Jul. 2, 2009 - Doughnuts with the Crash Test Dummies

“I dunno,” she said, rolling her eyes heavenward. “I mean, social networking is all the THING! Even Oprah does it! But I can’t get 20 members to show up for a seminar on Twitter and Facebook. And it’s free, even, and I had doughnuts. My members are just so lethargic!”

A Twitter target market? I ask myself, and I envision a roomful of Krispy Kremes  and overweight teenagers with sugar on their lips and hyperactive thumbs. I certainly can’t imagine a classroom of 40-year old real estate professionals with Blackberries in the pockets of their navy blue blazers or Kate Spade handbags. 

As a writer, I work best when I can envision my audience—I find myself constructing a composite image, an Annie Audience who will be responding to what I put on the page. I want to have her in the room with me, looking over my shoulder and commenting. “Why should I go to the seminar? I’m very busy. Why should I care about Twits or Tweets or whatever? What good will it do me in my profession? I sell real estate, for heaven’s sake. And I’m on a diet, besides.”

Recently I began working on the content for an online leadership course. “Who’s it for?” I asked my client. “Oh, new leaders,” he replied vaguely.

“Oh, no, it’s for anyone.” And after a moment, “Anyone who might want to be a leader in the association.”

Now, ‘anyone in the association’ is pretty broad, I think. Even ‘anyone who might want to be a leader’ doesn’t narrow it down much. And there’s a fairly wide gap between someone who has a faint notion that it might be ‘nice’ to be a member of the board of directors and a president-elect who has responded to The Call, who has become committed to spending a few years of her life in the service of the association.

I asked my client to give me a scenario of how this course might be used: who would the participant be, what circumstances would direct the member to this course, and what would the expected results be when the course was completed? It took quite a bit of dialogue before I could see it: an association exec or current leader saying to the 30-year-old member, “Well, we’d really like for you to consider becoming involved in the association. There’s a quick and helpful online course that would give you some background in our organization and introduce you to some of the basics. Then you and I can have a talk about whether this is something you’d feel comfortable doing, and we get more specific about how you could fit in to our association. It’ll probably take you just a couple of hours all together. Why don’t I call you in a week or so and see how you’re doing?”

Got it! Now I understand the target market, the format, and the expectations. I can put the material together and work on the course details.

A marketing program starts with product design. And product design starts with a target market. Being all things to everyone isn’t a definition of a target market, and yet when I facilitate a strategic planning session with an association and I ask, “Who’s the main beneficiary of association services?” the answer almost always is, “Why (dummy), it’s the MEMBER.” 

Well, unfortunately, Realtor associations aren’t too discriminating about membership—with good reason. (Just ask NAR Legal about turning away membership applicants: no WAY! If someone’s got a license and hasn’t been convicted of ax murders….and neither of those are indefensible barriers, either.) So for whom are you building your member services programs and writing your newsletters? What does your targeted member look like? I think identifying a member persona (avatar, if you will) is a pretty good exercise to do at the beginning of a planning session. Draw a picture and put it in front of the committee. Or construct a crash-test dummy who can sit in the room with the planning team. The more real the target, the more accurate the product or service design and the marketing strategies.

Once you have a clearly defined target market, things fall into place more easily: you know what the problem is, and how your product or service will fill the void. You can see your market and know how to reach out to him. How successful is he? How old? How experienced? What will attract his attention? Make a list of five or ten ways you can touch him with your message. Then, translate those ways into specific action steps and deadlines for completion. Leave yourself plenty of advance time and begin softly—perhaps a with blog explaining, say, how Realtors are using social media.

Then announce the education offering in your newsletter—and not just once.  Make sure you explain HOW this information can be of use to attendees: what’s their return on their investment of time? Make registration easy on your website: Payment by credit card or PayPal.  Follow up with confirmation letters. Post registration lists and updates. Make a Facebook event site.  Set up a hashtag for a Twitter discussion.  Complete reminder phone calls. Office visits. Early registration discounts.  Establish check points where you compare expected registration results with the reality.  You know the drill: set up an action plan and stick to it, keeping your target market firmly in mind.

You could even put your crash test dummy on a chair in the staff lounge to remind everyone to participate in the promotion effort. Dress him in a  blazer and khaki pants, Blackberry in hand, briefcase at his feet.

Jun. 30, 2009 - How Do You Feel About Me?

Jun. 25, 2009 - Is Your Newsletter a 98-lb Weakling?

 

Put the WAV group’s newsletter on your mailing list. Every AE needs a daily reading list, and in my estimation, this newsletter is one of them. By and large, the WAV group articles are about important industry stuff—trends, technology, economy. Articles are short, and bigger issues are addressed in helpful ‘white papers’ (which, by the way, are an effective communication tool for your members—if you don’t know about them, go to Wikipedia or click here). Anyway, today’s WAV group publication sparked a thought about a topic for this blog—newsletters.

What caught my attention was the following paragraph from WAVE (the name of the WAV group newsletter):

“The old consumer problem was Junk Mail in the Mail Box.  The new and growing consumer problem is Junk eMail in the Inbox.  As agents continue to SPAM consumers with drip marketing newsletters, they undermine their relationship with the very customer they worked so hard to attract.  The customer, who may very well like the agent, blocks the agent's email address as spam.  If this happens a lot, the agent's email address will get blacklisted.  Click here to see if you are on any Blacklists.”

The issue that WAV is addressing is those (sometimes very awful) newsletters our members send out in the name of ‘marketing’. But the same observations can be true of our association newsletters as well: members look at them as spam, or perhaps their email hosts looks at them as spam (AOL has a reputation for blocking mass mailings and Yahoo mail is also pretty whimsical about how it defines ‘spam’). So if you’re thinking that you have taken care of your association communication by only sending out a weekly or monthly e-newsletter, think again. No matter how glorious the design and how important the content—don’t rely on one publication effort to do the job.

One social networking guru I read recently suggested that blogs will replace newsletters. I think that’s likely if we’re talking about the agent newsletters I mentioned earlier, but blogs would seem to me to be an enrichment, perhaps, of the association newsletter—not a replacement. An example comes from one association newsletter I receive: each issue is prefaced with 4-5 paragraphs from the CEO, commenting on organization activities or industry trends. This format may not be an effective practice because members generally want a quick read, not editorials or vanity photos, and they won’t even read through the chatty stuff to the hard news.

Our members would, I think, be better served by a blog format for a commentary kind of message. In the first place, a good blog allows for reader comment and dialog. Secondly, a blog can utilize video, sound, and pictures—can you imagine writing about the successful RPAC auction and including a 30-second clip of the grand prize winner happily taking possession of her prize? Finally, blogs do use 'push' technology: with the use of  RSS, your readers will be notified of your blog updates quickly and without additional effort on your part.

For another dimension to your communications campaign,  learn about using white papers for big issues or larger information blocks. Think of whitepapers as ‘term papers’ if you will—publications that explore an issue more deeply, and are a better way to educate members on a subject—for instance, what do members need to know about why the association is making a lockbox vendor change, or what they will need to do when the state moves to a single license format where everyone is a broker.

A word of warning, here, though—work hard to keep white papers interesting and informative. One of my favorite sources for whitepapers is a company called OneUpWeb. They’ve published a great new whitepaper titled “The Fusion of Search and Social Media” which will answer a lot of questions for you and your members about why using social media is becoming so important to internet marketing success. Have a look at OneUpWeb’s interesting website, and get an idea of what a good whitepaper can be. (And, by the way, wouldn’t it be helpful if NAR and state associations made excellent whitepapers available for local associations to incorporate into communications with members?)

 As an aside I’ll add that in her excellent blog (another addition to your AE daily reading list), Cindy Butts called attention to the Mississippi Association’s explanation of its dues increase in a great video no AE should miss! Takeaway: OneUpWeb, Cindy, and the Mississippi Association all understand the value of humor and entertainment components in their publications.

Someone once said that if you’re going to make an impression on an audience, you’ve got to tell them something seven different ways before you’ve done your job. You’ve just encountered 4 of those ways: newsletters, blogs, whitepapers, and video. Fortunately, technology has made all of them inexpensive and easy to employ. The humor comes free. You’re limited only by your imagination!

Jun. 13, 2009 - Do Not Go Gentle

One of my clients, a non-profit CEO, is having a rough time at his association: the members are angry, and threatening to impeach the entire board of directors. The directors, they say,  are not managing money well, and have transgressed any number of by-law stipulations. “Let’s replace them all immediately,” these members screech! With anybody willing to run, their letter stipulates.

So here’s my friend, caught in the middle. The current leadership is facing a credibility crisis, and the louder opponents are organizing a takeover by anybody who has a complaint or concern—at best, questionable criteria for leadership

What to do? As most of us know, no matter how skilled we are as managers and how carefully we tread through the jungle of politics, we are employees at will, and the ‘will’ of our employers can sometimes be quirky, unpredictable, and even downright illegal. But it really doesn’t matter how good we are as managers, or how erratically our employers think: the fact of the matter is, we are vulnerable to losing our jobs for reasons that have nothing to do with competence or honesty.

That was my advice to my client. We’ll work through his problems as best we can, trying to mend and heal his association, but he needs to develop his alternatives, his “Plan B”. If the worst case scenario actually occurs, and he finds himself in the office parking lot with a cardboard box filled with his personal belongings, what does he do next?

I have a very dear friend, now retired as an association exec, who always kept his resignation letter in the top drawer of his desk. He would tell his directors that it was there, and all they had to do was get a majority of board members to agree to sign and date the letter, and he was out of there. A little drastic perhaps, but he was recognizing the inevitable possibility and controlling the situation.

I don’t recommend that position, though it does have some merit. But to my client, I did recommend the following:

1.       Keep a copy of relevant documents on file at home or in your safety deposit box. Those documents include your employment contract, performance evaluations, your benefits and insurance papers, and any agreements you may have signed when you were hired—perhaps a non-compete clause, or some other stipulations. Be familiar with all of those papers.

2.       Keep copies of any personal papers or correspondence from work on a separate disk or thumb drive and carry it with you when you are not in the office. Keep your computer and desk clear of anything which could be misinterpreted by some rabid critic or in some way used to discredit you in the future.

3.       Don’t keep any office equipment or supplies at home—or if you must, say, borrow the association camera, leave a paper trail that says you checked it out and specifies when you expect to return it.

4.       Read this article: “Getting Fired”.   Even if you’re very secure in your job, this is a good introduction to the process, important for any ‘Plan B’.   Pay particular attention to legal issues you may need to consider. Note that termination of employment has financial implications that stretch beyond the loss of regular income: what happens to your benefits, severance pay, insurance, and retirement funds? And after you read this article, go back and look at your employment contract and compare it to those items mentioned in the article. 

