• Events
• Resources
• About
• Archives
• Contact

The Perfect Board

Investigation of Association Mergers

The William E. Smith Institute for Association Research, established by SmithBucklin to fund new practice-based research for the association community, released its latest study, Investigation of Association Mergers. The study was conducted for the Institute by Julie Pietroburgo, Ph.D., of Southern Illinois University and Stephen Wernet, Ph.D., of Saint Louis University. Using a case study approach, the study reveals "a number of key elements that are indicators of merger success."  FORUM magazine will provide an in-depth report in the June issue.

Are Your Members Being Served

Are Your Members Being Served?

A Look at Personalized Content

By Sherry Budziak

President, .orgSource

We all refer to the "Amazon.com" experience and although we desire to implement this experience for our members, many organizations have not because it has been too costly. However, with the advances in Web-based technologies and reduction in costs for these systems, organizations now have an opportunity to truly service their members through the Web. These technology advances enable us to do more things for more people on a customized basis and are fueling the quest toward personalized content.

Read more to find out how to get started....

Leading a Learning Organization

Association Forum of Chicagoland

CEO Only

By: Mary Lynn Fayoumi, CAE, SPHR

President & CEO

The Management Association of Illinois

Leading a Learning Organization

Many businesses call themselves learning organizations or proclaim that they are in pursuit of becoming learning organizations. When called to task and asked to describe what this means or looks like, the range of responses varies. Typically, however, people describe an organization that is in a continual state of improvement, that learns from its mistakes and that has an engaged workforce that is hungry for knowledge. Does this sound like the organization you lead?

Alumni Programs Not Just for Universities

Colleges and universities have long known how to connect with alumni in order to raise dollars and solicit support for their programs.

Read more to see how the alumni concept is being adopted in the corporate world in an effort to stay in touch with and potentially recruit prior talent back after a stint with other employers.  The tight labor market appears to be the primary catalyst to this growing trend.

Why CEO's Are Taking a Closer Look at Online Job Boards.doc

Today your association members and prospects are inundated with information, resources, educational opportunities, events and publications specific to their profession. It's become common place to hear executives speak of increasing or sustaining the "relevance" of the organization to its members in a broader professional community.  Everyone agrees with the idea, but finding tangible ways to be "relevant" is no small challenge.

Read more...

Technology Tips For CEOs

Associations are facing a new era of online collaboration and free tools through the Web that assist groups with online networking.Associations can use these tools to ensure that their members turn to them as the trusted source for these services.

Read more for ideas and free offerings that can help you with your own collaboration needs.

Transforming Members into Partners

Joe McGrath and his executive team are turning their organization's membership recruitment upside down to increase revenue and streamline services. Read more about how Mr. McGrath engineered and managed the change that includes offering supporters differing levels of partnership.

Technology Tip for Small Association Executives

Consider the advantages of software as a service. New web-based technologies offer alternatives to the time and money you used to have to spend installing software and supporting hardware in-house.

Increasing Association Relevance from an Unlikely Source

One way that many associations are increasing their relevance to members and prospects is through an association-specific online job board. More than four million Americans look online for jobs every day- how many are your members?

Reinventing Staff Meetings

Most people hate staff meetings. If your staff looks forward to going to your meetings like going to the dentist, this article offers some ideas to counteract even the most boring, ineffective and painful staff meetings.

Mentoring is NOT an Option by Mary Lynn Fayoumi, SPHR, CAE

A recent headline in the Wall Street Journal jumped out at me. It read, "Today's Bosses Find Mentoring Isn't Worth The Time and Risks." Before reading on I had to wonder who the author, Carol Hymowitz, had surveyed to come to this conclusion and why they were so disillusioned with this time-honored management practice. From my perspective, mentoring has never been an optional activity, but instead a critical part of every manager's role.

Read more...

Voice Your Opinion

This e-portal offers visitors who regiser for free the opportunity to share their experiences of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley in its discusion forum; topics include audit and IT issues, conferences and training and control methodologies.

Time To Take Control

CPAs and internal audit controllers will find a full menu of links to discussions, surveys, trends and white papers on Sarbanes-Oxley at this Financial Executives International Web spot.

Human Resources Resources

This Web-based library's e-shelves are stocked with resources on benefits and compensation, business planning, e-commerce and ethics. There are comprehensive overviews and links to discussion groups, free e-training programs and newsletters.

Write it Right

Need help punching up your resume? Come here for a free critique, advice on marketing yourself to prospective employers and sample resumes. Learn the five mistakes that will kill your candidacy, six factors of career success and seven tips for a better resume. Or brush up on effective interview strategies, how to project an eye-catching presence on employment Web sites or write effective cover letters.

Words on the Web

The Smart Stop works overtime not only to define a word, but also to give users antonyms, synonyms and two online encylopedia results.

Strategic Questions to Get You to the E-Strategy Your Association Needs

Associations have traditionally delivered value to members by advocating on their behalf and by servicing common needs. Today, however, associations are under more pressure to be stewards of both the knowledge and economic prosperity of their members. This shift has put associations under pressure to deliver more quality services in order to stay relevant. Read more by Sherry Budziak and Larry Rosenthal, PhD 

Not another party!

Not another party! I am referring to the engagement of employees in 2006. With the job market increasingly active, employers need to focus concerted effort on connecting with and motivating their current workforce. Retention of key talent has always been and will continue to be critical to success. Those organizations which fail to pay attention to their culture and stand by while morale heads south may be in for a rude awakening when valued employees turn in their notices.

