BlogClump - Blogging About Associations From a Gen Xer

In case you didn't catch it last year, I did some Google TV ads testing . Looks like they are doing a little more now.

I got an email from ASAE asking me to vote for sessions for the 2012 Marketing, Membership and Communications Conference. What a great idea. Crowdsourcing at its best. Having been involved in session selection for ASAE before, I am sure that the ones presented to the masses were a vetted list, eliminating the obvious ones that didn't fit/work. But why not ask the very folks who would be going to such a conference to pick their learning opportunities? Now the only problem is scheduling, so that people don't miss sessions they really want to see. I like choice in a time slot, just not TOO much choice.

Our mobile site is mobile.scranet.org. We had it for our meeting that took place last week. It didn't get much usage, but I attribute that to being new and us not publicizing it enough. I think we will see increased growth in usage as we roll it out at our other meetings and increase marketing of it. Having it run wordpress was really nice and flexible. Hopefully we can see more usage sooner rather than later. Any thoughts?

This is getting a little out of control. I measured 6 inches of rain last night that had accumulated in a 24 hour period. My grass is happy, but this is nuts. Took me 90 minutes to get home last night from work. I really wish I could divert all this to Texas. Which leads me to today's Friday question - what do you do when disaster strikes your members? Do you have a plan in place for contacting them, reaching out with aid, etc.?

I was bummed to miss ASAE2011, but from what I saw on Twitter and Blogs, I really missed out. Of course I missed the good info at the sessions. And I missed seeing what ASAE improved upon (which looks like many things). But I really missed seeing my association friends. You know who you are. I wouldn't be where I am today without you. Hopefully I see you soon!

Very rarely would I be sad to not go to St. Louis. But this is one of those times. I will miss #asae11 which is my first missed Annual in 6 years. I hope all the #yapstars have a great time. Can't wait to follow everything on Twitter.

It isn't anything new, but we are just dipping our toes in the mobile water. We created our first app late last year. This year I am building a mobile website for attendees to visit while on site at our meetings. Instead of spending thousands of dollars, I am doing it myself in house. Very simply, I am just buying a cheap hosting package and installing wordpress. I found a great free mobile theme and just put together a simple site with the schedule, session info, hotel and travel info and a place for daily announcements. There is also a Sponsor page to give sponsors some extra recognition. Total cost (besides my time) $100 a year.

I just attended Windpower 2011 last week. In the lobby of the Anaheim Convention Center, the conference had bins where attendees could donate their unused hotel toiletries and the conference facilitated getting them to homeless shelters and other organizations that needed them. Obviously this wouldn't work if you were doing a smaller meeting in a hotel, but for larger conventions held at convention centers, this is really cool. Sponsored Link: If you are looking for audio visual equipment rental , please click on the link.

I was proud to present at the 2011 ASAE Marketing, Membership and Communications Conference this week in DC. Over 800 attendees was a record for ASAE - Congrats! Our (@kikilitalien, @MissLynn13, @sterlingraphael ) was standing room only. We hope everyone enjoyed it. I can't wait to see our survey feedback. I am just sad I missed day 2. I love my fellow association peeps!

When I was in college, I hated Economics. Then, several years later, I found myself teaching undergrad Econ and learned an appreciation for it. Now today, I have an even bigger appreciation for it. I have also noticed that not enough people have a solid grasp of some basic econ concepts that can be applied to everyday life. Two of these are cost related. Here are some basic definitions from The Economist website : Sunk Costs - When what is done cannot be undone. Sunk costs are costs that have been incurred and cannot be reversed, for example, spending on ADVERTISING or researching a product idea. They can be a barrier to entry. If potential entrants would have to incur similar costs, which would not be recoverable if the entry failed, they may be scared off. Marginal Costs - The difference made by one extra unit of something. Marginal revenue is the extra revenue earned by selling one more unit of something. The marginal cost (or whatever) can be very different from the AVERAGE c

Just a quick example of how small the world gets when social media comes into play, and why you should cast a wider net. In the DC area, there is a fantastic store called Total Wine ( @totalwine ). As I am a frequent customer, I follow them on Twitter. I saw an intriguing tweet from them the other day complete with a link to a picture. Turns out the picture was of one of my members hauling something in Toronto. The member had started a Twitter account 10 days earlier specifically for that particular move and was sending Twitpics several times a day. I was then able to find press coverage about the move and connect to a member who is using Twitter as a business tool, something our membership isn't sure is possible. You just never know what you'll find on Twitter, but sometimes it is something useful you didn't know was there.

I read a tremendous article in Fast Company about gaming . Some stats I thought were key: 97% of 12-17 year old play computer games 70% of heads of American households do to Does your association offer any games? Should they? Mobile apps are the big thing everyone likes to talk about now. But what about games? They could be learning games, fun games, or games to draw in potential members. The article talks about what the Army has done on that front. Good article .