5.       In your support system, include a personal attorney (not your employer’s), a counselor or coach, and a plan for where you will find your next employment. Or, if you’re not going to go back to work, think about how you will fill your time in ways that are healthful and meaningful to you.

6.       Be prepared for loss. I found out that as a Realtor association executive, many of my friendships were my peers in organization management. Those relationships will disappear, and can leave a large hole in your life. 

Of course nobody wants to think about these things. But even the best of us get axed—we all know horror stories of someone who came back from vacation and found his desk emptied or was told that her contract would not be renewed by the newly-elected board of directors. The point here is not to act in panic, desperation, or anger—but do understand your all options and prepare for the next phase of your life.

Jun. 12, 2009 - Dorothy, We Aren't in Vermont Anymore...

Your association have a problem? An over-riding concern that needs to be discussed and examined by the membership as a whole? Let’s say it’s an issue of whether or not the association should take a position on the location a proposed new highway in your community. There’s lots of public discussion about it, and the issue directly affects property values and development in your city. Some of your members think the association needs to have its voice heard, and other members cringe at the thought of speaking up and potentially offending future buyers and sellers. The association’s Board of Directors can’t make up its mind, and the media is at your door. Clearly, this is discussion time.

The Board proposes a questionnaire to the members (“Let’s survey the troops!”). Sigh. You know that most people won’t answer a survey, and even if they did, compiling and interpreting the results is a labor-intensive staff job which will result in very little real help to the decision makers. You think that a live discussion would be more meaningful, but you know that many members will not drop everything and drive a half hour one way to a meeting—even if you promise free food.

Technology presents you with options. And technology now is cheap or free. Let’s have a look.

1.      Find out about Ustream.  Basically, you can broadcast live streaming video, for free, using your cell phone if you wish (or something more sophisticated.) Viewers can watch on computers, cell phones, and wireless handheld devices simply by logging in to the Ustream video channel. It’s easy to use: the site tells you that anyone can do it in less than two minutes. (Hmmmm). So, you decide to hold an open forum about this highway project, complete with guest panelists. ‘Ustream’ it so your members can be informed, and ask them to email or phone in comments after the show.

2.      Use YouTube. Perhaps you’d rather not go live (always a leap of faith). Perhaps a better way of holding a forum might be to ask members for comment or questions, and then do a video recording (using your new flip video camera purchased for under $60). Upload the recorded answers to YouTube and broadcast the link to the members (or hotlink it in your newsletter. Or both.).

3.      Write a blog, using member questions. The question-answer format is always a popular one: it’s easy to read and get straight to the point that’s on someone’s mind. Caution: keep your answers short and to–the-point, objective and informational. And note: it’s ok for the association exec to blog—don’t just leave it up to the president. Let members know that you are an information source.

4.      Chat room. Attach a chat room to your blog or association website. Start with FlashChat if you’ve never used this software before—it’s easy and flexible, and almost free (starts at $5). You don’t have to add any software—the functions are hosted on the company website, and you can tell your members that the chat function will be available at a certain time—you decide. Mondays at noon, maybe. If you find your needs are getting more sophisticated, there’s lots of software out there to do this job (it’s also good for support functions) at a variety of prices. ParaChat offers a large variety of hosted chat options including live video, and the price is reasonable.

5.      Twitter. Set up a Twitter hashtag in advance of a community discussion or event, and let members know what it is. For the highway discussion in the example above, the hashtag might be #hiway. Anyone who has a contribution to the discussion or wants to add information uses the hashtag with every post…and anyone wanting to follow the hashtag uses Twitter search or one of the many user programs available to follow hashtags or you can go to www.hashtag.org and you’ll find the topics organized and indexed. You can follow them online, or set up a feed directly into your computer.

These are pretty exciting applications, aren’t they? They allow the association to communicate with members, even in interactive dialogue, with video and voice, in real time. The applications are free or extremely low cost, and more become available at every minute. (I try to keep my Twitter followers updated: check JWLConsulting on Twitter). 

The point is, no matter how large or small your organization, you can indeed do something now about increasing member communication and involvement. And when an association ‘hot issue’ surfaces, encourage transparency and participation through new communication models. 

You can have your association town meeting wherever you are.

Jun. 8, 2009 - Life after MLS

"I have a question," my friend wrote. "Our association board of directors just voted to merge our MLS with the MLS of the kingdom next door. My question is, what's the future of an MLS-less association like mine (small, with 400-500 members)? What does the future hold for us?"

Well, of course it's time for some group visioning, I am thinking. This association is losing a significant part of its income and of its daily activity-no tours, lockboxes, MLS rule enforcement and education. Financial statements will look a lot simpler, and some staff responsibilities will disappear. What the association becomes after that liposuction will depend on a new vision and some pretty vigorous muscle-building workouts.

I've been saying for a long time that the MLS is going to disappear. A 'long time' is probably fifteen years-I think I made the prediction in the same year I told a bunch of skeptical AEs that every office would have a fax machine before the year is out. Obviously, the fax machine has come and gone-and the MLS is still gasping away. But the latter is looking a lot different now than it once did, and my own prediction is still that it will go away-soon.

And that's not a bad thing, either, I tell my MLS-less friend. For years, Realtor associations have been spending huge amounts of money, staff, and volunteer resources on the MLS. And, we've been neglecting things like development of core programs, recruitment and retention of members, and cultivation of a diverse income base. The MLS masked the symptoms of some organizational ineffectiveness, and it's beyond time to take care of the diseased parts.

So, I say to my friend, celebrate your association's divorce from what is really a toxic relationship called 'MLS'. Here's what you get to do as a newly single entity:

1. Focus on yourself. That means "your members". Aside from the MLS, what do they really need (as distinct from what you think they OUGHT to need)? Ask them! Now that they don't have to get their answers all twisted up in concerns about property search criteria or the number of digits in the property tax fields, they can answer you more directly and more honestly.

2. Most importantly, concentrate on developing 'localism'. Local market areas, local business practices, local information, a local real estate community of buyers, sellers, real estate businesses and supportive adjunct organizations. How can you develop a more robust real estate business environment for everyone?

A. Build a website that makes your association the "Voice for Real Estate" in your community-with the public as well as with your members;

B. Become a power player on the local legislative and advocacy scene;

C. Embrace inclusiveness-buyers, sellers, consumers, providers of auxiliary services. Find new members with affiliated interests-developers, investors, suppliers of services.

D. Find partners, not adversaries. Without an MLS, you don't have to fight with the newspapers or compete with other 'wannabe' websites. Build relationships with government, media, the chamber of commerce, the economic development corporation, the community college.

E. Join the world of social media/marketing to build the professional image of your members. Use blogging, online questions and answers, instant messaging, twittering, and social websites to build rapport with your members and the public at large.

In short, forget what you lost and capitalize on your abundance as a local association: you have a collection of skilled and trained professionals, an aggregation of knowledge, and a business interest that is the lifeblood of your community-property ownership. And this abundance can be turned into income, of course-more members of various types, more services and more support products all translate into making your association more valuable to a broader range of people, from consumers of your offerings to advertisers who want to reach out to your community.

May. 31, 2009 - Standing on the Beach: Google "Wave"

 

I’m not a software developer—heck, I’m not even a real geek. I’m just a dedicated user of the stuff, and my creative juices start to flow when I see how new applications might be used to solve problems and – often – to create new ones. I love downloading all those little programs that do specific things that I think I can’t live without, like insert my credit card number at the click of a mouse or dive through my sent emails looking for a keyword or phrase.

Lars, my favorite uber-geek, is fond of screeching, “Lindenau, if you didn’t have all that crap on your computer…” (select one):

a.       “You could fit this new program on your hard drive”

b.      “Your computer would work twice as fast”

c.       “Your computer would work”

So it’s no surprise that right up there in my information cloud  is a new app, Google Wave.   I’m fascinated by what the program might be, how it might look to association managers, and—most importantly—how it’s being marketed. 

First, what is it? It’s been described by some as The Ultimate Mash-up. If that doesn’t mean much to you, consider what Google has said in a “Googlegram” (the answer to Rumor Control…could you have an Association-gram?): “A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” That is to say, this one program blurs the lines between instant messaging, phone conversations, email, wikis, and desktop sharing—and does it in real time (you’ll be able to watch as someone types). 

Can you imagine how that might work for you? Let’s say you want to do something simple, like craft a motion among your board of directors. Who hasn’t spent yawn-filled moments a meeting listening to wordsmithing, secondary motions, amendments, arguments for and against phrases, and long personal history relevant and/or irrelevant to an idea? What Wave would let you do is build the motion as a group--revising, editing, adding footnotes, throwing in film clips or photos, inserting quotations and sources. You could watch the conversation happening (as in an online meeting) or peel back the layers of the product (using what’s called “playback”) to see who added what and when they did it. 

Now assume that you all worked on this project on-line, perhaps before the actual meeting, and everyone had the opportunity to contribute at a time of her own choosing. Or, suppose you needed to craft a new MLS rule about, say, Under Contract status. Or how much to have in cash reserves in your association treasury. Or what to do about some other thorny problem. You could assign the project to a committee, to an advisory work group, to the interested membership as a whole, and allow collaboration to do its work building an answer for the directors’ approval or perhaps a suggest approach for staff to handle a problem that has arisen. And in using this tool, the association has involved members in ways that meet their schedules and skill levels, and maximize the results of their involvement. No more stuffing poinsettias in vases for the Christmas party to demonstrate that you are committed to the work of the association….

Ok, so I envision Wave as a really valuable tool for associations, especially those plagued with members who are not content with decorating tables or serving on slow-moving committees.  I see Wave as a tool for getting meaningful work done using collaboration and encouraging communication among the association stakeholders. So why haven’t I downloaded it?

The answer is, “because I can’t”. Google has done a couple of things that contain some real lessons to be learned: most importantly, they’ve launched the Wave as a ‘developer preview’. What Google wants is to have an open-source program and encourage knowledgeable people to ‘tinker’ with it (Google’s word) before it’s released to the users. Google wants a whole cadre of pre-release users whose goal is not to be critics who find reasons NOT to like the program, but to be inventors whose goal is to make Wave better for everyone.

This approach has a couple of advantages: first, it’s an exercise in viral marketing—all those users creating buzz about the program as THEY work collaboratively on it. Secondly, there’s a meaningful, hands-on Beta release of the product. Thirdly, those of us who are potential consumers are now chafing at the bit, anticipating Wave. “Hurry up!” we scream, and Google replies, “Give us a few months. We won’t tell you when you can have it, but we’ll put you on our mailing list. Oh, and don’t worry—by the time it’s ready it will be worth waiting for.”

