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I believe in the importance of admitting when I’m wrong—so I have to issue a mea culpa. A few months ago, Jeff De Cagna started a conversation about why more association execs don’t read and subscribe to blogs. I commented that ease of use might be an issue; I read many blogs, but I didn’t subscribe to any, because I found the subscription process to be very unintuitive.

Jeff recommended that I give Google Reader a try. He even provided a link to some very detailed instructions he had written on how to set up a Reader account. But I never made the time to experiment with the Google Reader system until a few weeks ago.

Well, I have to say that Jeff was right: Google Reader is a godsend if you want (or need) to follow multiple blogs. Once you get your account set up and enter the blogs you’re interested in into the system, you can see any updates instantly. Just glance at your Google Reader page and you’ll see an updated blog’s name in bold (or see the new entry on your “All Items” page, if you prefer).

The process of setting up the account and subscribing to all of the blogs I was interested in took about 20 minutes, all told, but it was time very well spent for me.

So, thank you, Jeff! And to those of you who feel like you’d like to follow certain blogs more closely but don’t have the time, consider setting aside a half-hour someday soon to set yourself up with Google Reader. I bet you’ll find that it’s much easier to participate in discussions concerning your association (and associations in general).