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This week's collection of interesting reads includes a pair of items about strategy and governance and a pair of case studies in handling challenging PR situations. Enjoy.

Strategic planning. Jan Masaoka at Blue Avocado begins a two-part series with an exploration of the common failures of strategic planning at nonprofit organizations. She promises some alternative approaches in the follow-up.

Effective boards. Virgil Carter at the Plexus Consulting Group blog shares five qualities of high-level governance.

Social media/PR crisis. Shannon Otto recaps how the Red Cross deftly handled a "rogue tweet" last week, when its Twitter manager sent what was supposed to be a personal tweet out through the Red Cross's account. The Red Cross managed to spin the episode into a fundraising meme.

Social media/PR crisis, part II. Maggie McGary points to a recent exchange between Forrester Research's Josh Bernoff and the Public Relations Society of America. Bernoff asked PRSA to strengthen its code of ethics; PRSA said no thanks. Maggie says PRSA "miss[ed] out on a huge social media opportunity." I'll let you decide, but either way it's a story that should make you think about how your association would react if called out by an influential blogger.

Conference engagement. Jeff Hurt shares six meeting engagement takeaways from Chris Brogan, who spoke at EventCamp Chicago 2011. "A well-organized event does not usually create attendee loyalty. A great conference experience creates attendee buzz, loyalty, and an attendee's desire to return," Jeff writes.

Conflict. Jamie Notter shares a tip for conflict resolution: move toward the conflict.

Online communities. Julie Secor at Socious explains five ways you can mess up the launch of your online community, and she shares advice on how to avoid these mistakes.

Games for learning. Jeff Cobb highlights an excellent example of how a nonprofit can use a simple online game as an educational and fundraising tool that creates an experience, not just info, for potential donors.