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.Membership 101: What IS “Engagement,” Anyway?
Association membership professionals, particularly in the last several years, talk about engagement A LOT. We want our members to be more engaged. We want to measure engagement. We want to score engagement. We want to reward engagement. We want to … Continue reading
Happy Fabulous Five, Spark!
Today marks five years since I launched Spark Consulting. As I look back on the past five years, I have much to be grateful for. Leading that list is all the people who’ve contributed to the success of this Big … Continue reading
Q&A on D&I
Did you miss the July 12 webinar my Include Is a Verb co-author Sherry Marts and I presented for the Wild Apricot Experts series on living your talk on D+I? Never fear! The recording is now available: Sherry and I got to … Continue reading
Membership 101: The Welcome Series
When last we left the Membership 101 series, you had just gotten a new member and were busy finding out why she joined so you could focus your marketing and communications efforts around those 2-3 things that matter most to … Continue reading
Moving From Talk to Action on Diversity and Inclusion
Does your organization have a compelling statement on diversity and inclusion that doesn’t seem to be reflected in your day to day operations? Don’t worry – lots of organizations face the same challenge. Join Sherry Marts (S*Marts Consulting) and me … Continue reading
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
