Recently I’ve received some lovely compliments about my professional activities. I participated in a virtual roundtable where I was described as a “person of stature” and about a week later I led a webinar where I was introduced as a “powerhouse in the industry.” It felt great to hear such nice comments because I am with me 24 hours per day. I don’t always see myself in a positive light so hearing from others provides not only validation but some balance in my view of myself.

In one of the networking groups I belong to, someone brought up the issue of Membership Dues. We all know these are necessary to give the organization resources, but it also demonstrates to the person paying the dues that there is value in joining and it’s worth investing your money. I think this is why the “freemium” model never really took off – if there is no value assigned to the membership, then why bother with it?

Hammers are useful tools. They can help put things together or help take them apart. You pick up a hammer when you need it; otherwise, it sits in the toolbox waiting until you are ready to use it. But what if your hammer jumped out of the toolbox every time you walked by, forced itself into your hand, and started trying to hammer things – even if you didn’t want it to? It would take your time and energy to keep stopping the hammer and it would interrupt your flow of thought, work, and focus.

On September 29, 2025, my podcast Radio Free 501c hit a major milestone: 300 episodes. This is more amazing than I realized because I did some research and found the following: 

There are over 4.5 million podcasts, but only a fraction are actively releasing new episodes. 

As a news junkie since age 10, I follow the news a little too much – if you aren’t balanced about it, you could easily develop a dark view of the world. As the old saying goes, “If it bleeds, it leads” so if you just read the headlines, you think the world is going to hell – again.

I am very proud of earning the Leadership Professional in Ethics and Compliance (LPEC) certification. Ethics are important to me personally as well as professionally, so pursuing this certification made sense. It is also outside of the nonprofit management area which pushed me to do something different.

When I was a kid, during the summer we used to swim in our neighbor Mr. Dwyer’s pool. It was a good-sized pool for an above ground model and our neighbor even built a wooden deck around it. Kids in the neighborhood were allowed to use the pool at any time but there were expectations of behavior. In other words, we had rules for interacting with each other in this shared environment.

I was thinking the other day about when I first started working at the US Chamber of Commerce back in the late 1980s. I was an administrative assistant at the time, and I was standing at the fax machine sending a message to someone in Australia.

As associations and other nonprofits face uncertainty in an era of rapid change, it is a reminder to all of us that we need to approach our work and our communities differently. What used to work, or “the way we’ve always done it,” is not a plan for today or tomorrow. 

As I mentioned in my July 24, 2025 message, the trend continues across the world: don’t actually offer support when members or customers need it. This time I have an example from the world of banking – a crucial service in a world of people on the move who need online support to make things happen.

The trend continues across the world: don’t actually offer support when members or customers need it. Don’t actually talk to anyone or solve the problem for them or at least figure out why there is a problem. Put up walls, don’t offer support, and make the member or customer do it all themselves. After all, isn’t that why we have all this online technology?

A few days ago, I shared this post on my LinkedIn account: 

“Earlier today I saw yet another post from an association management professional stating, ‘it's so hard to explain what we do.’ This is another one of those tired pieces of conventional wisdom that just isn't so. It's very easy to explain what we do: As nonprofit management professionals, we practice a management subspecialty focusing on 501c organizations. We are experienced professionals supporting organizations that make the world a better place through service to members and society. If you are trying to explain your daily tasks to someone, you are not answering their question.”

Earlier this week, those of us in the association community were taken by surprise when KiKi L’Italien announced she was turning off her mic. After 16 years of evolving and leading Association Chat, her studio is now dark. I have to say I was surprised but . . . not surprised.

Generally, I have taken the position that association boards should be smaller. When I say smaller, I think in the range of 7 to 10 members at the most. I know that some associations out there have really big boards, ranging anywhere from 30 to several hundred.

The world is becoming tense again. It’s not the first time it has happened and it likely won’t be the last. The frustrating thing is that we never seem to learn our lesson about why times become tense and ultimately violent. I have an inkling of an idea I’d like to share with you, and it relates directly to content we have included in our ethics course in the past.

Ethics is a topic that defines who we are as individuals. Ethical decision making can seem daunting, no matter how evolved you are, but if you are prepared in advance, you will be able to make the best choices that support the most people affected by the decision.

It’s that time of year: Awards Season! Organizations, especially Associations, love to single out certain people to receive special and unique recognition. Only certain people seem to get these awards and it’s hard to figure out the why and the how of the decision process. In the association community, it seems there is one person each year that gets all the “big” awards from several groups. I often wonder why different people don’t get these awards; why does it tend to be the same person?

It has been one year since I broke my leg. I’d like to have a cool story to tell you about it, like I was fighting off Somali pirates on a cruise ship but it’s not anywhere near that interesting. I tripped over one of my dogs running upstairs. And because I was carrying something in both hands, I had no way to break my fall. My left leg twisted inwards and when I landed, all my weight hit my left knee.

Associations are focusing on artificial intelligence (A.I.) very seriously. There are many questions about it: should we use it? How do we use it? Which tools should we choose if we go with A.I.? Will it replace staff or enhance staff? If we do use it, will our content be “stolen” by the online algorithms that have cute names but no souls?

We all have those times when we stare off into space, daydreaming about one thing or another. Since I do so much CAE education, I often find myself thinking, “It would be great if the CAE program was like this . . . or offered that . . . or was better respected.”