Tech Tools for Associations that Make You Immediately More Productive
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The document discusses tech tools that can immediately improve productivity for organizations. It recommends using cloud-based services for accounting software, Google Analytics, email communications, credit card processing, membership databases, and surveys. Using these tools provides a single source of truth and can improve internal productivity in areas like scheduling. The tools allow organizations to begin improving productivity now without facing barriers like lack of resources or knowledge.
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Tech Tools for Associations that Make You Immediately More Productive
- 1. Tech Tools To Make You Immediately More Productive Mike Pennington, CAE Novi AMS Evangelist
- 3. Lack of Resources Inadequate knowledge and skills Institutional barriers Don't know where to begin!!
- 6. THE CLOUD
- 23. Scheduling
- 29. NOW!!!
- 33. NOW!!!
- 41. 4:49PM
Editor's Notes
- Everyone wants to work faster and more efficiently. Staffs get smaller and then more is expected of them. There are only so many hours in the day Deadlines on top of deadlines on top of deadlines on top of volunteers who don't respond quickly enough Strategic planning sessions that add new ideas but never subtract the old ones Technology is one way to get there
- But there are barriers (one slide for each) Lack of resources (time – to evaluate and learn; financial.) Associations should spend 9-10% of their annual budget on technology. Tech can increase office productivity by 20-30%. It’s like hiring someone new (& they don’t take vacation) Inadequate knowledge and skills. How do you know what you don’t know? How do you take the time to learn what CAN be done That’s what we’re here for today. Oh … and use your peers! What are THEY using and loving? Note: Include SAE and ASAE online communities for questions. Institutional barriers. Can’t get those above to embrace or see the need. (Especially BoD) Boards don’t get what we do for a living. You have to paint the picture of the pain so that they will understand the need. Otherwise, the “you’re doing just fine without it” mentality will never go away.) Can’t get staff to buy-in to new technology. Are you really going to let your part-time bookkeeper hijack the decision about making the workforce more efficient? Don’t know where to begin!!
- Slow - Opens MS Word and tries to find the most recent version of the agenda. Edits for awhile and then emails it to the Board Chair for approval. Fast - Mike has been working collaboratively with the chair through a shared Dropbox link. Mike goes into the document and sees the suggested changes the Chair submitted last night. He makes the changes and the minutes are complete.
- Slow - Remembers that he has to find time to schedule a call ASAP with the hotel meeting staff to plan out menus for the conference. Opens his calendar and frantically searches for a few open times next week and sends an email. Fast - Sends an email to the conference planner with a Calendly link to his calendar and waits for a response.
- Receives three email responses from the Professional Development committee and starts a spreadsheet to lay out when their availability overlaps with his. Tracks responses in Doodle and can see easily see which times work best.
- Gets a call from his meeting planner who is losing her mind because he still hasn't reviewed the conference registration page for grammar and errors. He tells her that he'll get to it … eventually, although he doesn't know when. Opens the page in a browser and automatically sees text underlined in red because Grammarly on his computer has already checked everything for him. He makes a few revisions and suggestions and sends it back. Life is good.
- Conference meeting planner says she's cruising around Greece for the next 2 weeks. Meeting has to happen today or wait until way later. He decides to move everything off his desk and try to make room this afternoon. Sigh. Farewell weekend. Mike gets an email notification that the conference meeting planner scheduled time this afternoon at 2:30. The automation created a Zoom meeting and placed the link on everyone's calendars.
- Accounting emails and reminds Mike that he still has to fill out expenses for the last month if he wants to get paid. Looking at mounting pile of work, he actually contemplates skipping it - because it's just not worth it. Mike has been taking pictures of receipts all month and using the Expensify mobile app for all expenses. It's a quick and easy report and … done.
- Time to email out all of the Board docs for the meeting. Mike spends 30 minutes compiling the Board book together, he zips the file to be able to get under the file size restrictions on his email. Mike drops all Board docs onto a Board-only webpage on the website and then sends the link in a quick message to the Board channel on Slack. Board docs … delivered.
- Conference meeting planner emails to see if he's calling her or vice versa. Mike looks down and sees that it's time for the meeting to start. How can it already be 2:30??? Because he's not prepared for the meeting and is on a phone call rather than a video call, Mike doesn't know that he approved of chartreuse linens and forgot to order any gluten free meals for the event.
- Mike gets calendar reminder that it's time to hop on the Zoom call with the meeting planner. Mike has pulled a report of attendees. Since his AMS allows custom fields and custom reports, he sees exactly how many dietary restrictions he should plan for. The meeting planner is able to show examples of menus and linens and everything is planned according to the conference theme.
- During the call, Mike got 7 more responses for the Professional Development call. Looking at his homemade tracking doc, he sees that nothing works and then starts to look for a new job. This is too much stress. Mike hops into Doodle and sees that almost the entire committeehas responded. He selects the time that works best, and uses the Zoom widget to schedule the call, which creates a calendar invite that he sends to the whole crew.
- It's time to process new members. There are 12 new member companies. Mike decides that it's something he'll just have to do on Saturday. The day is almost done, and there is still so much work to do. Fast Mike uses an integrated AMS solution. He is able to review and approve a dozen new applications in a matter of minutes. The system automates the remaining processes, syncing that information across multiple systems and sends 12 new members their welcome email
- At the same time, Mike gets bounceback emails from the Board email; confirmation of chartreuse linens from the conference planner, reminder that he never submitted his expenses, and another reminder that he never set a time for the PD Committee meeting. Mike spends the last hour of his day looking big picture. He has an idea for a new program that could completely change the future trajectory of the association. He sets Zoom and Slack to 'away' and goes heads-down with a clear mind. He's accomplished a tremendous amount today and has plenty of time to turn to lomg-term projects.