So, yes, I’m on the waiting list, feeding on my supply stream of emailed GoogleGrams and developer-created buzz, knowing that Google Wave is certainly going to be the answer to my association management problems. And I’m thinking, “Wow! Wish the our association members anticipated the new MLS program (or the education course, or the professional designation, or the trade show, or the new lockboxes) with this much enthusiasm and anticipation….

May. 21, 2009 - AE Education in your Inbox: A Resource List

Many AEs have told me they don't "have time for social media". 

"When am supposed to Tweet?", they ask. "And keep up a Facebook page?  and write a blog?  You gotta be kidding, Lindenau!"

Well, look--I do understand. But my answer is, listen up!  You don't have time NOT to use the social media tools.  Every one of us has to keep running behind the Technology Bus, and it really is our job to catch it now and then.  I've found the best way to do this is to use networking tools--they are the greatest source of immediate information you can find, and they are free.

One of the best places to start is the blog.  There are many of your peers out there just sharing away, giving you gifts of information--yours for the effort of finding the bloggers you like, and signing up for their RSS feeds.  That way, when they speak, their wisdom appears in your email box, immediately.  No waiting for a magazine to show up or a meeting to be held: the information is on your desk within minutes.

Obviously, the big challenge of today's information stream is to eliminate all the unnecessary information. In this case, find one or two bloggers who inspire and inform you about association management, and subscribe to them.  They won't all be from Realtor AEs either--check out other associations and Chamber of Commerce execs: they can bring us new, adoptable ideas. 

Here are a few of the association management specialty blogs you might consider:

I’ve starred the ones I like the best: Mine is a personal response based on the activity level and the amount of inspiration I gain from the blogger. Make your own list, add to it, and subscribe to the regular inputs, either with an RSS feed or by email.

It's an education in your inbox!

May. 20, 2009 - Transparency in Association Management

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One of my favorite Washington insiders, Chris Dorobek, is a blogger and commentator whom I follow regularly. His insights on government and technology are a good focus point in understanding how Web 2.0 and the accompanying issues are affecting government policy and workings, and – by extension – what lessons we, as association managers, can learn from what’s happening in Washington.

Recently, Chris has posted several thoughtful articles on transparency in government.  Here’s an excerpt:

Transparency can be valuable. One White House official joked with me that the Obama transparency initiative will be a success if it puts my blog out of business. I joked that I wasn’t worried. In fact, transparency can be incredibly powerful. In the end, it enables people to tap into the wisdom of crowds. And transparency is at the heart of Web 2.0 core beliefs: that all of us together are smarter than each of us individually. Therefore, transparency is elemental to government 2.0. These concepts feed and depend on each other. One cannot co-exist without the others

Transparency, he continues, cannot be implemented just for the sake of being transparent: there really are many operations which need to be kept private—contents of contracts, for instance. To expose them to public scrutiny may possibly impede relationships with a vendor, exposing information which the vendor may not want the public to know. The information is private, it may impede a vendor’s competitive advantage—there are a lot of valid reasons why not everything needs to be made public.

On the other side of the coin, however, is the fact that shared information is the order of the day, and technology is making that sharing process easier and more pervasive than ever before. Dorobek summarizes that “the theory of Web 2.0—and I would argue of transparency as well—is that information, in fact, becomes much more powerful when it is shared.” 

In associations, it’s becoming clear that our members want information—in fact, they expect it. When we as association leaders protect and guard information, members assume that ‘something is wrong’, that we are hiding things and keeping secrets. It seems to me that I’ve been reading an increasing number of questions from association managers about that very topic: should we publish minutes? Distribute the budget? Reveal the staff salary structure? In an economic environment where our members are experiencing profound economic uncertainty and the re-invention of their professional roles, they are insistent in their demands to understand what’s going on around them, and to get the ‘full picture’ of what they perceive as the giant sucking sound of their dues dollars disappearing down a black hole.

Can we blame them? I don’t think so. But the problem is, how do we balance the two sides of the transparency issue? As association managers, how can we use the transparency tools to build a stronger organization and a community of more informed and satisfied members, and—at the same time—keep our association’s place as a successful business working in a world which changes at warp speed and demands instant decisions of knowledgeable people? 

The answer is complicated and worth a book, not a blog. But in brief it means that as an association executive you must embrace the following:

1.       Cultivate members’ respect. Be an executive, and position yourself to make decisions. That’s a long term process in some associations where the AE has long been little more than a gopher for transient leadership. But if you are to be successful in this career, you need to get the knowledge (try for an RCE and a CAE, go to seminars, get informed) and present yourself as a professional. Sharing information with members is totally different from making responsible, informed, and acceptable decisions as an administrator of their professional organization.

2.       Be clear about the mission of your group. A mission is something the association needs to agree on and clearly understand, and any decisions you make as an administrator need to be  based on what is helpful to the group as it accomplishes its mission. If, for instance, the association mission is to help members be more successful in their businesses, then each decision you (and the organization leadership) makes should answer the question “does this action assist in our mission?”

3.       Then, with regard to transparency and shared information, sit down and make a list of transparency initiatives that would make your association better—stronger, more efficient, with less wasted resources on sustaining controversy and frustrating the member’s need to know. Let’s take the financial statement issue. Members want to know how their money is being spent, how their association is furthering its mission with the resources it has. So, tell them! You may decide on a presentation mechanism which satisfies their need to know without compromising your business decisions, but you do need to keep members informed.   And, once they see that that travel budget they complain about is, say, 3% of the total association expenditures, the controversy may die down, or perhaps be directed more appropriately at some other expense item. (Of course, there’s always the possibility that you’re spending way too much on travel and there are ways to cut down or temporarily eliminates an item—transparency also means accountability, you see.)

What would your ‘transparency list’ look like? Minutes? Newsletters? Blogs from key leaders and staff about important trends and issues? White papers on in-depth subjects like short sale ethics or using social media to enhance business? Topical ‘tweets’ from staff on MLS matters or association programs? Forums for members to contribute information on professional topics or discuss association-related issues? Videos of highlights of the Directors’ meetings or of the annual meeting?

Chris Dorobek ends his blog with the following quotation: ” … I also think that transparency is also a significant enabler for true government 2.0 —  (it is) government as a platform. In the end, the government doesn’t have to do everything. But the government can be an enormous enabler, in the best sense of that word.”

The same can be said for our association governance: transparency can assist our organizations in becoming stronger and more effective through shared information and conversation. Transparency can enable us—in the best sense of the word.

May. 18, 2009 - Understanding "Fair Use"

The world of Social Media has dramatically changed our world—the ways are obvious and often mentioned, and don’t need to be repeated “Off Stage”, because there’s a whole world of social media ‘specialists’ out there. Just ask ‘em!

I hasten to say, I’m not one of the specialists. I enjoy social media, use it, and advocate it as a part of the association management tools of our current time. As a blogger, I see a part of my job as interpreting how SM tools can be used by all of us, with an emphasis on what is practical and do-able for the average AE who spends most of his/her day job trying to herd cats. And there are also some practical issues which arise that we need to know about as we incorporate this whole new skill set into our managerial bag of tricks.

One of those areas is copyright. I don’t mean the many-tentacled copyright law and policy that snakes out from behind the MLS rock and attaches itself to listing data: I am referring to the stuff of our online education programs, promotional videos, website news clips, and video retrospectives of our association honorees. Cell phones, flip videos, and digital cameras have made it easy and inexpensive to capture live happenings. Websites and social media applications such as Flickr and YouTube have become repositories of our creations. The world is our audience.

As I said in my earlier post about social media policy for your association, you can’t put this genie back in the bottle. At the recent AE Institute, someone expressed fear of ‘what is our liability if we LET our members use Twitter.’ Hey! Members are using Twitter and other social media, whether you ‘let’ them or not. Get over it. And get busy and develop some responsible guidelines so everyone understands what’s expecting of them as far as ethics and good taste go. Then, hope for the best—in the social media world the control is pretty much out of your hands.

But what about videos? Let’s say you capture your convention speaker in a few key clips, the speaker gives you the right to utilize the vids on your website, and you post them under ‘Convention Highlights.’ What you didn’t realize is that the speaker was standing in front of the logo of your association’s largest franchise. The franchise owner took issue with the speaker’s remarks, and threatened legal action against the association for infringing on the franchise trademark clearly seen over the speaker’s left shoulder. What’s the ‘fair use’ policy at issue here?

That’s the question the School of Communications at American University has tried to address in its excellent publication and video on the subject of Fair Use Policy. AU created a white paper on the topic, in which it premises that more and more, video creation depends on the ability to “use and circulate existing copyrighted work.” Various common techniques, such as mash-ups and re-mixes, make use of the “tradition of recycling old culture to make new.” So what are the guidelines?

1.       Did the use ‘transform’ the original work into a new use? And

2.       Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount?

Another illustration: you are preparing a video highlighting the leadership of your outgoing association president. You have a mash-up of clips and photos and sound bites: she’s meeting with legislators, testifying at a city commission meeting, having coffee at a Starbucks. You include some background videos from her favorite musical group and an interview from a local television commentator.   Then you post your creation on your association website as a tribute to her excellent contributions to the community. Do you have to obtain permissions from Starbucks, the television station, and the rock and roll band?

The AU publication outlines the best practices of fair use as they apply to video presentation—but I think that with some modifications, those practices apply in many instances we as association staff may encounter as we utilize new technologies in our public  relations and education efforts. AU tells us that best practices permit the  use of copyrighted material

1.       When you’re commenting on or critiquing copyrighted material;

2.       When you’re using copyrighted material for examples or illustration;

3.       When you capture copyrighted material incidentally or accidentally (as in the logo example mentioned in a preceding paragraph);

4.       When you are reposting or reproducing material in order to preserve an historical event;

5.       When you are recopying or reposting copyrighted material for purposes of promoting a discussion

6.       When you are quoting or reproducing elements in order to recombine them to make a new work.

Again, these six points are guidelines: there’s really no definitive fair use law as such. It’s a topic that is as evolving as is technology and creativity. But there are general best practices which I think all of us need to understand and follow. 

May. 7, 2009 - Newspaper Death Watch

I’ve been following the online discussions about the potential demise of newspapers: the discussion is interesting because it reflects the influence the digital world has on the lives of many of us—like it or not, some of our traditional ways of doing things are being phased out.  Darwinism in the digital age, someone has said: good bye to print media, CD’s, shopping malls, traditional real estate brokerages (just saying!), classroom-style learning….you get the picture.

But newspapers are more interesting because they are so—well, ‘vocal’ about it.  I mean, recording artists aren’t the ones we hear from when we are talking about MP3s downloaded from the internet (it’s the middlemen in the entertainment industry who have the loudest voice!)  But journalists?  They don’t go down without a lot of verbal examination, much of it in blogs and online editorials.  “Is our profession disappearing?  Where will people find reliable, unbiased news?”  And so on. And so on.

