Change, Change, Change…Does Anything Ever Stay the Same?

As association professionals, we are accustomed to change – the change in the board, committees, and even members.  Then of course, there is the change in staff, change in meeting locations, change in education programming formats, change in vendors – you get the idea.  On top of that, there is the change outside of the association that affects how we do business – Google adds a bunch of new tools that are free, Facebook changes its design and how it works, Microsoft updates its operating system again, and then there is the newest version of Word and Excel and Powerpoint which our association may or may not have! Our “tried and true” ways of doing things won’t work as well any more. The question then becomes, how do we keep moving forward with all of these changes while still accomplishing the mission and vision of the association?

As we are doing our association work, we often think of how things should be done differently – or we hear of a new tool that might streamline an operation or task. How do we keep track of these while trying to decide if, how, and when we implement them?

Most of us have checklists or some sort of document that outlines the major steps of a task or program.  As we are living or working through the event or process, we think of steps that would improve the process.  The question has now become – where do we keep these steps so we can find them when we need them?

Here are a few suggestions of ways that might help you:

• Evernote is a suite of software and services that helps you: “Capture anything. Save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see.”  The note can be text, a picture, voice, or a webpage.
• Outlook has tasks that you can enter – and add reminders that you should do it.
• Checklist Wrangler allows you to easily manage templates and auto create checklists weekly, monthly, or yearly. Available on the App Store.
• Most smartphones have a way to track notes, take photos, or even record voice memos. Learn how to use them!
• Dropbox is a web-based hosting service that lets you store and share files and folders.
• Screenshots of webpages can be helpful – of something that needs to be changed or updated, or of a suggestion for something that your association should do.

NOTE: Some of these are free, some have a cost.

I know there are a lot more ways to track and keep information, but the bigger issue is the discipline that is now needed to implement these changes! 

SUGGESTION 1:

Immediately after your conference, board meeting, or committee meeting , UPDATE your checklist and timelines to incorporate what you noted from the experience. Don’t put it off or think you will remember when it is time to go through the process next time – you won’t!

SUGGESTION 2:

Make an appointment on your calendar to review the new Board material at least THREE MONTHS before you will need it.  By scheduling this time, you will be able to change and/or update anything that needs to be made more current.

SUGGESTION 3:

Ask for help in reviewing your website – whether it is another staff person, a member, or someone totally outside of the association.  Come to think of it, you should use all of them for review!  If the material is not current, it will not be helpful.

SUGGESTION 4:

On a regularly scheduled basis, review the notes, screen shots, files, etc, that you stored in the locations I suggested above – and delete the ones that are no longer relevant or useful.  We need to be diligent in this process or the amount of “helpful” information will overwhelm us.

What do you use to address changes, new ideas, and new tools? If you share them, I will include them in an upcoming post.

Thanks for reading my blog – I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions.  Please feel free to forward or share this message.