It's the Time of Year for the Gold Circle Awards!

ASAE & The Center's Gold Circle Awards are back, providing you and your organization opportunities to be recognized for outstanding efforts in communications. Sponsored by ASAE & The Center's Communications Section Council, the 2010 awards reflect the best in association communications during the 2009 calendar year.

So why should you enter? There are really six reasons...

• Gain recognition for your organization’s communication excellence
• Receive a stunning crystal trophy
• Use of the 2010 Gold Circle Award logo to promote in your award-winning communications
• Have your entry showcased in ASAE & The Center’s Online Knowledge Center
• Demonstrate your communications effective practices
• Have a chance to win a Council's Choice Award.

There are a number of categories for you to enter: Annual Report, Blog, Feature Article, General Association Web Site, Innovative Communications, Issue-Specific Web Site, Magazine, Media Relations Campaign, Newsletter, Peer Reviewed Journal and Podcast.

It only costs $100 per entry, but be sure to enter by the deadline of March 31. Oh, and if you're planning to enter, be sure to attend a best practices session led by the Gold Circle Awards Committee of the Communications Section Council that is being planned for March 18 in DC. More information will be made available in the coming week or two.

As a member of the Council, I hope that you take a few moments to enter today!

How NOT to Fundraise...

So I was on my way home earlier this evening from a quick trip to the store, and I saw an odd number on my phone with my old hometown's area code. I answered reluctantly, and heard the following:

"Hi Bruce, this is (INSERT NAME HERE), and I'm calling on behalf of the (INSERT COLLEGE NAME HERE) University volleyball team. I wanted to see if you wanted to donate money to us."

That was it. Literally... That was the pitch. Couple problems with it though...

1. I didn't go to said university (although I do regularly give to their Foundation to a specific fund named for a friend of mine who passed away)...
2. I am not a huge volleyball fan, nor have I ever gone to one of this university's volleyball games.
3. Aside from the fund named for my friend, I have no affinity to this university...

So, here are a few recommendations I have for associations on how to avoid such issues:

1. Ensure There's an Affinity - If trying to raise money, be sure the person you're calling has some semblance of an affinity toward what you're raising money for. (i.e. if it's for your leadership programming, they should have received some kind of leadership training already...)
2. Train Your Fundraisers - Be sure the people who are asking for the money are trained and know what they're doing. The girl who called was a member of the team, which while more personal, was just not someone who should be doing it. She likely had little training, and what if I had asked her about a very specific part of the university I WAS interested in supporting? She wouldn't have been able to effectively answer me.
3. Be Careful of Your Data - I wonder if the Foundation of the university provided my information to this team with knowledge of what they were doing? It seems as though the Foundation would not want to potentially lose a regular donor because of something like this...
4. Mine the Data - If the university would have done its due diligence, they would have known I had no interest in supporting a volleyball team of a school I never went to.

All in all, I'm still going to support the very specific fund that I do every year since it holds a very dear place in my heart. However, I have lost some respect for the institution because of this episode. Will your members lose respect in you? I think if you follow the tips above, they won't...

This May be Blasphemy, But...

I don't get Foursquare. There, I said it. I know it's the big thing these days, but I just personally don't see the value in it for me. Everyday on Twitter I see that everyone is unlocking all these buttons, becoming mayors of places, and developing their own online kingdoms or whatever... For me, it's noise.

A usual complaint I hear from non-Twitter users is that they don't understand why you want to know what someone had for lunch today. As a Twitter user, I know that's not what people who get followers tweet about, but to me, this is almost the same thing. Why do I personally care that Joe Schmo who I'm following became the Mayor of Starbucks in Timbuktu? Why do I personally care that Jane Doe frequents Kroger in Islamabad? I don't...

Now, while I don't personally find value in the tool right now, I was thinking about how associations may be able to use it to their benefit, and as far as my sometimes small brain can tell, there may be some potential uses. Here are a few that I thought about:

• Gathering Data on Members - Perhaps you find out through Foursquare data collection that one of your volunteers is the Mayor of his local Starbucks. You are able to then provide that person with a more personalized recognition (like a Sbux gift card) if necessary, than you would if you didn't have this information...
  
• Gathering Members Together in a Regular Location - I don't know... Perhaps you are able to find out by mining the data collected from Foursquare that a large number of your members frequent the same location in NYC. Perhaps you have a networking event there since you know they're already congregating in that specific location...
• Annual Meeting/Expo Usage - Perhaps you can use Foursquare to have members visit certain parts of your Annual Meeting or Trade Show floor by allowing people to become Mayors and unlocking buttons at specific vendor booths or rooms...
  

Now, the first two uses would only be good if you were easily able to gather and then mine the data from Foursquare. I don't know how easy that would be, nor do I think that many associations have the manpower (or womanpower) to do this at this point. What other potential uses are there for associations that I'm not thinking about?

So, my questions to you...

1. What am I missing about this phenomenon?
2. Why do you use it/like it so much, and what is the value add for you?

Help me understand!! Thanks as always for reading...