You all know I travel a lot, and one of the things that comes in handy about that is I can catch up with my reading pile. I just got through the last issue(s) of Associations Now (1/08, along with the Leadership Issue), and the publication just seems to keep getting better and better. People who know me well know that sometimes I get the “grass is greener” thing and I sometimes think it might be nice to be involved in an industry where things move a little faster. But I’m glad to see that there are people leading the charge to bring associations into the 21st (if not late 20th) century. I felt a lot more enthusiasm for what I’m doing after reading cathing up with my AN.
Things to note:
The idea bank is a great department. I have enjoyed it for several issues now.
Bryan Ochalla’s short trend-spotting piece is cool. His piece on board members of controversial organizations (the leadership issue) is also great, but boy, those people must have some kind of masochistic streak.
Blogroll a good department and useful evangelism for blogs to C-level individuals.
Structure of Success, very illustrative and surprisingly tactical.
Kim Fernandez’s piece on Government Affairs was awesome: the kind of thing no one else publishes, so very much value-added. I especially liked the emphasis on communication.
Thoughtful piece by Virgil Carter on “Are card-carrying memberships dead.” Conclusion: why yes, they are. Sets up a very nice structure between top-down and bottom-up models of priority setting.
Scott Briscoe’s piece on contract management. Hands-on and very useful.
I’ll talk about the Leadership Issue later.
