April, 2011 Archives

PayPal Pleasantly Surprises Me!

I recently had to process a refund through my PayPal account (first time ever!). The account I was refunding from had only that one transaction in it, so according to PayPal's rules, I would not be charged the usual fee and thus I could refund the full amount, which is what I did. Today I ...

New Article Posted – “Why can’t we just buy Access?”

I’ve posted a new article on my website. For any association staffer who has been through the process of trying to convince their board that it's time to invest in a new association management system, the question "Why do we need to spend so much money on a new database? Why can't we just ...

Manage Expectations By Establishing Them Clearly

I ordered a hand exercise product online last week. It was from a website that I stumbled across, and the product was what I was looking for. I placed my ordered and received an email confirmation of my order. And since then...nothing. No delivery of product, no notice of when to expect my ...

Are your lousy systems affecting staff retention?

I was working with a client on the selection of a new data management system. In one of our early conversations, we talked about the "costs" involved with maintaining the current database. The usual costs came up: direct costs like paying outside contractors to maintain and patch the database and ...

The REAL Test of a Good Idea…

...is in its implementation. Growing up I had a good friend who was a bit, how should I say, reckless. He LOVED doing crazy things, the crazier, the better. And typically, his antics started with "Hey, I've got a good idea..." One of his "good ideas" I remember most vividly involved his wearing a ...

Why “Finance” People are Difficult (and Sometimes Should Be)

I started work with a new client last week, and while talking to my contact about the staff I would be interviewing, my contact said: "Sally is our finance director. <pause> She's kind of difficult to work with." I always smile when I hear this, because it's a fairly common remark. And I ...

Reports vs. Queries – What’s the difference?

I'm always struck by the confusion that these two terms can create. This becomes most evident during software demos, when vendors are presenting their software to my clients. Clients will ask about "reporting" when they really mean "querying," and vice versa. In a nutshell, a query returns "raw ...

Measuring Member Engagement – The AMS Vendors Are Starting to Get It

In a few weeks I'll be speaking at ASAE's Marketing, Membership & Communications Conference. My session will be on leveraging your organization's AMS to improve marketing and communications efforts. One of the points I'm going to touch on is the need for associations to measure member ...