Creating Cheap Member Benefits
With the downturn in the economy, we have encouraged our volunteers to trim budgets and decrease spending. Our staff researched several free, high-quality tools for their use - this way, the members do not see a decrease in benefits. This being said, frequent use of free services may decrease the association's credibility, so we encourage volunteers to use better options in better financial times.
Some examples we shared include:
www.weebly.com - create customizable, attractive Web sites for free
Yahoo Groups - create bug-free listservs for members
freeconferencecall.com - hold conference calls at no expense to the organizer
If you have additional recommendations, please share.
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Comments
I have been happy using Google Documents to collaborate on the development of policies with geographically dispersed groups of member volunteers. It doesn't cost anything, and is at least as easy to use as more expensive collaboration tools.
Posted by: Robert H. Rich, Ph.D., CAE | October 31, 2008 10:04 AM
That's a great recommendation! Some members of my association recently requested a SharePoint site - this is a more affordable option!
I found some additional recommendations:
While not a direct member benefit, this does help members remain happy. You can shrink long urls into short, easy-to-remember urls - http://tinyurl.com/
I've also seen several instances where GoToWebinar/GoToMeetings create affordable deals for associations.
Posted by: Katie Paffhouse | October 31, 2008 11:20 AM
I've found a great, free site that helps you organize volunteers for an event easily, and with one email. You send out a template, they sign up, and instantly see what spots are already taken, so no "back and forth" to figure this stuff out. Everyone is working from the same "page". This also works for bringing items to an event ie folding tables and chairs, etc. It is called www.Jooners.com.
Posted by: Joy Clark | November 16, 2008 5:48 PM
And here's one for sharing idea through a Swipe File http://tinyurl.com/5a35d7 - found this on Write to Done one of my new fav blog reads.
Also, consider tools like CollectiveX which is a different social media/collaborative area. I find it good for active discussions, sharing links and documents.
I also am just now playing with Wikispaces for building a knowledge base for one of our AMC clients Maryland Recyclers Network.
Posted by: Peggy Hoffman | November 17, 2008 9:12 AM
An ASAE member and frequent contributor to the ExecMgmt listserve, Beth Ziesenis, has a great website where she posts and updates her list of "Free and Low Cost Tools Your Organization Can't Live Without". I've found several great tech tools on the list, including those mentioned by the posters above. Her site is www.AvenueZ.net. I've heard Beth speak at a couple of events and she's really interesting and informed.
Posted by: Alberta Hultman | November 26, 2008 6:07 PM