Our contentious world of emotional arguments and baseless data and emotionally charged accusations makes it seem impossible to get back to the world of civil discourse and debate. Remember when two intelligent people could disagree about an issue, share their positions, ask each other questions, and then go out for a drink? While those days may seem long gone, I saw a glimmer of hope this week that all is not lost.

It's this week's Rogue Speak message in audio format! I share more thoughts on the new CAE Registered Provider program. What do you think?

In my message of July 27 (“The Ethics of Competition”) I shared my thoughts about my past participation as a CAE Approved Provider in the previous program and why I thought it was important to be part of it. At the time I joined the previous CAE Provider program, I was excited about the step towards requiring ethics education for CAEs. In that message, I also shared my concerns about the new program.

The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, "Rogue Speak." This week's topic “Nonprofit Management: The Lost Profession”.

As I see all the postings on social media and online communities about my colleagues and fellow nonprofit management professionals heading off to the 2023 ASAE Annual, I am sorry that I won’t be there. My schedule and personal obligations didn’t allow me to fit this in, which is disappointing to me because I will have to wait another year to see many people I only see at this meeting. And a personal favorite event of mine is cheering on all the new CAEs which I will do from a distance.

When my company joined the ASAE CAE Approved Provider program in 2019, we were excited to offer one of the first ethics courses for nonprofit professionals created specifically to fulfill the new ethics requirement for CAE renewal. I personally felt adding an ethics requirement was a strong step forward for our profession so I showed my support by supporting the provider program.

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting.

The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, "Rogue Speak." This week's topic “Not a Clue”.

No matter how strong or “together” someone might seem, everyone has times in life when they haven’t got a clue. That’s right: the most capable and mature of us have times when they just have no idea what to do or how to deal. Focus can be lost, the road ahead looks crooked and there are no directional signs, and decision paralysis sets in.

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting. The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, "Rogue Speak."

This week's topic: Hire Older People! This message was originally published on October 26, 2022 and is from the company archives.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: the obsession with hiring “the young” continues to get in the way of building generationally diverse teams in nonprofit organizations. Dear reader, you may think “obsession” is a bit strong for this topic, but I use it because I believe there are misconceptions about the abilities of “older people” when it comes to technology expertise, keeping up with trends, and being able to “relate to” younger people.

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting. The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, Rogue Speak. This week's topic is: GenZ: Super-Duper Underwhelmed.

For the first time in years, I attended ASAE’s Membership Marketing & Communication Conference (MMCC). It was great for networking and learning, and I really enjoyed the sessions I attended. The thread I found throughout the conference was data even though it may not have been in the title of the session or the main point of the content. Being something of a data nerd I was just thrilled and as a nonprofit management professional I was excited to see we are “getting it” and embracing our data and its management.

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting. The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, Rogue Speak. This week's topic is: The 200th Episode: It started with Love, Joy, Peace.

We are excited here at Rogue Tulips to celebrate our 200th podcast episode! It’s quite an achievement when you look at the stats: DemandSage reports that "there are over 5 million podcasts." But according to Podcastpage, "there are about 700k active podcasts. The term 'Active' is a little hard to define. If we only look at podcasts that released at least one episode in 2022, the number is about 500,000."

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting. The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, Rogue Speak. This week's topic is: Musings on Milestones.

This year is a big year for milestones for me and my company. Like many journeys, you don’t realize how far you have come until you look back and see that you are a long way from where you started. In 2018, I launched my consulting company, Rogue Tulips Consulting, which means this year is the 5th anniversary. Wow! And that 5-year period includes the pandemic lockdown which sent my company back to day one (like a lot of solopreneurs). It was tough and discouraging but I’m still here. September 18, 2023 is the anniversary of the day that I filed the incorporation papers and so far, so good.

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting. The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, Rogue Speak. This week's topic is: Harassment, Brick Walls, & Apathy: How NOT to treat Members, Clients, or Customers.

Customer service (also known as client service or member service) is what sets apart any company or organization that is committed to excellence. While all organizations need to earn money to survive, that cannot be the only driver when it comes to serving the people who use your products or services. Think about the best experiences you have with any organization providing you with a service: it almost always comes down to how helpful, informed, and service-oriented the representatives are.

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting. The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, "Rogue Speak." This week's topic is: “Has Our Profession (Nonprofit Management) Lost its Way?”

I framed this title as a question because I have a lot of questions about the state of our profession, and I’m sure there are people in our profession of nonprofit management who think everything is fine and dandy. The status quo is continuing so why worry? We are going along the same way we always have. The same tired beliefs are passed around and unfortunately repeated to newer professionals. We are practicing acceptance in a bad way because it is leading us to stagnancy.