Acronym

I thought social media month was great--it was nice to have a theme to follow through several posts. Helped me identify and think through the hot buttons. I think social media month bears repeating. I'd also like to see discussions on governance (or ungovernance), greening, creating great conference and event experiences, product innovation...and something I haven't thought of yet.

Lisa, I think Acronym has grown to play an important role as the "central blog" about association management and congratulate all of you for what you've done so far. I like the way Acronym has become a "grab bag" of different voices about associations and how a lot of different ground is covered.

At the same time, I also like "theme months" because they give a little bit of editorial focus, so more of those -- they don't necessarily have to be as broad as "social media month" -- would be welcome. It's nice to have a running series for continuity sake (it also encourages regular reading from folks who may not necessarily be regular blog readers).

I would also find it useful to see some more regular "nuts and bolts" posts. Those of us who write blogs all too often feel like we're supposed to be writing "big thoughts" or opinion pieces. Often a good tip, or explanation of a simple technique, can make for a much more interesting post.

Finally, if looking for guest bloggers, I think it would be interesting to see some of them come from the ranks of ASAE staff -- senior staff even -- in addition to the regular magazine editorial staff.

Thanks for asking, and congrats again to all of the Acronym bloggers and best wishes for a successful 2008.

Lisa, here are some ideas:
1. Stuff not being covered: There is a general lack of commentary about governmental affairs. I'd like to hear about ASAE political/regulatory stuff, especially the new 990. What are ASAE's standing regulatory and legislative positions are along with explanations of why certain positions were taken. What is ASAE's stance on 527 organizations like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and MoveOn.org? Other stuff to consider: Call attention to ASAE press releases, not copy & pasting, but just letting readers know when something new has been released. Cross-reference conversations happening on the ASAE listservs, do an Associapedia Entry of the Month, and discuss research projects in progress.

2. What to do more of? Multimedia - post some audio and video into the blog, if only YouTube embeds or similar. Supplemental materials from Associations Now like text from interviews that didn't make it into the magazine, audio recorded during interviews, etc. Maybe a live chat once a month.

3. What to do less of? The content here is so varied, it would be hard to do less of any one thing.

4. Guest bloggers: Susan Sarfati, Mark Levin, Kevin Whorton, the Chief Staff Officer from a state or local SAE, Andy Steggles, Chip Deale, Clarke Price, Peter O'Neill, Mark Golden, and Chris McEntee.

All the best to you and the entire ASAE & The Center staff!

I'd echo the positive feedback about themed entries, but would like to suggest a shorter timeframe than a month. That's a very long time in blog world and I missed posts related to other topics during those four weeks.

I'd be interested most in guest bloggers who can contribute underrepresented perspectives or who are not the usual suspects, as valuable as the thinking of those folks can be.

I also would like to see a few folks charged with posting their respective opinions around a provocative question or assertion ... not a debate per se, but a thoughtful give and take via posts.

I agree with Kevin that Nuts and Bolts posts are good. I too would like to see entries from unusual suspects. I think seeing posts from people who do not have their own blogs (CEOs, ASAE Staff, etc.) would be interesting.

Another idea is to involve the other association related blogs more. Many of the best discussions have happened when cross-posting of other's blogs has happened with injected comments and feedback. Acronym has the ability to bring in a wider audience for other blogs out there that people may not know about.

The real opportunity I think is that Acronym could (and maybe should) be the centralized point of association blogging (similar to www.blogoclump.com).

I like Ben's idea about using Acronym to put out extras (interviews, etc.)

Lastly, I agree themes are a good idea, but maybe more bi-weekly than monthly.

Wonderful feedback Lindy, Kevin, Ben, & Jeffrey! Appreciate it very much.

For anyone else reading through these comments: We'd love your feedback as well.

I think one of the things each of the comments raise is adding some element of structure. Not necessarily a lot, but just a pinch here and dash there. That's certainly something we've been looking at recently.

Both Kevin and Lindy make the call for some posts that lean more practical rather than theoretical. I think it's an excellent point, though my, and I think most of the other bloggers, gravitate toward the theoretical. That's something we'll have to monitor and be mindful of. (And Kevin - senior staff? Really? Have you met the people on our senior staff?) (Geez, I'm just kidding... can I have my job back please?)

