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!

Something Cool Coming Down the Pike...

So I inadvertantly came across the demo from the Google I/O Conference that took place recently. Although it is very long, check it out up to the 40 min. mark to see some really neat things that will be available later this year.



There are SO MANY possible applications for associations. From editing and collaborating on documents in a live environment to utilizing the wave for sharing real-time comments on a blog or on photos, the capabilities that will be made available are endless.

So often we hear that associations are behind the for-profit world in embracing technological advances and social media tools. We now know this new awesome platform is going to be coming later this year. Let's figure out how we can make the most of it and share it with our fellow association professionals!!

Associations in a Down Economy: Talking the Talk or Walking the Walk?

So lately, it seems as though the doom and gloom has been everywhere! Ebeneezer Scrooge has multiplied by about a million, and they all seem to have a radio or television show...

However, in what should be no surprise to association professionals and executives, I am here to tell you that I (as well as many of you Association bloggers) believe associations are MORE IMPORTANT in a down economy than people/members may think. The problem as I see it is that we need to be letting our members know it and we need to be backing up this claim!

I posted a few months back now about things we should be doing to prepare for the down economy, and that there are many opportunities at which we should be looking.

As I re-read that post, I thought to myself "is cutting programs and outdated communication vehicles really an opportunity?" The answer is yes in terms of keeping the association viable, but not really in terms of providing tangible benefit to members in difficult times.

So in this post, I guess I wanted to try to come up with a few ways that associations can become MORE IMPORTANT to your members in these difficult times:

1. Make Networking Easy -- Networking is a HUGE benefit of membership in most associations, so how can your group provide ways for your members to find its value in this down economy? Are components offering local get-togethers? If so, promote them! Can you use social media tools like a group on LinkedIn to enhance networking? If you don't have one, start one!

2. Supplement Professional Education Offerings with Personal Development Programming - While your association might be more professional in nature and offer CEUs and other ed opportunities in a professional sense, there is always value in providing personal development programming for your members. Just think - your association offers a personal development program on "resume writing" for people who haven't updated resumes in years. They see the value, and have more loyalty because of it, which talks directly to a recent post by Ben Martin about being ready for when the economy turns around. You have kept a member by helping them when they needed it.

3. Communicate Regularly About What You're Doing to Assist - Members won't know what you can offer unless you are telling them about it. Promote the things you're doing on your web site and through your other regular communication vehicles.

What other ways are your associations stepping up and providing value to your members in this down economy? What am I missing?

What do you think about my not so bold claim above that associations are more beneficial during economic downturns? Are we talking the talk or walking the walk in helping our members through this?

Are there any associations out there doing cool programming that you can share with others?

As Mike Myers used to say on Saturday Night Live, "I'll give you a topic... Associations: talking the talk or walking the walk... Discuss..."

Salary Requirements/Human Resources Question

I was reading another blog recently, Newly Corporate (for new professionals in business), and they had a post about salary negotiations, and when it's appropriate to bring up salary in the interviewing process. I have always found this to be an interesting topic.

One of the questions in the comments that arose was "what do you do when a company says that you MUST submit your salary requirements with your resume?" An interesting question indeed that talks about a recruiting practice that puts the applicant at an immediate disadvantage by having to be the first to name a number...

I find it interesting that many times when an organization or company puts that in their position description, they will not provide a salary range within it so the applicants know whether they're in the same ballpark. To me, that is not a good practice due to the fact that in some instances, the applicant will put in a lot of time honing their message for their cover letter and tailoring their resume to the position (if they're smart), and it will end up being a waste of time because they didn't know that they were nowhere near the range of the position to which they were applying...

I posted in a comment to the post that if a company or organization is requiring you to provide your salary requirements, they should also be willing to provide you the salary range for the position if you ask.

Now the questions that will hopefully bring it back to associations:

• Am I right?
• Has anyone recently pursued a position in which you were required to provide a salary requirement in your application materials but didn't know the salary range of the position?
• What did you do?
• Is this practice appropriate?
• Does your association or organization use this practice in recruiting talent, and if so, how does it work?

Why Do YOU Work for Associations?

So I was communicating with my brother recently by text message, our new preferred way of communicating now that I have a bigger cell plan, and I was telling him about an exciting interview I had just done with one of our very high ranking and important members who is a high ranking executive for a professional sports team.

He texted me back "why don't you use all of these connections you have to work for a professional sports team?" (shocking considering he is a sports writer and blogger...) I texted him back saying "because I work in associations, and I WANT to work in associations for my career."

I cannot type his expletive-laced response here for fear that it will turn off my earliest readers, but I'll just say that he let me have it about my assertion that I want to work in the association world for my career.

I guess I just don't get it... I have a love for association work. He has a love for writing, designing newspaper pages, and talking about sports. To each his own, right?

Personally, my reasoning for working in associations is that I get tremendous satisfaction out of knowing that I am making a difference for the members, for helping to develop the next batch of leaders through my words that I write on paper and in cyberspace, as well as the work I am doing elsewhere in the association. And I think I'm darn good at what I do... What's wrong with that? Plus, the added bonus is that I have been able to make personal connections with some of our highest ranking members, AND made personal connections between those members, which enhances their positive feelings about the association. These are things I am passionate about - helping people find the value in the organization for which I work, and feeling like I am doing something that is bettering others.

Have you ever had anyone ask you why you're working in the association or non-profit world? What has been your response?