’s important for organizations to get it right, from onboarding to everything that…

Fall in consideration

September 21, 2020

Jen Gordon

General

On the cusp of a new season amidst COVID, I look to fall with fresh perspective. Always my favorite season of the year, I revel in the changing leaves, football (Go Bears!) and the chance to bust out the crock pot from a summer slumber. Fortunately, these hallmarks of the season remain. But there’s space for something new this season and that’s a growing comfort with constant change and flexibility. How far we’ve come from March and the start of spring…

Come on and Zoom, Zoom, zooma-Zoom

September 10, 2020

Carol Yale

Virtual Meetings

If you were a kid in the 70s, or even the late 90s and early 2000s, you may remember ZOOM, a show on PBS that encouraged kids and other viewers to just “turn off the TV and do it!” That advice still holds up, particularly as many of us continue to work and go to school from home due to COVID-19 containment efforts. I was thinking about that advice during a recent virtual meeting on a different kind of Zoom.…

In times like these, find comfort in the familiar

July 24, 2020

Jay Lyon

General

I remember riding around in the back seat of my Dad’s 1970 Ford Mustang. It would be a Friday or Saturday night, and often my brother Jeff and I would be involved in parental dates – sometimes my parents’ “dates” consisted of driving us around for hours, because they couldn’t afford a babysitter. That was the start of how I came to love the Beatles. We would listen to their albums on 8-track, driving around and all singing the whole…

How are you welcoming new members?

June 5, 2020

Tammy Foshay

Member Engagement

When a new member joins an association, they may feel a little disconnected and unsure of how to get involved. The key is to provide a welcome that they will connect with and remember. This is the very first impression of your organization and as we all know; we can only make one first impression! I recently became a new member of an industry association. While it can be a little intimidating to join a new group – that that…

When it comes to running effective board meetings, does something smell fishy around here?

April 13, 2020

Jay Lyon

Board Meetings

You know the drill: the agenda was distributed late (if at all). The action items are vague, and many of them aren’t even action items (more on that later). Expectations haven’t been set in order to hold everyone accountable. Yep, you’re about to head into another board meeting that could have been a board phone call or an email. What’s worse, you don’t even know what time the meeting will end (will you be late to pick up your 7-year-old…