Ben - I'm having a hard time reconciling some of your suggestions with one of the goals of Acronym, which is that it be about the association management profession, not about ASAE & The Center. We've been fortunate in that it has been rare that the blog has strayed in that direction. The PR and GR seem especially close to slippery slope material. I've wondered recently if ASAE & The Center should have a blog focused on organizational activities, providing a formal place for those dialogs to happen... but I'd want that separate and apart from Acronym.

Any thoughts out there?

Lisa, one thing I would like to see is a photo for each person who posts.

You have to figure that there are at least three groups who visit your blog: (1) "insiders" who know the posters by name, (2) people from member associations who know about ASAE & The Center but who may not know the writers, and (3) people who come in via a search whose connection with ASAE & The Center is weaker than the first two.

In all three cases I think it makes sense to associate a face with a post. Perhaps one goal is to move people from group (3) into one of the first two groups. If so, creating a more recognizable personality for the blog -- by making contributors more recognizable -- is one way to contribute to establishing and strengthening an ongoing relationship.

Dennis

Scott, I think you are very right to suggest that it is important to have clear and distinguishing editorial policies for all of ASAE & the Center's (or anyone's)publications, including Acronym. That is certainly what most of us do with our own association publications.

I like the thought that Acronym is about the profession (OK, include the theory and practice, if that helps) of association management. It's not about the policies and operations of an organization called ASAE & the Center (in my judgement).

If ASAE wants (or needs) a publication or blog on its aspirations and performance concerning business and governance operations, that's a fine idea. But brand it and locate it so that there's a clear (transparent) purpose for one and all to understand about the publication.

That may help to ensure clarity about who is speaking, for what purpose and why. Of course, I could be wrong.

Scott, ASAE & The Center is an inseparable part of the association management profession. In many ways it is like a proxy for the association management profession. What y'all do profoundly affects all of us, and despite ASAE's recent best efforts, there are still transparency issues to overcome. As David Gammel, CAE says in his post (see link below), not blogging about association initiatives would be a missed opportunity.
http://www.highcontext.com/hcarchives/2008/01/04/what-should-asae-blog-about/

I don't disagree with the suggestion that that conversation could be separated from this one.

Lisa, Acronym is no small undertaking, yet is solidly executed day after day, and I appreciate the balancing act it takes to get it done.

For me, the best posts have been the reflections and nudges from you and others who work on the magazine. Scott Briscoe is developing a distinctive voice and I am delighted to hear it. But where's Peter Hutchins and the Journal?

The simplest suggestion is that Acronym have a bit more of what Brian Williams brings to "The Daily Nightly" blog. I want to know who is saying what, not just what they are saying. I want to know what didn't make the print version, and why; what you wish you could cover, and why not.

Acronym could be the human, interactive, messy dimension of Asociation Now and the Journal. We could really hear the the voices of the editors, the writers, the feature authors, blogger columnists, and readers now neatly packaged and tidied up by copyediting.

Between the Journal and the magazine, Acronym would balance the big ideas with small useful tips, Web 3.0 aspirations with email tactics, while avoiding ponderous grandstanding and list-serv pile-ons at all costs!

Readers would get a wider variety of topics, as the editorial calendar changes, and it would be an extension of the editors work not an extra burden. It could deal with issues editors are grappling with months before publication as well as reflections after on what was overlooked or underappreciated.

Blog on, but above all, continue to make sure we don't take ourselves too seriously.

Cheers,
Ann Oliveri

Let me echo Scott's thanks to everyone who's posted so far. This feedback is invaluable, and I feel so grateful that Acronym has so many readers who will take the time to post so thoughtfully about what we can be doing to make this blog more valuable for association professionals.

Dennis, I definitely think you're on to something with regard to making Acronym bloggers more recognizable. Maybe we could add some links in the sidebar to more information about our bloggers, too. It would be fun if we did something different from a traditional, here-are-the-titles-of-all-the-jobs-I've-held bio (keeping in mind Ann's advice to not take ourselves too seriously).

Speaking of which, Ann, thank you for your comments as well. We actually are planning one way to start utilizing the conversational possibilities of Acronym in partnership with the magazine--see your March Associations Now for more information!--but there's definitely more that we can be doing, and your comment gives us some great food for thought in that regard.