Realtor associations have been making similar observations. “Our members don’t want to participate.” “If our MLS goes away, what will we do for income?” “If we don’t have an MLS, our membership will disappear.”  “These GenXers won’t participate or come to meetings.”

I recalled these association whimperings as I read an interesting commentary on what newspapers must do to re-invent themselves—and I thought that the words of advice to print media ertainly hold true for our associations as well.  The precepts are startlingly simple.

1.       GIVE THE CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT.  That doesn’t mean “what you’d like to think they want”—it means, ‘give ‘em what they want.’ Don’t hide behind policy issues, outdated technology, expense, or lack of capacity.  Give them what they want.  Get rid of the stuff they don’t want, and make room for the stuff they DO want.  And do so in a timely fashion.  Yesterday, for example (that would be May 6) there was a sort of online uprising about an NAR policy on IDX data management.  The complainers were told, “Get involved and change the policy.  Go to the MLS Policy Committee meeting in Washington.”  Not!!! Not an acceptable answer in the digital age—it merely added fuel to the fire already raging.

2.       DON’T TRY TO CHARGE FOR STUFF THAT NO ONE WILL PAY FOR.  This comment was meant to apply to newspapers who want to sell micro-subscriptions for online news.  Don’t!  People will go elsewhere for a commodity that’s available at a better price (try “free”).  Even more insightful: newspapers don’t sell news, they sell community.  How does that apply to Realtor associations?  Try the simple economic principle of ‘if it doesn’t support itself, don’t do it,’ even if it’s something you really, really like, such as  General Membership lunches, or elaborate Christmas parties, or state association conventions.  This adage gives a new depth of meaning to the adage, ‘run your association like a business’.

3.       CUT BACK ON EXCESS AND OVERLAP.  Still printing your newsletters AND sending them out in digital form?  Too many staff members?  Programs that could be shared with adjoining associations, or subcontracted from them?  (Notice I didn’t use the ‘m’ word, as in ‘merge’.)

4.       FOCUS ON MORE INTERESTING AND CREATIVE WAYS TO THOSE WHO WANT TO REACH YOUR COMMUNITY, HELPING THEM BECOME A PART OF YOUR COMMUNITY.  Amazing how we Realtor Associations are still talking about how to keep people OUT of our associations—appraisers, assessors, lenders, consumers—and spending a heck of a lot of association resources in policing activities so we can do just that!  How can we, as Realtor associations, draw our community of real estate business people IN to our sphere of influence?  How can we interact with the consumer public?  C’mon—think of some interesting and creative ways.  You can even post them as comments on this blog!!

The article I was reading that elaborated those four points went on to explain that there’s nothing new here—it’s just that, like newspapers, we haven’t been DOING it.  We’ve been talking about it some, but not actually acting on it.  There are a couple of old familiar excuses: ‘NAR won’t let us’ is my favorite, usually followed up by a reference to an obscure policy formulated in 1986 or sometime, and never re-visited.  Another is, ‘we don’t have the resources’, an excuse which is not preceded by careful examination and prioritization of the current allocation of resources.    And, by the way, lack of resources is often used by people who have no clue about the huge number of free and low-cost resources provided by current technology….

Finally, if we look at the whole social networking phenomenon in general, one of the lessons learned is that people do want to become more involved with each other as individuals, in groups, and in causes.  Social media is participatory media, and it is a current cultural hot button—and that’s a clue, friends!  As associations we need to enable these activities within our own realm of influence.  It’s a time of great possibilities for us, but only if we design new products and services, and move away from our outdated delivery systems.  Newspapers must begin to see ‘news’ as a function of community, and ‘delivery’ as going beyond the kid on the bicycle. And they have got to find a new way to monetize the product.

To continue the analogy, associations must find new products as well, and new services.  They must restructure to invite community and collaboration, rather than hierarchical leadership structures.  And equally as importantly, associations must find new ways to create income and eliminate their excess resource consumption.

PS: See you in Washington?  Twitter me @gertiecranker.com

May. 6, 2009 - Social Media Policy for Associations

(Author’s note: I’m not an attorney. I wanted to be, but my parents thought I should be an English teacher. I’m not an NAR policy or legal staffer either. Don’t take these recommendations without consulting your association attorney and the appropriate NAR expert).

Policy manuals aren’t written on engraved tablets. They are, in fact, the cornerstone of any smooth-running Realtor association—they enable the strategic plan, they guarantee operational consistency and efficiency, and they clarify the values of the association in language which is clear to employees and members alike. Policies are the way an association implements the policies and guidelines adopted by its members in its bylaws.

But policy language doesn’t remain unchanged forever. Savvy AEs know that they need to be alert to policy modifications. They listen in the Board of Directors’ meetings to motions which may, in fact, be policy motions, however awkward or subtle they might be. They are alert to legal and legislative environment which may require changes to the body of association policies. And they monitor the behavior of employees and members as they anticipate the need for new or revised policy statements which correspond with the changing times.

Social media has appeared on the association management scene as a useful tool for building a membership community, and it is gaining wide recognition among AEs as a valuable component of the management toolbox, one that can be easily utilized by association managers and their staff. In fact, because using digital media is so much a part of the way our members do business, AEs find that they really don’t have a choice about using social media—our primary audience, the membership, requires it!

Like it or not, then, we are committed tousing social media to one degree or another, especially as our general membership quickly fills with Gen X and Y faces. And like it or not, that means that social media policies need to be incorporated into your association operations manual.

Of course there are several levels on which you might address the issue: public relations, leadership, and staff management. This paper is concerned primarily with the staff management part of the equation. 

By way of background in understanding what the social media topic implies for association staff, first of all you need to know that the topic of social media includes a wide array of technologies, some new and others not so new. All  are based on the principle of two-way communication, however: there’s always a statement and the opportunity for feedback.   That important concept is a radical departure from old ways of association interaction: “I’ll send you a news letter once a week so you’ll know what we want you to know/think/do.” Or, “Come to the meeting and we’ll count you as an involved member.”

Social media demands  respondents be given equal time to communicate: a concept familiar to all of us who visit websites to rate products or services, comment on news articles or editorials, join a group of people with the same interests, and share a more personal side of our lives through photos, personal profiles, and ideas. But how, then, do you raise the consciousness of your staff about the impact their social networking has on their work lives and their relationships to members and to the public? 

That’s the opportunity that a social media policy presents.

Here’s a case example. Your membership services director, Ellen, is a very pretty young college graduate in her 20’s. She’s got lots of energy and enthusiasm for her job, and you bring her along with you to the Leadership Planning Retreat held at a nearby resort. The evening’s activities include a cocktail hour, a nice dinner, and a free evening for socializing.

Ellen takes the socializing part seriously—and proudly reports on her FaceBook page that she had a great dinner with lots of wine, and then spent the evening in the hot tub with the President, followed by a hot game of Texas Hold ‘Em into the small hours of the morning. And your Realtors will think WHAT of your Leadership Retreat?  Of Ellen? And of you, her ‘boss’? Can’t you just hear it? “My dues paid for this???”

Ok, point made. And lest you think it a fantasy, consider the two Dominos employees who sabotaged the company’s food preparation on a You Tube video.  The publicity from that incident was quickly circulated around the world, and although the employees were fired and the company filed criminal complaints against them, Dominos’ reputation suffered a disastrous blow.  The question is: how do you anticipate this type of private use of public media? How can you develop a policy that embraces different social media spaces and different roles of the players, and yet encompasses the risks involved with each? According to  Eric B. Meyer, who’s an Associate in the Labor and Employment Group of Dilworth Paxson LLP, organizations should consider  the following two important points:

1. Employers need to be upfront with employees that they have no right to privacy with respect to social networking. “Employers reserve the right to monitor employee use of social media regardless of location (i.e. at work on a company computer or on personal time with a home computer).”

2. Employees “should be made aware that company policies on anti-harassment, ethics and company loyalty extend to all forms of communication (including social media) both inside and outside the workplace.” People need to remember that bashing your organization/boss/co-workers online can lead to consequences at work.

It would stand to reason, then,  social media guidelines need to be included in your organization policy manual right beside your other communications policies, and you need to offer training to all employees in how to use these guidelines effectively. Aside from minimizing risk and potential embarrassment, this training will give you an opportunity to review the Realtor organizational values and the alignment you expect employees to have with those values.

It’s important to remember (and convey to your staff) that the guidelines are not a forced external morality, but a compliance with the shared values of the organization.  

 Opportunities to use Social Media

Let’s divide the association use of social media into two types: ‘official’ and ‘unofficial”, or ‘formal’ and ‘informal’. 

Because social media is such an important tool in creating community, your association will want to utilize many of the tools available. You might want to have blogs, FaceBook pages, Twitter groups, public and private forums, strategic planning or project wikis, and media sharing. You’ll want to use these tools in an official capacity and endorse them and encourage staff to use them. A Twitter account is a good example: you might have your MLS department sending messages to members, perhaps announcing new listings or sales, or new programs or software changes.

But you should be aware that there will also be informal, non-sanctioned uses of social media as well. Ellen’s personal FaceBook page is one example. But you can also imagine a staff member Twittering away about a terrible speaker at one of your education programs, or a ridiculous motion being considered in a directors’ meeting.

In each case, the risks to the association are different. In the officially sanctioned use of social media, AEs must be aware of some very familiar risks: antitrust, defamation, and copyright violations are a few of those pitfalls. In informal use, the previously mentioned risks are still there—but add to them embarrassment, weakened public image and credibility, member unrest, and plain old misinformation.

It’s no surprise to any AE that the Realtor environment is litigious and our association activities and our members’ business structures are frequently challenged. This environment won’t change, and may even be enhanced by our use of social media tools.

But make no mistake about it. You really can’t shut your eyes and hope that social media will go away. It won’t. Realtors and staff will be using these tools increasingly more frequently on an informal basis whether you like it or not. 

Simply declaring that “I don’t think we should have a blog/FaceBook page/Twitter account because of the liability” naively avoids the reality that SM is happening anyway, and just because you haven’t adopted a formal use of it doesn’t mean the risks aren’t there. They are.  So get over it, and take charge of your association’s social media use.  

 Good Policy Building

The social media environment is a dynamic and changing one, with new technologies being developed daily. Your association will utilize those technologies which best suit its needs, particularly in terms of adopting tools already being used by members. For instance, it makes good sense to use FaceBook if it’s popular among your Realtors. 

By the same token, your association policies regarding social networking should be cast as general principles of social networking, rather than attempting to target them to specific technologies. One of your purposes in constructing policies is to encourage the use of social networking tools by your staff—and they will be much more comfortable with these skills if they know what is expected of them and are aware of the impact they as staff can have.

