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Dear Betty, I’m at my wit’s end! I can’t tell you how often my members tell me they don’t know the dates of our conference, had no idea our Board elections were coming up, didn’t see our call for volunteers, didn’t know that we had a career center, have never heard that we have chapters, and the like.... read more

We are a 109-year-old organization and, while our members are not quite THAT old, they are aging and, as a result, our membership growth has stagnated. With the renewed interest in genealogy due to some recent popular television shows, we think we have an opportunity to reach out to a younger, more tech-savvy crowd. How do we get... read more

As association IT staff, we are involved in a number of un-ideal tasks: running the graveyard shift, adopting last-minute design and functional changes to applications, dealing with what we view as unreasonable requests from members and other staff, to name a few. However these annoyances pale in comparison, to process documentation, a task the mention of which we... read more

Dear Betty, We have a lot of non-members at our conference. I mean A LOT: 43% of our annual conference attendees are non-members. The thing is, the majority of them are active members of their regional chapters (we know because we asked). Why don’t they want to join us, too? What can we do to entice them to... read more

Dear Betty: As we move into 2014, what trends should small staff executives be paying particular attention to? What do we need to focus on next year? Gayathri Kher, President, fusionSpan (more…)

First, what on earth is an infograph? Infographs (aka information graphics) are visual representations of information. You have probably encountered an infographic without realizing it. Examples include metro or mass transit maps, weather charts, site plans, and graphs. A good infograph will: 1. Show (large) amounts of data in a clear and concise way 2. Encourage the eye to... read more

Dear Betty, At the request of our Board, our association recently worked with a consultant to evaluate our membership structure. The consultant strongly recommended increasing our dues rates. I’m worried about the impact this will have on our retention rate. How do I explain an increase in dues to our members? How do I ease the blow for... read more

Dear Betty: Should everything we offer (webinars, events, discount cards, publications, etc.) be included with membership? Or should members have to pay an additional fee for some of our programs, products, and services? Should everything also be available for a fee to non-members? Or should some stuff not be offered to non-members at all? How do we know... read more

As I enter the large exhibit hall at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center, I’m immediately surrounded by hundreds of people, all here for one purpose – to see what’s “new” in the technology world. Wandering around the ASAE Technology Conference and Expo, one could stumble upon just about anything, from 3D printers to projector signs and... read more

Last Friday the fusionSpan team got together to celebrate the holidays. We shared great food, libations, and many laughs. Our talented party planner, Linh, prepared a wonderful spread, with the help of our baker, Jessica, and chef, Sheree. We had a blast playing holiday themed games such as Stocking Surprise, the Present Unwrapping Challenge and Mystery Christmas Sketch... read more

With each new year, we reflect on as many of the last 365 days we can remember while simultaneously resolving to [insert unattainable New Year’s resolution here]. For me, 2014 was a big year with more resolutions checked off the list than I had anticipated.  Topping the list are wedding plans coming together, travel adventures from Costa Rica... read more

Congratulations to Caroline from the South Carolina Bankers Association for winning fusionSpan’s 2014 netFORUM Pro Consulting Giveaway. We look forward to working with you in 2015! (more…)

There has been lots of buzz lately in ASAE’s Collaborate community regarding Salesforce based AMS/CRMs for associations. Since we’ve got our fingers on the pulse of new trends in the association world, we thought we’d share our thoughts and let you hear from an expert in this arena. (more…)

I recently had the opportunity to present at AUDC in Austin, TX during their Ignite session. The Ignite session requires individuals to present 20 slides, each slide appearing for only 15 seconds, resulting in a five minute presentation. Given the speed of the slides, presenters were encouraged to use more pictures and fewer words so I used my favorite... read more

netFORUM Pro is a widely adopted association management system (AMS). It provides several interfaces that can be used for member interaction. eWeb or “external web” which is a web based interface where members can perform certain actions – like purchase renewals, buy products etc. xWeb is the “XML web service” interface. Mostly a programming API to interact with... read more

Associations often focus on increasing attendance at their events, people signed up for their listservs, and overall membership numbers – but is that always in the best interest of members? fusionSpan spoke with Elizabeth Engel and Anna Caraveli about their recent white paper: Leading Engagement from the Outside In: Become an Indispensable Partner in Your Members’ Success. Part 1... read more

API: Application Programming Interface. A vague phrase that offers little insight if you’re not a computer science major, yet if you’ve spent any time around system vendors or website developers they’ve likely thrown the acronym around as if its taught in the third grade of every classroom in America. Fear not, we’ve created a Prezi (a free, online presentation... read more

Part 2 of fusionSpan’s conversation with Elizabeth Engel and Anna Caraveli about their recent white paper: Leading Engagement from the Outside In: Become an Indispensable Partner in Your Members’ Success. Here we dive further into what steps association’s can take now to become more member focused. Did you miss part 1 of the conversation? Make sure to check... read more

Mark Ace, President at Kavi Corporation We got a chance to talk to Mark Ace, President of Kavi Corporation, about his recent blogpost, “Five Characteristics of High-Performing Teams.” We also discuss the ways different organizations are leveraging their technology in order to accomplish their collaboration goals, as well as some of the issues small staff organizations face with... read more

Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CEO and Chief Strategist at Spark Consulting, and Guillermo Ortiz de Zarate, Director, Information Systems, NCARB. This week I got to sit down with Elizabeth Weaver Engel (@ewengel), CEO and Chief Strategist at Spark Consulting, and Guillermo Ortiz de Zarate (@GuillermoOZ), Director, Information Systems, National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, to discuss their recent white paper, “Innovate the Lean... read more

Dan Labert, the executive director of NACBA We’ve recently rebranded the podcast as the Non-profit Tech Podcast, presented by fusionSpan. This week I spoke over the phone with Dan Labert, the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys about his recent move from listservs to an online community platform (Higher Logic) integrated with their member... read more

“Did I lose my special treat?” A frequent question from my son. We’ve created a system in our home where if he behaves, he gets a “special treat” after dinner – usually in the form of 22 minutes of TV. While there are some issues with the system (what’s the leverage for behaving once he’s lost this special... read more

In this podcast, Justin talks with Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CEO and Chief Strategist at Spark Consulting, and Sohini Baliga, Director of Communications at the nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, about their white paper titled, “Steal Like a Fundraiser.” Their paper addresses innovative practices in the charitable fundraising environment that association executives might want to adopt, specifically... read more

Summer means more than vacations and cookouts in the Salesforce world. After being delayed due to COVID-19, the annual Salesforce Summer ’20 Release update will deploy to all production environments by July 20, 2020. This release offers a number of new features and changes, which you may have seen in the sandbox previews that have been available since... read more

In our latest Non-Profit Tech podcast, fusionSpan’s Justin Burniske and the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Vice President of Digital Marketing, Melanie Starkey, deep dive into one of ULI’s latest project’s – the implementation of ULI Learning. As a global non-profit and membership association, ULI was tasked with implementing their Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver online learning for... read more

What are Einstein Bots? Whether you know it or not, chances are you have encountered a chatbot while using the internet. Many chatbots can be found immediately when visiting a website, as they exist to greet the visitor and help guide them. Chatbots are designed to simulate human conversation by using scripts and artificial intelligence. An Einstein Bot... read more

Dashboards have always been a crucial part of analytics. As the demand for Business Intelligence (BI) tools increase each year, the amount associations spend on BI products has followed suit. Robust platforms, such as Einstein Analytics and Domo, mainly charge fees by user count. This in turn might limit the number of users that can see visualizations. Should... read more