Blog
Ask Better Questions
I recently had the opportunity to participate in Association Charrette, a project of Vista Cova, facilitated by Lowell Apelbaum. Most commonly used in design focused industries (architecture, urban planning, landscaping), charrettes “…serve as a way…
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Research and Information Literacy – Learning More
Would you like to learn more about how you can improve your information literacy and become a more discerning and knowledgeable consumer and sponsor of research? Caveat Emptor co-author Polly Karpowicz and I recently had…
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Top Ten
All in one post/place! 10. Five Tips for Success with Ad Hoc Volunteers Original Post (2014) Updated Post (2022) 9. Why Is Membership the Only Relationship? Original Post (2013) Updated Post (2022) 8. Membership 101:…
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1: Membership 101: The Welcome Series
And finally, coming in at #1 in the Spark All-Time Top 10 Blog Posts (and it wasn’t even close): Membership 101: The Welcome Series. First written more than five years ago, this post remains the…
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2: Strategic Planning v. Strategic Thinking
We’re almost at the end of the revisiting of the top ten all-time Spark blog posts in honor of Spark’s tenth anniversary! Coming in at the #2 spot: Strategic Planning v. Strategic Thinking. In the…
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3: Getting the Most Out of Your Consulting Partnerships
Coming in at Number Three in the all-time Top 10 Spark blog posts: Getting the Most Out of Your Consulting Partnerships. (And it garnered a lot of pingbacks, which is probably one of the reasons…
Read More →Association Meetings in a Post-Roe World
On Tuesday, October 11, Shelly Alcorn hosted Joan Eisenstodt and me on The Phoenix Cast for an important conversation about association meetings in a post-Roe world. Just as meetings are starting to recover from pandemic shutdowns, new (and…
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4: Five Ways NOT to Brainstorm
The 4th most popular blog post on the all-time top ten list is an unexpected entry: Five Ways NOT to Brainstorm. Written almost exactly eight years ago, it was intended to be funny and a…
Read More →Being Responsible About Research
In this final post celebrating the launch of Caveat Emptor: Becoming a Responsible Consumer of Research, I want to talk about why this matters. Why do association execs need to develop discernment about research, both…
Read More →Curiosity with a Purpose
As Zora Neale Hurston described it: Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. When you’re sponsoring a research study, one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make is what…
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