You'll find some real conversation-starters among the links submitted to AssociationJam.org in November 2009.
Here are the Top 10 association stories that were voted up by Association Jam readers this month — one for each of the topic categories, and one bonus link that came in a close second, just for fun!
Membership
What Message Does Your Association's New Member Packet Send? | Senterline
"The new member packet is one of the most important touches an association has with its members... do you even know the last time the packet was reviewed? In the packets I received, it was very clear which associations were eager to get me involved and which ones were just mailing it in."
Events
How Associations Use Social Media for Meetings | Sue Pelletier | Meetings Net
How do associations use social media for their meetings? Here are the results of a July 2009 survey of 325 associations, conducted by Omnipress.
Leadership
Key Questions for Board and Senior Staff | Anne W. Ackerson| Leading By Design
"A series of discussion questions that we think will encourage board members to dig deeper into how to apply established responsibilities to the institution."
Volunteers
The Surge of Volunteerism | Peggy Hoffman | Mariner Management
Good news for associations and nonprofits: volunteering is alive and well in the US. But there's one other message: volunteerism is triggered by the need to be needed. "And that's a message that we don't listen to nearly enough."
Fundraising
Top 10 Ways to Screw up Your Year-End Fundraising Campaign | Gail Perry | Step by Step Fundraising
Gail Perry's top 10 list of common mistakes made by fundraisers...
Social Media
Association Social Media #Fail | Maggie McGary| Mizz Information
"Sell access to your association's Twitter feed -- revenue generator or bad idea? I'm going with bad idea."
Fun
The Stupidest Article About Social Media Ever | Kevin Nalts | Silicon ANGLE
"I have no specific credentials to write about social media, but I did some Google searches 30 minutes ago and now I’m calling myself an expert. Since social media is new, you’ll have a hard time refuting that claim.... Let me start by plagiarizing Wikipedia’s definition of social‐media because I’m too lazy to paraphrase it or actually read it..."
Technology
How to Use Google Wave | Gina Trapani & Adam Pash | CompleteWaveGuide.com
The Complete Guide to Google Wave is an unofficial user manual for Google Wave, "launched October 31st, 2009, exactly one month after the Google Wave preview became available to a limited number of users. At launch, the guide contained eight fully-written chapters and two appendices (about 90 pages printed)....
In the spirit of Google Wave, this guide is a collaborative
effort. We need you (yes, you) to help revise and expand this guide as
Wave evolves."
Other
Top 5 Nonprofit Website Mistakes | Katya Andresen | Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog
Is your nonprofit's website guilty of any of these top five mistakes?
...and one more just for Fun!
Twitter in Real Life -- A Parody | dspavlik on YouTube
Get linked...
If you’ve got a stand-out blog post, article, presentation, video, or other online resource to help associations and non-profits be more effective, add your story links at AssociationJam.org. Follow @associationjam on Twitter, to see which stories get voted up and onto the front page!