Dues, Discounts and Incentives for Associations

Research article by Stephen C. Carey, Ph.D., CAE, President, Association Management & Marketing Resources on dues discounts and incentives for you to share with your staff and board. This is a benchmark study of approximately 600 trade associations and professional societies.

CEOnly Survey Results

Did you know that the number one issue ranked by other CEOs as extremely important is "Building Trust Amongst a Board?"

To view the complete results from our survey, click here. Please note, the results do not show individual responses.

You Send It

You just need to check out this site to understand its capabilities. According to Susan Fox who uses it regularaly, "It allows us to email large files quickly, securely, and easily.  Having bumped into the file limit either on our end or the recipient's, this will prove to be a big help."

View from a Corner Office Blog

This is the Blog hosted by the Association Forum of Chicagoland for our CEO members. Our CEO-blogger heads up a professional association in the Chicagoland area and faces many (if not most) of the same problems that all association CEOs deal with everyday.

Technorati: Search engine for weblogs

Technorati is the authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs.

What is a weblog? A weblog, or blog, is a personal journal on the web. Weblogs express as many different subjects and opinions as there are people writing them. Some blogs are highly influential and have enormous readership while others are primarily intended for a close circle of family and friends.

Association Buzz: Using Word of Mouth to Market Associations

This is the presentation given at the Forum's 2005 Annual Meeting by Sheri Jacobs, CAE, Director of Marketing and Membership and Andy Sernovitz, CEO, Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Association Forum Compensation and Benefits Guide Order Form

One of our highest-rated services zeroes in on compensation, benefits and office policy trends in Chicagoland associations.

CEO SIG

This SIG focuses on the exchange of information and networking among appointed chief executive officers who manage associations headquartered in the downtown Chicago area and have annual budgets under $2 million. Membership is open to all CEOs with budgets of under $2 million. All meetings will be held in the downtown area.

Click on this link to sign up for this SIG.

BoardSource

BoardSource, formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, is a resource for practical information, tools and best practices, training, and leadership development for board members of nonprofit organizations worldwide.

The AICPA Audit Committee Toolkit: Not-for-Profit Organizations

Audit committees have a big job to do in an organization—tough when the members have other responsibilities and the audit committee role is a part-time job with huge accountability. The AICPA Audit Committee Toolkit: Not-for-Profit Organizations is the needed help for audit committees to do the job they need to do as effectively and efficiently as possibly.

38 Ways to Win an Argument

An amusing site that was recommended on the Forum's Blog.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia is the free content encyclopedia than anyone can edit. In this English version, started in 2001, there are currently 644,806 articles.

Association Innovation Blog by Jeff De Cagna

Exploring the fundamental dynamics and day-to-day demands of innovation in the association community.

800-CEO-Read

800-CEO-READ is the perfect bookstore hybrid: a sophisticated Internet presence... with a customer service soul.

Board Café

Board Café is the electronic newsletter exclusively for members of nonprofit boards of directors.

Thomas (Legislative Information on the Internet)

In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, a service of the Library of Congress.

Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management (Appeared in Business 2.0)

Imagine a lifetime's worth of executive wisdom, boiled down to a handy pocket-size guide. Corporate leaders swear by it -- but it's not for sale.

The tiny handbook has become an underground hit among senior executives and management thinkers. Written by Bill Swanson, CEO of aerospace contractor Raytheon ( RTN ), it is part Ben Franklin and part Yogi Berra, with a dash of Confucius thrown in. To receive a free copy, click on the above link.

Reserve Policy (American Health Information Management Association)

This document outlines AHIMA's policies for keeping and spending reserve funds. This is a Word document.

CEO Sample Agreement (Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg)

This document is a sample CEO agreement created by Forum's legal counsel, Neal Gerber & Eisenberg. The sample does a good job of laying out the elements that should be considered when negotiating a CEO Agreement. NOTE: AS WITH ALL MATERIALS ON THE FORUM WEB SITE - SAMPLE AND PRACTICE STATEMENTS SHOULD NOT TAKE THE PLACE OF LEGAL ADVICE. This is a .pdf file.

Records Retention Guide (Association Forum of Chicagoland)

This document is the records retention guide used by Forum. The guide lists various types of documents that an association may have and how long the government requires each type to be retained. This is a .pdf file.

Code of Ethics (Illinois Farm Bureau)

This document includes valuable samples and information for an organization that is trying to create or revise a code of ethics. Information includes: draft organizational code of ethics; draft individual code of ethics; and professional standards self-evaluation tool.

Conflict of Interest Statement and Disclosure Statement (Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics)

This document contains both a list of expectations of members of ICAAP in regard to conflicts of interest. It also provides a disclosure form that allows members to reveal any potential areas of conflict.

Executive Committee Expectation Statement (Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics)

This document describes the commitment and participation that the ICAAP expects of their top volunteers.

Search

Blackman Kallick is the ninth-largest accounting firm in Chicago. Our more than 230 locally-based professionals provide audit, tax and consulting services for closely held, nonprofit and publicly traded organizations in a variety of fields. The professionals within our Not-for-Profit Practice have years of experience working with Chicago's most prominent nonprofit organizations, including many leading trade and professional associations. To learn how we can help your association, contact Genevieve Burns, Partner in Charge of our Not-for-Profit Practice, at (312) 980-2910 or moc.kcillaKnamkcalB@snrubg

Copyright © 2005 - 2008 Association Forum. All rights reserved.