The second purpose of SM policies is to develop an atmosphere which avoids the unfortunate risks and legal liabilities and allows your blogs, forums, networking, and Twitters to be used by staff to the association’s fullest advantage.   Think of your association social media policies as general guidelines for successful use of the many social tools rather than as a negative list of what NOT to do and the punishments straying outside the ‘law’.

Many social media policies have been developed because organizations were responding to embarrassing or illegal public statements like Ellen’s. They were developed in crisis mode, a knee-jerk reaction to a bad PR hair day. Again, think of your policy as a proactive, a positive set of ‘how-to’ guidelines, and make sure they encompass the basic tenets of your overall public relations policy. 

A quotation from IBM’s paper, Social Computing Guidelines, states the issue more in a more positive, futuristic framework: “IBM is increasingly exploring how online discourse through social computing can empower IBM…. These individual interactions represent a new model: not mass communications, but masses of communicators. Therefore, it is very much in IBM's interest—and, we believe, in each IBMer's own—to be aware of and participate in this sphere of information, interaction and idea exchange.”

Also as you write, keep your policy interesting. As an association manager, you are trying to encourage responsible, effective use—not scare and intimidate your team away from building a more effective organization.

Then, once you have the guidelines in place, I would strongly encourage you to have a face-to-face meeting with staff to review and discuss them. Emphasize the potential benefits of SM to the association, then let them ask the inevitable “what if” questions, pose possible scenarios, and generally become comfortable with the parameters you’ve set. It will also let staff understand that their AE is really serious about this whole “SM thing”.

Lastly, make sure your leadership (probably still largely Boomers) is on board with the idea. As with staff, sell them on the benefits, although the more enlightened may probably be way ahead of you.

Let me hasten to say I’m not an attorney, and any organizational policy you put into place should be scrutinized by a legal professional. But I’ve drafted a template which you might use as a starting point for constructing your own policy. I’ve used several sources to put this together, and I encourage you to make full use of the resources cited at the end of the chapter.  There are other available resources as well, both within and outside the Realtor organization. A Google search for ‘Social Media Policy Association’ will put you in touch with a wealth of information. ( I’d also suggest you hook up with some association social media Twitters, including NAR’s own Todd Carpenter (@tcar),  NAR’s Social Media Manager for the National Association of REALTORS.  Having a helpful Twitter stream will provide a flow of updates on this rapidly evolving field of social media.)

1. Be professional; remember that you are an ambassador for our organization both on and off the job.  Wherever possible, disclose your position as a representative of _____BOR.
2. Be responsible and honest at all times.
3. Be credible, accurate, fair, and thorough.
4. Post meaningful, respectful comments - in other words, no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.
5. Respect proprietary information and confidentiality both of our members, and of our internal operations.
6. When disagreeing with others' opinions, be objective and respectful.
7. Always remember that your online comments are permanently available to all, and may be republished in other media.
8. Stay within the legal framework and be aware that anti-trust, libel, copyright and data protection laws apply. Don’t plagiarize.
9. Don’t disclose sensitive or “inside”information, make commitments or engage in activities on behalf of ___BOR unless you are authorized to do so. If you are in doubt, avoid any contribution until you have received express permission from the AE. In other words, “If in doubt, leave it out.”
10.  Even in your private communications, don’t forget your day job. You are a representative of __BOR. 

A more thorough explanation of these guidelines includes the following:

Be honest and transparent. Social Media is no place to hide. Use your real name if you are commenting about the association or its programs and identify yourself as a staff member.  Don’t violate _________BOR’s privacy though, and protect your own personal privacy as well. Remember that what you post will be available for a long time, as will photos of you and your personal comments. In other words, think before you post.

Apr. 30, 2009 - Localism: a 'must read' for Realtors and Association Execs

"Researching homes and house-hunting is inherently a mobile experience," said Rich Barton, Zillow co-founder and CEO. "The GPS-enabled iPhone untethers our Zillow users from their computers and puts the power of our database of 88 million homes in their hands when they need it most - while they are looking at homes."

I posted that announcement to Twitter because I thought it was monumental: it basically said that anyone with the right phone could discover location-based real estate information when he or she was standing in front of a property. The consumer could find prices, neighborhood info, assessed values, and properties currently on the market. “Wow,” I thought. “That makes a lot of our MLS quarreling really insignificant.” Shall we put tax numbers on listings? Shall we post addresses? Who cares? Check out that consumer over there in front of that brick ranch house. He’s researching the information on his iPhone.

Now I know there are other considerations to this issue (I've heard those concerns for almost 30 years), and I know there are other real estate phone applications—my former employer developed one long ago, when even the cell phone salespeople had a hard time understanding that their customers could do an MLS search on their cell phones.

What was really significant to me about Zillow's product, though, was the fact that a major data aggregator has made access so easy, and information so complete and location-based.  “All those folks combing the countryside for a good deal on a foreclosed property are gonna love this,” I thought. This makes shopping for real estate location specific AND will produce immediate results.

Then another thing happened yesterday: The WAV Group, one of the really savvy real estate consulting companies, released its “Localism White Paper “. Subtitled “Geo-Domain Targeting trending to assist Real Estate Marketing”, this whitepaper is a MUST READ for Realtor associations, MLSs, and brokerages.

Usually, I’m not one for enthusiastic, unqualified endorsements—but this whitepaper makes a great case for an area which is mostly an unrecognized area of knowledge by real estate associations and their Realtor members: search engine placement (or SEO—Search Engine Optimization).

Why is SEO important? As the white paper points out, 76% of people using a search engine like Google or Yahoo visit the first search result that appears, and a majority of users never go beyond the first page of results. So, if you’ve got a web page, and you expect folks to visit it, you’d better concentrate on the placement of your site in the search engine results. 

Go now to your search engine and try it. How does your site rate? Local aggregators, such as MLS websites will likely rate pretty high, by the way—higher than many individual brokerages.

The Localism White Paper points out an even more basic fact: if you want results you have to think like a consumer. Will a consumer sit down at the computer and think, “Well, I am going to look for a new house. Guess I will go to Smith Realty and see what they have for sale”? Not likely, though most brokerages would like to believe that's what happens. 

Will the consumer type in the name of a national website, and then drill down to a location? Maybe. And a lot of national aggregators spend huge amounts of money trying to get consumers to do just that. 

But it is most likely that what most consumers do is sit down, open their favorite web browser and in the search field, type “real estate (location)”. As the Wav Group paper says, “Consumers understand that real estate is local, and believe information contained on local websites more than national websites.” 

Consumers will then examine the first several results the search engine provides.  And what most search engines do these days is use a search technology that puts the weight on location preferences and pushes other responses further down the page.

1.       1. Develop a website based on consumer search behavior. This is hard, by the way, because we are often still stuck on the notion that internet advertising is just an extension of print advertising. But that’s another topic.

2.      2.  Understand that real estate is local (where have we heard this before?)

3.       3. Know that Search Engine Optimization is a key strategy for successful internet marketing, and SEO is a sophisticated technical skill set that is fundamental to your website success. You probably aren’t going to be an SEO FSBO, either, so you will need to know enough to make appropriate demands on your website designer.

This white paper provides some specific directions: it tells you how to use indexing keywords, and how to set up a hub and spoke web presence. And it offers some answers to some organizational hot buttons: should an association or an MLS have a public-facing website? How can a website generate money for your association? What content do you include on your website in order to maximize your search engine positioning?

The WAV group white paper is free,  it’s written in English-for-nonTechs, and it contains a ton of good information. You might even come up with some great ideas for your association education programs. But in any case, read the “Localism White Paper”

Apr. 26, 2009 - The Internal Blog: A Management Tool

The use of blogs for promotion of the association to the public is a generally accepted tool. In our organization newsletters these blogs were often called “A Word from the President”, or perhaps “From the AE's Desk” (the subtle distinction here being that the President got to talk about the 'big stuff' (state of the economy or association legislative initiatives) and the AE got to talk about more clerical matters like dues deadlines and general membership meeting registrations. Of course, back then nobody talked about interaction to these messages: most newsletters didn't even have a Letters to the Editor section, and anyway, who wanted to wait a week or a month before seeing some response from a reader?

Enter the age of social communication. If your online association newsletter doesn't have a 'click here to post a response' to almost every article, you are still in the dark ages. Even large real world newspapers and magazines don't let their articles stand alone without reader response. For an association which has as its main reason for being the building of community, there's no room for the old “we've told 'em, so they'd better listen up” mode of behavior. Technology has made communication a two-way street in real time.

Blogs, then are now the preferred way to speak to your public and to the members of your organization. They are more timely and informal, and they allow for direct reader involvement. Savvy organizations are also finding blogs a management tool for building staff cooperation and teamwork.

“Well,” you say, I don't need a tool like that. I only have a staff of two. I can just talk about what I'm thinking by shouting across the room.”

As a manager of a small staff, I had the same conundrm. When was 'small' too small to hold a staff meeting? And when I was at the meeting or seminar, how was I going to share what I learned, or what inspired me, with my staff? Or how was I going to share things with key elected leaders, keeping them in the mainstream in a timely and efficient fashion?

More than that, the internal blog can be free of the constraints of more traditional communications, such as corporate memos or whitepapers: blogs can explore more original issues and encourage examination of ideas among a staff audience which otherwise might tune out more formal messages.

Developing an internal blog is a way of keeping your voice in the staff conversation, no matter where you are or what you are doing.

Here's how you do it. Go to any one of a number of free blogging sites. I use www.wordpress.com for one of my blogs and Internet Crusade, and I like them both very much. But whatever your decision, select a blog vendor which will let you limit your internal blog to those you name: your staff, or your advisory team (could include your executive committee, for instance). That way, only invitees can read and post to your blog, keeping it secure from the public at large. You may also set up an edit function for reviewing all posts before they are seen by others, but in a private blog, that may be just a tad over-controlling. Encourage interactions from those you've invited—that's the point!

Internal blogs are in many cases good alternatives to meetings. You may not have frequent meetings, even on many important matters, for several reasons:

*you feel your staff is too small to have many meetings

*you just don't have time to interrupt the work day with a meeting

*some staff is part time, or subcontracted special labor and not on premises for meetings

*you're on the road, at state conventions, seminars, NAR meetings, or visiting member offices

However the way all staff members communicate and share information in a blog environment creates practically any number of small or large virtual meetings in which they can participate at any time of the day (or night), and you can share ideas and information with them while it is fresh in your mind.

You will find that the old 'you never told me' or 'I was on vacation for that meeting' excuse disappears. Also, fewer people will feel that they excluded from the decision making process. Since every post is open to the designated community, anyone can take part in the decision making process, simply by adding comments. For instance, you post: “I think the office needs a policy on using computers for personal communication. Please feel free to contribute suggestions about what it should contain,” or “I am sitting in a social networking seminar. Do you think we could use Twitter in our association? How?” A talking community creates the healthiest environment in the decision making process with its collective intelligence—that that statement is indeed the theme of social networking.

