Author Archives: Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE
About Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE
Elizabeth Weaver Engel, M.A., CAE, is CEO and Chief Strategist at Spark Consulting LLC. Elizabeth has over 19 years of experience helping associations grow, in membership, marketing, communications, public presence, and especially revenue, which is what Spark is all about. She speaks and writes frequently on a variety of topics in association management. When she's not helping associations grow, Elizabeth loves to dance, listen to live music, cook, garden, and blog about the Philadelphia Eagles.Calling All ASAE Allies
Guest blog from my Include Is a Verb co-author, Sherry Marts (S*Marts Consulting) A couple of weeks ago there was a fairly lengthy thread in the Executive Management Section on ASAE Collaborate, with the subject line “ASAE Committees/Sections Feedback” (member … Continue reading
Membership 101: Why Did They Join?
My last membership 101 blog post addressed the question: how do I know when it’s time to ask a prospect to join my association? The answer was: by studying your data. Data can tell you when is the right time to … Continue reading
Walking Your Talk on D+I
For those of us who are “on the bus” on the value of genuine diversity and inclusion, this is the crux of the matter: how do we effectively walk our talk on D+I? We have to work from the inside … Continue reading
Why Do Our D+I Efforts Fall Short?
Our D+I efforts fail for a number of reasons: Beautiful statements and a handful of ghettoized programs don’t fundamentally change behavior. We create “goals” that are not actionable and have no measures attached. Every single person has implicit biases – … Continue reading
What Makes the Association D+I Environment Unique?
In short, relationships. Most of the focus on diversity and inclusion in the for-profit world is on staff and, to a lesser degree, boards of directors (which, of course, only some for-profit companies have). The association operating environment is much … Continue reading
Key Concepts in Diversity and Inclusion
As Joe Gerstandt points out in his sidebar in Include Is a Verb: Moving from Talk to Action on Diversity and Inclusion, clarity is key. We need a shared and widely understood vocabulary of “concise, clear, actionable language” in order to make … Continue reading
Include Is a Verb
Associations know the research that the Millennial generation that is rapidly becoming the majority of our workforce and membership base is the most diverse generation we’ve ever had in the US – and that the yet-to-be-named generation coming up behind … Continue reading
Membership 101: How Do I Know When To Ask?
My last membership 101 post ended: You continue to do that [make offers] for a few cycles, THEN ask her to marry you, once you both know it’s right. Which begs the question: how do you know when is the right … Continue reading
Membership 101: Ladder of Engagement
As I discussed in the last post in this series, membership is all about relationship building. The mechanism you use to build that relationship is the ladder of engagement. Simply put, just like you wouldn’t ask someone to marry you … Continue reading
DC’s Capital Area Food Bank Needs Your Help!
I was at my regular volunteer gig at CAFB this morning, and the shelves are BARE, y’all. It’s typical for donations to fall off after the holidays, and more than once, I’ve gotten a call before my June or July … Continue reading
