Acronym

Happy Thursday! Here's some of the latest and greatest reading from the association blogging community and elsewhere:

- On the Coulter Companies blog, Thomas Coulter Gibson writes about the big impact of small gestures of kindness, and lists his top 10 "small kindnesses." What would you add to his list?

- On a related note, Bill Taylor asks, "Why is it so hard to be kind?"

- Rebecca Leaman suggests one possible cause of member retention issues: other members.

- Carol-Anne Moutinho points out another potential culprit: engagement erosion (or, put another way, too many hands for too few volunteer opportunities).

- Jamie Notter and Acronym's own Joe Rominiecki kicked off a discussion on collaboration last week. Mark Bledsoe as AssociationOkie adds his thoughts on why people sometimes don't collaborate when they could (or should).

- Jeff Cufaude picks a fight with Yoda. (Apparently he never saw Yoda's big lightsaber duel scene in Attack of the Clones.)

- Rebecca Rolfes wonders if "efficiency" and "productivity" are really just euphemisms for "understaffing."

- Blue Avocado's Jan Masaoka posted a very useful example of a board-staff agreement around issues of financial accountability.

- David Gammel at the High Context blog suggests a simple plan that could help you fast-forward improvements to your website.

- The Nieman Journalism Lab has an interesting post summarizing a report from the Society of Professional Journalists' Digital Media Committee on how SPJ can stay relevant in the digital era. While their conclusions are intended for an association of journalists, I think much of what they have to say can apply to other associations as well.

- Bruce Hammond takes a look at some career advice that he used to follow and wonders if it's still a good idea.