With regard to Ben and David's suggestions for using blogging to increase ASAE & The Center's transparency as an organization--I really do like the idea of doing this as a separate blog (although it's nothing I can definitively promise on behalf of ASAE & The Center, of course). I seem to recall that Jason Della Rocca's association was going to launch an operational blog like this ... Jason, if you read this, are you guys still planning to (or have you already) launched that blog?

Keep comments brief. Short thoughts, ideas, and explanations of links are more preferable - and more likely to be read - than are dissertations about various issues.

I like the idea of a separate blog about ASAE as an organization. At the same time, I still wouldn't mind seeing posts by ASAE staff (like you Scott and Lisa) talking about what they do and their opinions on association stuff in general. ASAE is afterall an association too.

There are already many excellent comments here, so let me offer a few ideas that I think might be a different take on what's already been proposed:

1. I agree with those who like the idea of a thematic focus within a given month. At the same time, I also concur with the idea that a topic such as "social media" may be too broad to cover over a month. So what I would propose for Acronym is to choose a topic and then focus the conversation around that topic each week with a key question. This way, each week's conversation has some structure, and the month's conversation builds toward a clearer conclusion.

2. I agree that Acronym would benefit from a greater diversity of voices, but I don't think it needs to be an either/or proposition. It would be great to hear from Peter Hutchins, Greg Melia and other ASAE & The Center staff, and also SAE members, Future Leaders participants and DELP scholars. With a simple structure for how people blog (regular contributors, guest contributors, monthly contributors and so on), I think that will allow a more inclusive approach to be coherent as well. I also agree with the idea of using contributor photos either within posts or links to photos elsewhere on the Web.

3. I agree with Ben on the use of audio and video, and I would specifically suggest an Acronym (audio) podcast as a great addition to the blog.

4. I agree with Ann's suggestion that more integration between the blog and ASAE & The Center publications is a good idea. Indeed, I would suggest that Acronym evolve to become the blog of Associations Now, while the Journal launch a blog of its own. The two blogs can serve different purposes while pushing important conversations for the community as a whole.

5. In terms of specific guest blogger suggestions, I think we should make it a practice to include local contributors from the cities where the ASAE & The Center Annual Meeting is being held each year. If we can identify someone from an association in the San Diego area, I think that would be a big plus. We can also be looking ahead to include bloggers from other upcoming cities.

6. If Acronym can create a few feature posts, I think that would be cool. So, for example, perhaps a Week Ahead post that goes up each Monday or Nuts and Bolts every other Wednesday or something like that. I don't think there would need to be many of them to start, but it might help create some useful frames for broader content variety.

Should be covering more: legal, legislative/advocacy, mistakes, fundraising, meeting planning, trends - the rest of association management beyond social media, communications, management, HR and membership. Topics sometimes reflective of expertise or interest of individual bloggers

Need more: diversity in the association voices represented - currently, most have very similar demographics in age, experience and positions - sometimes generational discussions with everyone in same generation

Need less: theories, nicknames, acronymns (spell out organization names, etc.), ASAE trip reports lacking focus on what value content delivering to association professionals

Guest bloggers: Tom Dolan, John Graham, each Fellow from past 2 years (let us find out why they earned designation) - and they need to talk about something happening at THEIR OWN associations that would be helpful to others in association management profession

Great job Lisa. I do have a couple of suggestions:

1. Allow all members to blog - each blog would be attached to their profile and pull various blog postings into the acronym blogroll based on the ratings of the individual blogs. Also, the acronym would have a filter for the most highly rating and/or guess bloggers but this could be easily switched off to simply see the latest blog postings etc. There is a tremendous opportunity to easily expand member benefits.

2. Add a link to "Add Blog Entry" and link it to a page which says 'Sorry but you have to be invited etc.' - i'm sure many people are looking to blog and there is no indication that only invited persons can do it.

3. As Scott suggests, add photos which links to the individual's profile...

4. I agree with Ben that you should have more multi-media - perhaps video comments or even V-Blogs.

5. Please submit a session suggestion for an upcoming ASAE conference - on strategies for launching an association blog. You've done an incredible job and i'm sure you have lessons learned which others can benefit from.

Great job all,

Andy

p.s. Also, please add tags... and then allow people to create tag alerts.

Geez, I leave for a short vacation and miss out on a great thread!