“Well, sure,” you say. “But why create a blog for this stuff? I just send emails!”

Here's the rub. I get over 300 emails a day. Sometimes I just archive them until I can get back to them...which could be never. And sometimes I respond to the emails, but I don't create an archive: later I simply can't find them. People will say “I told you” and I either don't remember or can't find the exact wording (which I may have skimmed over in the first place). But blogs don't go away. They are archived and searchable. Comments are not lost, but stay with the subject in a handy filing system, too!

Blogs are easy to find and follow. Following blogs is painless: Most blog providers have RSS technology (Real Simple Syndication). The person reading the blog sets up a feed from that blog to his/her browser (and all the new browsers support RSS technology). Using RSS, readers can then be informed if there are new posts or not, and click on a link to visit the blog. They don't have to visit the site every day to see if there's anything new posted there.

Finding past subject matter is equally simple: Blogs make use of tag words. The person writing the blog assigns tag words to the article, like 'social media policy' or 'customer service'. The reader may then search tag words to find the archived material. This makes finding the needed information much quicker than searching through the tree of directories that most email programs use. (“Let's see...I remember that email from Albert the AE. Do I search under the date? Emails from Albert? The topic? How the heck would I have filed it anyway? Or did I send his stuff to the trash bin?”) Key word searches blog site are much quicker and more convenient!

Again, think of using the internal blog as a management tool. It will improve teamwork and collaboration with your staff, and is a good source for team learning. It promotes dialogue, and allows you to have conversations where there is a shared vision. For instance, your blog group may be all staff and the vision you share is one of better member service. The internal blog can reinforce this vision, no matter what your specific topic.

Internal blogs also allow you as manager to solicit differing points of view in an environment which is much 'safer' for many participants. Staff members who are unwilling to speak up in a face to face meeting may feel much more comfortable in making contributions to a blog. The conversation can also be more timely (how can we deal with this immediate issue?) and translate words more quickly into action. No waiting until a week from Monday to bring it up at the staff meeting and asking everybody to think on demand, because it's 9 AM and we're on schedule.

And finally, the internal blog management tool becomes the written memory of your staff organization.That, in turn, promotes consistent institutional development based on written word (usually more stable than the ephemeral bright idea or heated arguments found in a face-to-face meeting). That written word becomes a part of the group history.

Apr. 22, 2009 - The New Association

A major change in the Obama administration has been the appointment of two positions to his leadership team: the Chief Technology Officer, and the Chief Information Officer. These positions have been closely watched in Washington, although with our national fixation on the economy, little recognition seems to have been made in the remainder of the nation.

But here's the thing. Both offices recognize the impact of technology on the way we do things, and in this case, the specific emphasis is on the new buzzword, “transparency” in government.

Managing transparency in a democracy isn't easy. This morning I read a highly critical reporter who said that the plan to bail the housing industry out of crisis wasn't going to work because there are just too many people involved for action to occur rapidly enough to do much good. I had to laugh: seems to me that's been a constant refrain in my history of managing associations. How does leadership make decisions in a timely fashion and still involve the stakeholders (members)? It's especially true when we're dealing with technology-related decisions: by the time we get around to making the decision, the technology we were considering is outdated. Are we still taking three years to make a choice on who our MLS vendor will be?

So, transparency combined with democracy. How will that work?

Today the Huffington Post writer Don Tapscott had some instructions for the new US Chief Technology Officer, ideas that I thought might be worth thinking about in our roles as association managers. Here are some specific adaptations of Tapscott's ideas:

1. Ensure access. Tapscott is calling for a national broadband infrastructure which will reach the most isolated areas of the country. But I was thinking about how this mandate might apply to real estate associations, because it's really quite revolutionary. How do we ensure access for our members? That's not just 'providing access', as in “We're having an education session. You all drive on over.” “Ensure access” might mean, how do we arrange it so that every member has access to this information? How can we deliver our services in such a way that everyone who wants the knowledge is included? Also, how do we ensure that every member of our business community who needs the information can get it? That is to say, are we withholding information from some through exclusionary membership structures?

2. Creating Conditions for a Vibrant Technology Industry. Tapscott refers to nationwide stimulus of new technologies, and an atmosphere of embracing new ideas which, he says, encourage even the smallest business provide levels of customer service never before possible. I thought of associations still bogged down in the question of 'who is our customer?' I think we need to go one step further and recognize that for our members, the consumer is king—and any way we can assist our members in providing better consumer services has got to be a priority with us as professional associations. The world today is consumer driven, more than ever before. Real estate associations must play a part in satisfying consumer needs, I think: transaction management, comprehensive public-facing websites, better property information for our members, affiliate businesses, and the public. And let's face it: the consumer doesn't care about our association governance infrastructure. The consumer doesn't want to hear someone say, “I can't tell you about that property because it's not in our MLS”, or “I can't show you this house because I don't have the right lockbox.” The question then is, how can associations dispense with what are essentially political boundaries, and enhance and implement technology solutions that will help members serve customers?

3. Fostering Collaboration. The whole basis of social media is not learning about what your buddy ate for breakfast, but it is about collaboration. It is about the wisdom of the group being greater than the specialized knowledge of one person. Social media is not just a buzzword or a fad, it's a technology structure that's filling a very real need. In a sense, associations themselves are a form of social media—technology is just giving us a way to do our job better. How many of us have MLS programs that allow shared thoughts on listings? Do we have blogs, both professional and public? Do we Twitter? Have discussion forums? Group think tanks on real estate issues? Websites that allow consumers to evaluate Realtor service levels?

   4. Web-enabled Transformation of Government and Democracy. This is what it's all about: a TRANSFORMATION of governance and democracy, in association terms. We as leaders of our associations have a responsibility to engage in a transformation, a re-invention. Let's face it, our members are doing this in their brokerages and in their role as sales persons (of services, not properties). How can real organizations use technology to modernize association governance and bring it into the digital era? Don Tapscott says, “The goal is to identify breakthrough strategies that rethink the core value of key government (read 'association') services, dramatically improve service delivery, reduce costs, and renew administrative processes. Another is to change the role of the citizen as a shareholder in government.”

   The digital age has created a new level of membership participation in a more global, networked environment. It has removed the necessity for some of our most treasured association imperatives such as geographic boundaries, exclusionary membership, and the body-in-seat measure of member involvement. And it has produced the additional responsibility of not only 'encouraging' member access and participation , but also of ensuring it.

Apr. 15, 2009 - A 98 Pound AE Weakling? A five month program to association strength through social networking

I have a couple of presentations coming up for state association AE seminars, and the topic is “Doing More with Less”, or how to manage an association during an ‘economic challenge’. (Did I say that right? Do I sound like an economist?) 

One of the major points of my discussion will be using social media as a way of building your association community. In a previous post, I discussed how an AE can use Twitter as a part of the association manager’s toolbox, and hopefully you found that helpful. But I had an AE friend who wrote, “All well and good, Lindenau, but I have two questions: where to I find the freaking time to do this, and how do I get started?”

Well, actually, the two questions amount to the same answer. In getting started with adding a social networking dimension to your skill set, I have one major caution: don’t, don’t, DON’T jump in without a plan. If you do, one of two things will happen: (a) you’ll lose perspective and burn out fast, or (b) you’ll make yourself look foolish in the eyes of your members and your publics.

Develop, instead, a clear business plan for your association social networking program. Write it down. Establish a goal and some measurable benchmarks, and an overall approach to what you want to accomplish. In other words, get a program. Then, stick to it.

I am going to suggest a plan of action for you to consider. I’m assuming you are the AE of a mid-sized or smaller association (you big guys with Realtor Association Kingdoms can hire management consultants to help you…like me, maybe). But for those of you with limited resource associations, declining memberships, and not enough bake sales to fund outside help, here’s what a social networking plan for your association might look like.

Weeks 1-3. Do some homework. Set aside a couple of weeks in your personal growth plan to learn about social media. One AEI seminar does not make an expert, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, once you got home. So, for your two weeks of personal growth, do the research. First, read blogs like this one. Try Cindy Butts’ wonderful blog “On the Verge” on Blogspot. And for the real estate industry, select a couple of blogs from “A Directory of Real Estate Blogs” or the blog section at Internet Crusade , or the Real Estate Today blog. And most importantly, check and see who’s blogging in your association, and follow that blog. Remember, though, you are only listening and researching: don’t spend too much time at this—maybe 20 minutes a day for a couple of weeks. What you are doing is putting your ear to the door, and listening to the conversation.

            The second part of doing your homework is going to Twitter.com and signing up for an account. Then, search. Type in key words like ‘real estate’ or ‘real estate(location)’. Poke around and follow some of the results. Social networking is about listening as much as it is about talking to people. And think about this: when I ask people why Realtor associations have so many committees, they often answer, “So we can be in touch with our members and know what they are thinking.” Listening on Twitter accomplishes the same thing—and without the meeting!

Weeks 4-10. Ok, here’s the next step: establish your voice. You’ve listened. You know what members and other industry and association professionals are talking about. Now, set up a blog. Yes, YOU set up a blog. Don’t hide behind the association president—you are the association manager and you have some answers to questions that members want to know. So set up a blog from the AE. You can do it on your association’s Members Only page or, if you don’t have one, use the Internet Crusade’s free blog (that’s what I use), or one of the blogging sites like WordPress or BlogSpot. They’re free too, and if you worry about being too public (for instance, you’re going to blog about the new dues increase or the RPAC Kiss a Pig fundraiser), there are ways to limit your blog to registered users.

            The important thing to remember in blogging is to keep it interesting. What you are doing now is communicating with members—perhaps by posting some interesting photos of the pig-kissing and some entertaining comments. You don’t have to be profound, but you to have to be informative and helpful. Again, you are building community. You can leave the profundities to your president in her blog.

             The next step of your speaking-out program is to establish your social networking accounts. You’ve already established a Twitter account, but you need two others: Facebook and LinkedIn. Visit each of the sites to get a feel for what they are: they are both social networking sites, both have followers, and each will bring you different results. LinkedIn is more business-oriented, perhaps, but in neither application will you want to appear frivolous. Your goal in establishing a personal account is to put a face and a dimension to you, the AE of the real estate association—so tell people that you like sports and Portuguese Water Dogs and have seventeen grandchildren. And don’t use the Realtor “R” as your photo, use your own picture!

            I’ll have more ideas for setting up an Association blog in another post, but now’s the time to get started. Then begin to use your Twitter account as the more personal ‘face’ to your association. You can build awareness for yourself, your employer, and your association causes and programs in 140-letter micro-blogs.