Lest I rehash all that has been said, I want to name my top issues/suggestions:

1. Recruit bloggers from the Fellows, DELP and Future Leaders programs.
2. I enjoy the "blue sky" thinking posts, but I think I'd like to see a better proportion of "blue sky" to application.
3. I'd really like to see some discussion on diversity issues - within our profession, within society, within our respective associations. We can do something about diversity just as we can do something about social responsibility. In fact, I'd say they are tied together.
4. I love the idea of using photos for blog authors.
5. Discussion of implications of the upcoming elections? That could be risky, but certainly interesting...
6. Discussion of work-life balance issues... another area where we can have an impact.

Above all, I think you all have done a terrific job getting this off the ground. I look forward to checking in daily to see what's new! Great work!

David: You're absolutely right that shorter posts tend to be more attractive to many blog readers (I've seen a lot of discussion of this issue lately on blogs about blogging, believe it or not.) We encourage Acronym bloggers to keep their posts under 500 words, right now.

Jeff: I especially like the suggestions you have for adding some structure and the idea of including a local guest blogger for future Annual Meeting blogging. That could add a really neat perspective each year. (And hopefully help Acronym readers get the scoop on the best restaurants in each convention city!)

Cindy: I appreciate your list of areas where we need more coverage (and where we could stand to have less). You're absolutely right that our topic mix reflects the interests of our current bloggers, which is why we need to keep an eye out for the right guest bloggers to expand that mix. Not that a communications person would never do a finance post, or a CEO might never do a legal post, but people do tend to blog what they know.

Andy: I definitely think we can do more to clarify what Acronym is and our approach to blogging here. I think an "About Us" page could provide a lot of that information--that's something I should get cracking on soon.

I did have a question about your second comment: Right now, we have tags in the sense that each blogger can choose from a list of potential subject areas and tag his/her post with one or more of them; the list of subject areas appears in the right-hand sidebar, and if you click on a subject area you see every blog post that was marked with the tag in question. Is that what you meant by tagging? What other tagging options would you like to see us add?

We do not have tag alert functionality yet, but I can definitely suggest that.

Kristi: I like the blue sky posts too, but you're absolutely right that it's all about proportion. Some of our readers are all about theory and some are all about practicality, and I'm sure most fall somewhere in the middle. We should work to make sure we don't get too overloaded with one kind of post or the other.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts!

Another observation for the good of the order. I see quite a few of the comments using the word "theory" (or variations thereof), and the need for there to be less of it on this blog. I read all of the posts on Acronym, and I've not seen anything that comes close to being in the category of theory. What I'm seeing are posts of a more strategic nature, and I don't think we should be reducing the number of them. If anything, I think there should be even more posts on Acronym that push our thinking and challenge us to question our assumptions.

While I totally agree that there can and should be more posts that explore the day-to-day challenges facing association leaders, it's important to keep in mind that when today's strategic challenges are not solved, we are sowing the seeds of future operational problems.

So, I don't think we should be proscribing what bloggers can write about in their posts. Acronym should not become an all-things-to-all-people blog.

Jeff, I certainly agree that we wouldn't tell our bloggers what to post--I don't think anyone would do their best blogging work that way. But I do think that by keeping our eye on the diversity of our bloggers, we will naturally bring in some folks who blog on the practical, nuts-and-bolts of association management, just because that's what interests them.

But no matter who we bring in to blog, we'll always be looking for bloggers who will challenge assumptions and push us toward new ways of thinking. That's one of the core editorial guidelines that we have for Acronym, and I don't see that changing.

I agree with lots and lots of the feedback that folks have given here. I just have to put in a plug for more nuts-and-bolts pieces. Scott you are right that people gravitate toward the theoretical, I think that's largely because people tend to feel sort of exposed talking about the way they execute things--much more messy, like what your bodyfat % is. But I think interviews would be an interesting bridge to get more of that practical angle.

Not much to add to all these great ideas/feedback, but here's my two cents anyway:

I like the theoretical/strategic posts, too. They could be made stronger, though, by providing more real-life examples of how the theories/strategies play out. Sometimes the conversation needs to come down to earth a little bit.

Yes to photos/bios/a little about who the posters are.

Yes to audio/video blogging!

Yes to expanding topics. I'll put in a bid for more meeting-planning posts, but then again, I would, wouldn't I? Also would love to see posts about diversity, how politics affect association management (internal and external).

Yes to having posts from others in the ASAE hierarchy.

Yes to creating some "blogoclumpic-friendly" topics that echo around with other association-related bloggers and hopefully expand the conversation beyond ASAE and The Center members/regular Acronym readers. Also, give some link love to new association bloggers whenever possible/reasonable to encourage them that it really is worth all the effort!

Love the show coverage, esp. the shoe report--nothing wrong with injecting a little fun every now and then.

All in all, keep up the good work. Acronym is one of my all-time favorite association blogs.

Here's my two cents. Acronym is the first place I send anyone who asks me "what's an association blog?". I think, as the "association of associations", you should bear in mind that you are the first stop for people new to the conversation. Therefore I think there should be an obvious link on the sidebar like "First time here? About Acronym" - which goes to a simple description of what it's all about, with maybe a list of who the regular Acronym bloggers are. A link I could send someone when I say, "check this blog out first".

I'd also add a tag cloud or maybe just make the tags more obvious. I remember thinking when I first started reading, that I couldn't really figure out what the general "theme" was - and of course now I know that's the whole point, that the discussions are about lots of different things, but I think, again from a first timer point of view, it would be cool to see at a glance the various topics of interest - and I think the labels list as it is doesn't really do that, somehow.

And finally, I'll just echo everyone who said, it would be great to have podcasts and video posts - I think you should be the frontrunner as well as the first stop! And yes to photos - social media allows us to get to know each other before we get to know each other, and having photos is an obvious way to make it all even friendlier!

Lisa wrote: I seem to recall that Jason Della Rocca's association was going to launch an operational blog like this ... Jason, if you read this, are you guys still planning to (or have you already) launched that blog?

Yup, that's still the plan. Sadly, delays with other tech infrastructure changes have put things on hold for the time being.

In short, all the org news and operational updates, etc, would get posted via this "org ops" blog. Also, we'd put up stuff like our board minutes, tax filings, approved budgets, all kinds of "internal" stuff as well. Chances are that most folks will not notice or care, but some will. And, the posts become a nice "paper trail" of transparent governance...

It would be like a stream of "system updates" - very little editorial in that sense.

Jason: Thank you so much for the update!

Nick, Sue, and Maddie, thank you all for your comments. I'm definitely seeing some solid themes emerging in this thread ... some of what is being suggested (like the idea of developing a helpful "About Acronym" page) could be done very quickly, and some would take more time (like video podcasts). But it's all great inspiration for moving Acronym forward.

I came here thinking "a bit more structure, more multimedia," etc, but clearly all of those points have all been covered well above. One model that might be of value with respect to a "theme" is the "Big Question" approach that they take over at Learning Circuits every month (See the current one at http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2007/12/predictions-for-learning-in-2008.html). Readers are asked to comment and/or post on their own blogs and link back.

On another front, my understanding is that there is no longer a formal connection between ASAE and the various state societies of association executives, but it seems like Acronym would be a good place to cultivate some participation from leaders of those organizations, most of which--as far as I can tell--are doing relatively little in the social media sphere.

Jeff

Lisa, I think 27 responses has to be some kind of blog record! Congratulations for a job well done. I'll bump it to 28 responses...can we make 30 responses? Great 2-way exchanges!

Better late than never, I'll weigh in: make that total 29 posts!

I can mostly only offer "me, too." The feedback given here is already so great. I especially like the ideas for pulling in people from other states, though who among the folks out here in OSAM land would post to an ASAE blog (besides me), I'm not sure, but concerted effort (as if Lisa, et al's efforts weren't concerted enough! They are!) to pull in writers from around the country would be yet another small way our community can reach out.

As to multimedia, one of my favorite non-professional blogs has a 'daily photo' and 'daily chuck' [chuck is her dog] feature. Wouldn't it be great if we had a way to post "the view from here" types of images, in addition to photos of the bloggers

I swear I'm not putting this in to hit the 30-response mark ...

Virgil: Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm overwhelmed by the great responses we've received to our request for feedback--Acronym readers are clearly a great group of folks!

Betsy: I absolutely agree that outside-the-Beltway writers are great to have--thank you for being one of them! We should always keep geographical representation in mind when we look for guest writers. I'd also like to see us do better in terms of representation from small associations and trade associations.

I also like your idea for "View From Here" photos--I'll have to look into how we could do that. I think photos and graphics add a lot to a blog, and it's not something we've done a ton of (although Jason Della Rocca in particular among our guest bloggers has been including images with his posts).