      Weeks 11-16. Now you begin to develop your audience. As an association AE, you will find you have several audiences—your members, your peers in association management, and the industry-specific public (newspapers, consumers, and government officials, to name a few). In the beginning, it’s best to concentrate on just one area—probably your members is the best place to start. As you gain confidence, you may want to develop strategies to reach other segments of the industry, but your immediate members and affiliates is a good place to begin.

            The best advice I can give you is to write helpful material. Social media is really based on a principle of giving: people won’t ‘follow’ me unless I have something to offer them. Always ask yourself, “Why would someone want to know this?” Or, as someone else has observed, don’t answer the question “What’s on your mind?” (which Facebook asks), but think of what you’d like to be on the minds of your readers. That you are having mustard on your hotdog is not so important as wondering aloud how the housing recovery process is faring in your community. And let your networking tools interact: post to Facebook and Twitter the link to your latest blog entry, or send out a link to your education class flyer. And make sure that you publicize your addresses and contact information—again, check out my blog information on using Twitter for some insight here.

Weeks 17-20. Finally, stand back and assess your results. Is your social networking program working? Do you see some interest being created in your association and its programs? Are members beginning to feel more informed about the association? Are you forming bonds with members in new ways? Is the ‘them’ vs. ‘us’ demarcation between members and staff going away? And most of all, is there a return on your investment if time and skill in pursuing this marketing program?

            If, after you’ve tried it, it’s not working you have a couple of options. The first is to experiment with some new tactics. Those might include some courses on social networking and marketing for your members: after all, they have to use these tools for you’re your efforts to bear fruit. You might form an informal advisory group of those who do follow your efforts—ask them for a critique of what you’re doing, or how you might be providing more compelling information.

            The other option is, of course, to spend your resources elsewhere. Social networking isn’t for everyone. But as an AE, you owe it to yourself and your members to try. I personally think abandoning your social networking efforts would be a mistake, because I think in one form or another social networking is here to stay: it’s impacting too much of our lives to ever go away or be dismissed as a fad. It’s changing how we get news, build brand, sell product, encourage openness and transparency among our members. 

            I think, too, the popularity of social networking has some real messages for us as association executives: it says

a.       Our members want personal interaction. They want to know about US as people, not just as go-fers for the Board of Directors. They want to trust the association management, and they want to know the manager personally. All those bureaucratic layers (not to mention the ‘invisible hand that steers the ship’)  are going away in our modern world.

b.      Members expect interaction. It’s no longer acceptable to say, “if you don’t like it, vote in the next election” or “write a letter to the committee chairman.” Almost every site they visit on the internet has feedback and opinion built in: associations should have those capabilities as well.

c.       It’s no longer enough to just convey the party line, or the association marketing message. Members are finding out that social networking participants are turned off by empty bragging and heavy-handed and self-serving observations. Your networking followers want value in return for listening to you. Social networking is the wisdom of the whole, not the preaching of a few.

So there you have it. It’s not rocket science, as they say. Just follow the steps: 1. Spend a couple of weeks listening for 20 minutes a day; 2. Start a blog and keep it going for a month or so. Then, take a couple of weeks to establish your association’s personal presence (you) in Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. You’re now going into the third month of this process, but again, you aren’t working on this more than a half  hour a day, if that. 3. Build your following. You’ll need friends and fans on Facebook, and followers on Twitter, and contacts on LinkedIn. Make sure your members know about your contact points, and regularly ask members to give you theirs. 4. Then, assess and tweak! Make adjustments to your program to make it more effective, and perhaps expand it to include staff. Think about other applications for your skills (a Directors’ Blog? A wiki about topics of specific interest to members?). In five months of careful and well planned activity, you’ll have the confidence and personal skills to utilize social networking to build a strong association and, at the same time, solidify your important place in your management of your organization.

Apr. 13, 2009 - How to Use Twitter: A Guide for AEs

Recently I’ve been working on some social media/marketing presentations for Realtors, and I’ve gotten involved in the whole online networking scene. I reviewed the proposed new Social Marketing course from Internet Crusade, as well—it’s going to be very helpful to our members, I think (should be released soon!).

There’s a ton of information out and about on the topics—the real problem is finding the time to sort out what will work for you and your situation and what won’t. I know how much time I’ve spent researching and experimenting-- time I couldn’t have found when I was a full-time association manager.

So I feel your pain. And yet I am convinced that the social networking tools are the greatest community builders we’ve seen in our field of building and maintaining associations—and they’re tools that everyone needs to know about and make use of. The best part: many of the popular tools are free and readily available for associations to use.

One of the most popular these days is Twitter. Twitter has been called a micro-blog—you only have 140 characters in every broadcast. However, it’s easy to broadcast links to documents, photos, and websites in general and again—these tools cost your organization nothing. But the hard part is that for such a simple concept, there are thousands of applications which have been developed for Twitter users to help them receive and send messages from cell phones, develop their Twitter account page, and sort out the ‘tweets’ (messages) that they want to receive from those they don’t.

Twitter is being used by many of your members—you should know that. Particularly your younger members—those, say, under 40 years old. They’re using it to keep track of important people in their lives, learn more about things they want to know, and to develop and maintain a professional client base. And I think Twitter  won’t go away: applications are being developed by third party providers that relate specifically to marketing listings, mapping, posting pictures, and connecting to the MLS. Twitter is being used on desktop computers, laptops, Blackberry and iPod phones, and wireless devices of every kind.

It stands to reason that once the application is there, is being used by members, and the price is right, you as an AE will want to see how far you can go in using it to build community in your own organization. Here are seven start-up tips especially for Realtor AEs.

1.      Go to Twitter.com and set up a main account for your organization. Let’s say you are the Bittersweet Association of Realtors. You might set up an umbrella account called @BARtweets. You will want people to find you easily.   Then, set up your main Twitter page for your organization. You’ll want to link your Twitter page to your organization’s website, and I would recommend setting up a ‘landing page’ on your organization’s website for people who come from your Twitter link. Your landing page might say something like “Welcome to the Twitter site for the Bittersweet Association of Realtors. We’re glad you are here. We’re here to service our Realtor members and the real estate consumer. Our staff will help you too. Here are our team members—feel free to follow them as well. Then list your staff members and their Twitter addresses.

2.      Next, set up staff accounts for those staff members you are enabling to communicate on behalf of the organization. Give them individual accounts, such as @BARtweet_Bob. This is important because your group’s followers will have different personalities they will enjoy following. For instance, your MLS manager will have a specialized view of what’s going on in the organization, and many members will only want to here from that department. The same is true with the political affairs, ethics, or education staff. As an association manager using social networking tools you may have a bit of a challenge giving your staff responsibility for their on content and developing their own following—but that’s the way the new management paradigm works!

            3. You will want to monitor multiple accounts. Perhaps you will have your own personal account as well as your organization account. Your staff will probably have the same             issue. There are software installations which allow you to do that: one I recommend is       “SplitTweet”. Another is “CoTweet”. Why do this?  Because it’s much easier than  signing in and out of different accounts all day.

            4. Ask each staff member to follow people who tweet regularly about your industry or      cause, as well as actively Tweeting members, affiliates, legislators, or other stakeholders.     You can find other interested Twitterers (Tweeps) to follow by using the search function        on your Twitter page. Enter keywords such as ‘NAR’, or ‘Realtor’. You can follow                  your own zip code, too. And you can import your association email list into Twitter and     find out who else in your association may have Twitter accounts. Your criteria for            following people might be to find people who are active—they have lots of friends and         followers, and a number of updates.

            5. Learn to use hashtags. Let’s say you are having a big educational event   Hashtags will             help you develop a         following. Here’s how you do it: (A) You create a hashtag by          using the hash symbol followed by a word: #BARclass, for instance. (B) Then go      http://twitter.com/hashtag and follow @hashtag. The program will follow your          hashtag back and ‘register’ it. Your  topic can then be searched and followed by others    (C) Then begin to use your special hashtag #BARclass in all your Tweets about your    education program. In essence what    you will be doing is building interest among those    reading your messages: “#BARclass early bird registration discount ends”, “Amazing           speaker will help your income! #BARclass” and so on. (A word of caution: uses    hashtags sparingly! One or two in a message is all you should use.) Publicize the    hashtag you are using on your other materials, too: that way, the word will get around.

            A good example of how hashtags work is a personal one: because I am no longer an AE,  I wasn’t really in a position to attend the Institute in Colorado Springs. I was missing everything! Except I followed the #AEI hash, and “listened” to a lot of you comment on     speakers, party, food, and the facility. It was a second-hand experience, but still fun!

            6. Learn to use ‘ReTweet’. Let’s say that one of your staff members sends an interesting tweet on an MLS issue. That tweet will only go to those following that staff member, but     you may feel it’s of interest to everyone in the association. ‘ReTweet’ it! It will draw           more people into the conversation and support your staff team as well

            7. Remember that successful use of Twitter is all about sharing content. People will not    become followers unless you offer them some enrichment. They aren’t there just to hear        your advertising content (I emphasize this in my presentations to Realtors…). Nor do  they follow you to find out what you ate for dinner or when you are getting a hair cut.       Twitter is a way of building community through sharing, and the sharing that the  community does is through content and information. Discuss this with your staff         Twitterers. If there’s an interesting blog they’ve found on the web, or if there’s a real             estate article in the online Wall Street Journal or the local newspaper, ask them to send a           message to their followers. Or if there’s a member who is getting married or has just had     a baby, or perhaps opened a new office or had community recognition, use that occasion  to build the social fabric of the  association.  

            Encourage each staff member to take responsibility for sharing links with interesting and  useful information relevant to their specific areas of expertise.  Encourage them to engage       in conversation with their Twitter networks, respond to things other people are tweeting          about, ReTweet links and information from people outside your organization as well as  your own; suggest they converse on topics of interest!

As association managers, we’ve talked for a long time about the difficulty of getting people to come to meetings and to participate in our association in the traditional ways. We’ve discussed, too, the need for finding new tools to build our communities and keep in touch with our members and their business environment.

Twitter is one of those tools. As an AE you can probably set up an effective association Twitter program in just a few hours. Then in just a few moments a day you can keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening among your members, the Realtor association, and the real estate business as a whole. Give it a try. And add @JWLConsulting to the list of organizations you follow!

Mar. 19, 2009 - The Strategy Screen

In the last few blog entries, I’ve tried to convey the point that organizational strategic planning is not just an exercise completed a various intervals, it’s not merely a snapshot in time—effective strategic positioning is an organizational frame of mind.

I’ve also posited that that frame of mind must be built on a foundation of solid governance structures and operational policies. If you have to interrupt your strategic advance to repair the road, you won’t get far. So, let’s assume the association homework has been done: you’ve crafted your organizational identity through your mission statement and a realistic business plan that takes into account your competition, your assets, and your liabilities. You now know what you are as an organization, what work you do, and how you maintain adequate and consistent income to support your mission.

And further, you’ve completed your organizational audit: you know how you do your work, and that you have a governance and policy structure that will support your mission. Now what?

Well, the groundwork is done and now it’s strategy time!! Strategies are the interesting part of any organizational profile, I think: they are the specific actions you take to do your work (carry out your mission), and all strategies must be evaluated using that principal criterion.

If you’re an association manager or leader, you know that strategies come at you like bullets—every time a member says something like, “I wish we had a weekly marketing session” or “Why don’t we sell tickets to the Alzheimer’s Bowl-a-thon”, a strategy has been suggested. Perhaps the head of your local economic development corporation says, “I wish we could see what development properties are available in the MLS”—presto! A potential strategy! Or a zoning administrator calls the association office and complains, “If Realtors don’t take ‘For Sale’ signs out of the road right-of-way, I am gonna confiscate the $%^&*(! things!” YoooHooo….strategy! Or if a major internet search engine says, “We are going to let people put properties available for sale on our website at no charge”….any body home in the Realtor organization? The need for a strategy is knocking….

The first step is to have your strategy awareness level fired up. Developing organizational understanding of what a strategy opportunity is and being able to take advantage of the need for a response can’t be delayed because it isn’t time yet in your planning cycle: your association must be ready to respond NOW.

Peter Drucker says, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”. And of course, that’s always the pitfall of being alert to opportunity—the need to evaluate using a consistent set of evaluation tools is fundamental to long term success. 

In his book, “The Non-Profit Strategy Revolution”, David LaPiana suggests that every organization develop its own ‘Strategy Screen’. He defines the ‘Strategy Screen’ as a set of criteria that your organization uses to choose whether or not a particular strategy is consistent with its identity. 

Developing the Screen is an act of association self-discovery. You can’t really complete one unless you’ve agreed on your organizational identity as I’ve described it in the second paragraph of this blog. But having done that homework, you can now say, “These are our values. We will apply these values to every strategy, every expenditure of organizational resources we have.” 

Here are the questions which must be asked in developing a tool which will allow the association to screen its activities:

1.       Does the proposed activity (strategy) support our mission? Be careful here: you might want to add a degree of support ranging from ‘Not at all’ to ‘A little bit’, to ‘Absolutely!’. That way, the evaluator can weigh Realtor Ron’s idea to have a Hot Dog Cook Off against Realtor Ruby’s suggestion to sponsor a First Time Homebuyer Trade Show.

2.       Does the proposed strategy enhance our competitive advantage? One of the competitive advantages Realtor associations have is that they are real estate experts. When Realtor Ron proposes a Hot Dog Cook Off, one might question how the Realtor competitive advantage is enhanced….

3.       Is the strategy financially viable? An adjunct question, of course, is ‘what is viability’—does the strategy need to pay for itself? Show a profit? Or is it a part of the member dues investment?

4.       Is the strategy consistent with our culture? This latter question is one that is often neglected, I think: Realtors, for instance, have quite a different culture than accountants or physicians or dental hygienists. Of course, that’s a generalization—but understanding the profile of the real estate salesperson and/or broker, general as it may be, is crucial to adopting strategies that work.

5.       What other criteria do we have that we need to articulate in our strategy screen?

A.      NAR policy requirements?

B.      Quality criteria? (and how do we measure the quality?)

C.      Geographic scope? (local, regional, state or nationwide?)

D.      Customer Scope (new members, seasoned members, young members, etc.)

E.       Public Positioning (as a community leader or an association forerunner?)

F.       Strategy does not jeopardize other alliances.

And so on. Of course, your association list will be totally individual, and represent your particular organizational values. But using LaPiana’s Strategy Screen will give your group a consistent way to evaluate strategies as they occur for consideration.

LaPiana suggests that Items 1 and 2 should be in every Strategy Screen, but in other respects the rest of the list items will be unique to your association. I would envision this screen would accompany each and every strategy presented to the Board of Directors or whatever approval body is appropriate to your association.

Feb. 8, 2009 - Lessons from NAPA

Washington blogger Chris Dorobek reports today thatThe National Academy of Public Administration’s Collaboration Project has issued a new report titled “Enabling Collaboration: Three Priorities for New Administration.” In it, the NAPA spells out these priorities:
* Create an Open Technology Environment
* Treat Data as a National Asset
* Foster a Culture and Framework of Collaboration

The NAPA report explains that “today, information can be accessed and shared with unprecedented speed and agility. However, government operates according to an industrial era model that is fundamentally out of step with the needs and expectations of modern citizens. This industrial model emphasizes controlling information more than sharing it and avoiding risk more than fostering innovation. Worst of all, this model uses rigid hierarchies as opposed to collaborative communities of practitioners, to create and implement responses to emerging public needs.”

I am currently participating in an email forum that is concerned with the changes in the real estate business environment, and in the Realtor organization which supports the industry practitioners, and because this perspective is foremost in my thoughts, it occurs to me that NAPA offers an object lesson which can be translated as follows:

`*Create an Open Technology Environment. This admonition has been around for a long time, and certainlty Mark Lesswing and the NAR technology initiative have been working on many facets of this puzzle. But, there's lots to be done: many of the obstacles can be laid at the feet of vendors of technology services, but an even more significant impediment is our own organizational structure which is fraught with protectionism and archaic policies.

*Treat Data as a National Asset. Well, there's another one that offers the Realtor organization a real challenge. Not only is the market data traditionally collected by MLSs primitive and often lacking in consistent terminology, it is also protected by some who see losing information control means losing job security.

*Foster a Culture and Framework of Collaboration. When the first and second points are absent, the third cannot succeed. Hence the prolonged Realtor association battle over a national property data base and the elimination of ongoing barriers to association membership by other key stakeholders in the real estate industry.

Imagine the power and credibility of an organization which focused on controlling information with the idea of providing a collaborative professional environment for all the 'players' who need to work together to make a strong industry (bankers, builders, assessors and government officials, and so on), and which worked toward providing meaningful information and data which can only strengthen the real estate environment nationwide.

Feb. 7, 2009 - Building the Foundation, Strategic Planning part 3

In the last blog entry I talked about understanding an association's competitive advantage. For many non-profits, especially in the Realtor group, this perspective is a foreign one: membership organizations often have a state and national hierarchy (the Realtor organization has a strong one) which supports copycat thinking and discourages 'out of the box' strategies, as the current cliché goes. In Realtor-dom we gather together in Board Forums and listen to newly minted association leadership discuss concepts which may have little real history or fact behind them. The listening dewy-eyed association representatives grab the ideas and carefully pack them in their traveling home luggage, regardless of the effectiveness or appropriateness of the purloined strategy.

A coat drive? Mandatory MLS education? A certification program for Green Building? A chili cook-off RPAC fund raiser? Bang! We're ON it!

Take note: this is not strategic thinking. It's adopting someone else's ideas for an easy fix, a quick boost to show that the home association is 'doing something'. Often this approach to leadership results in the expenditure of some hard-earned resources in a program which is inappropriate to the local association, and may not have worked very well in the organization that conceived it.

Ongoing strategic thinking is what needs to replace traditional strategic planning and quick fix programs. Strategic thinking is a frame of mind for an organization, one that asks “does the proposed action fit our mission?” and then translates the positive answer into an action plan. Strategic thinking doesn't wait until the three-year period is up, or until the new leadership is installed, or the new budget adopted, or a glittering idea flies through the air at a state or national meeting. Strategic thinking is like Internet2: it exists in real time, it depends a healthy pre-existing infrastructure, and it involves an action-directed community.

“Well,” you ask, “how do we build THAT kind of organizational identity?” The answer lies in first building a sound business model for an association. Some of the prerequisites for the business model have already been discussed: the organization needs a clear sense of market awareness (Who is our target market,?What do they want? Where are we going next?) and and clearly understands its competitive advantage in providing value to that target market.

The business model for organizations is not unlike those structures common in commercial enterprise. You need a clear understanding of your mission and vision—that's is who you are. Then, you need to define what work you do to advance your mission and vision—that's your programs and services, or your 'scope of work'.

The next part of a business model answers the important question, “How do we do our work?”. This is indeed crucial component of an association business model: it requires the clear understanding that good operations, finances, and resource management are at the very heart of the business model. If you don't have your operational house in order, nothing else will happen with any consistency and movement toward mission.

Here is the departure from traditional thinking. In the traditional model planners thought up the plan and usually skated over the operational component. Even when they embarked on the familiar SWOT lists (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), planning committees usually avoided voicing the organizational issues. Did you ever hear anyone say, “One of our weaknesses is that we have a weak staff? We have a leadership team that couldn't lead us out of a shoe box? We are financial cripples who aren't very good at reading balance sheets and are chained to a single source of income? We have members who are so busy making a living they could care less what we do as an association?” You get the picture.

Indeed, if associations are to succeed in today's world, organizational structure issues are not something that there is time to stop and work on at every juncture. Sound organizational structure—policies, governance, budgets—all must be firmly in place. These things cannot continue to be impediments to action: sound, efficient organizational structure must be a 'given' before effective strategic thinking can take place. I have been working with one association which is currently torn apart by governance issues which they've been trying to solve for three years. They vote, and vote and vote: should the checks have two signatures? Should there be an Executive Committee? How long a term should the Directors have, and how many of them? And while they are voting and debating, their association is gasping for breath—there are no services, there is no money, there is no sense of community. Everything is being spent on controversy, antagonism, and attorneys' opinions. Around them, the real estate world is crashing down, and there's no available association structure to support the strategic thinking which will support to members in need.

Plus, nobody to pay money to support a loser. And right now, this association is losing, big time.

The final part of a good business model is the existence sound financial policy: how does the organization maintain sufficient funds, funds which are adequate and consistent to implement the mission? Does it have adequate reserves? Does it have a diversified income stream? What is the plan for managing sustainability as an association?

As an exercise, try making a list of potential sustainability measures for your association:

• Expanding membership numbers
• Expanding membership types

• Providing goods and services to the public market

• Forming partnerships with revenue sharing potential

• Looking for funding sources such as grants and subsidies

• Marketing assets to other groups (association management services? Trade show management? Lobbying? Statistical data?)

Remember that as your membership count decreases, so does one potential target market. Associations will have to look outside their membership to diversify their income source.

Clearly, the conclusion is that until an association has its organizational basics in place, it isn't really ready to begin strategic thinking, and it certainly isn't ready to implement effective strategic actions.

The first step is to assess the strength of your organizational infrastructure, and shore up any weak areas. There are many ways to do this, the most effective being an organizational assessment or audit.

In the Realtor community there are some tools for analyzing your association yourself, and—more effective--several professional auditors who can lead organizations through what can be a difficult process.

The important point here, though, we must build the stage before we can dance.