Association Station

Mark Sterne, who is based in Chicago, is the founder and president of the Print & Marketing Solutions Group. He works with associations and other organizations to improve their marketing ROI and constituent engagement with effective print, fulfillment, digital publications and web-to-print solutions.

His focus is to help associations with printing, marketing and fulfillment for their books, magazines, meetings, membership recruitment, renewal and retention programs.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How to find the right balance between print and digital.
• The importance of knowing your specific audience and their wants.
• Why some students and younger members like print products.
• Ways to save costs on print products.
• How print can help build community among members.
• Benefits of using direct mail today.
• Creative ways to use QR codes, which you can personalize and track.
• Current status of paper availability and supply chain, after the shortage during the pandemic.

Resources:

Mark's email address

Contact Mark by phone: 847-498-9640

Recommend future Association Station guests, for season 3 in 2024, to Melanie [email protected].

Check out Melanie's other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Today's guest is Beth Rosenberg. Beth is the director of communications at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which is based in downtown DC. She primarily oversees the digital editorial content and social media channels.

Beth has worked at NBAA for 11 years and was previously a newspaper reporter, working at newspapers throughout the Northeast and with the Associated Press and trade publications.

Beth walks us through how she takes a newsroom approach to planning and developing content for her association and also how she has this newsroom approach on-site at their annual events. She describes how she does it and why it's helpful and what you should think about if you go this route.

In this episode we talk about:

• How Beth manages the content demands as a director of communications.
• How it's helpful to host a weekly "enterprise" call with staff.
• What excites her now about association communications.
• Why they switched from a weekly newsletter to a daily newsletter.
• How they began to take a newsroom approach to covering content.
• How they use that newsroom approach at their in-person events.
• How they use their in-house TV studio at their events.
• How they use "playbooks" at the events to keep track of their content.

Resources:

• Beth on LinkedIn
• Beth's email address
• National Business Aviation Association

Check out Melanie's other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Today's guest is Chris Durso. Chris lives in Arlington, Virginia, right outside Washington, DC. He is the editor-in-chief of Construction Executive magazine, which is published by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). He has more than 30 years of experience as an editor, writer, publications leader and content strategist across a variety of industries.

In January/February 2023, Chris and his team at ABC debuted a redesigned and reimagined Construction Executive magazine, along with the new look of its accompanying newsletter. The magazine is published nine times a year and has a circulation of 50,000 — about half are members, the rest subscribers. With the flagship print magazine leading the content plan, they are now in the midst of redesigning the magazine website and boosting their social media strategy.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How they began the process of reimagining and redesigning their print magazine, along with a magazine website and newsletter.
• How they chose a new outside design firm.
• How this process differed from Chris' previous experience with association magazine redesigns.
• They debuted the new look via the magazine-associated newsletter, CE This Week, then debuted the new look of Construction Executive magazine.
• What they changed about their newsletter.
• After the magazine and newsletter redesign, they are now in the midst of redesigning the magazine website, www.constructionexec.com.
• They increased their art budget to lean into the visual aspect of their industry.
• The importance of taking the time to find the right vendor partners.
• Why it's beneficial to look outside the association world for redesign inspiration.

Resources:

• Construction Executive magazine
• Chris on LinkedIn
• Chris on Twitter

Check out Melanie's other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Today's guest is Crystal Shelley, of Salt Lake City. Crystal is the owner of Rabbit with a Red Pen. She edits fiction and is an authenticity reader. Drawing on her background as a social worker, she unites her love of language and passion for social justice by pushing for writing and representation that's more dignified, intentional, and just.

Crystal is the creator of the Conscious Language Toolkits for Editors and Writers — these toolkits are fantastic resources and I'll put a link to them in the show notes.

Crystal also serves on the board of ACES: the Society for Editing and is an instructor for the Editorial Freelancers Association.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What "conscious language" is, a term coined by Karen Yin, who also created the Conscious Style Guide.
• What the difference between "conscious language" and "inclusive language" is.
• Why using conscious language — and critically assessing the language we use — in our content is important.
• Style guides are just that: guides. The primary ones, such as the Associated Press Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style, don't always reflect the most updated and conscious language or the accepted language of a particular group.
• Some pitfalls when editing and striving for conscious language.
• How we can advocate for using more conscious language at our associations.
• How staff can respond to members who criticize using "woke" or "politically correct" language or content.
• Why everyone should embrace and use "singular they" in their content.
• How to think about which words to use when identifying people by race and ethnicity.
• What ableism and ableist language is and how incredibly prevalent it is in our society.
• What "inspiration porn" is and why not to write so-called "inspiring" stories of people with disabilities.
• What an "authenticity reader" or "sensitivity reader" is and how associations can use these experts to avoid stereotypes and harming readers.

Resources:

• Crystal's Conscious Language Toolkits for Editors and Writers
• Crystal's website
• Crystal on Twitter
• Crystal on Instagram
• Crystal on LinkedIn

Style Guides:

• Karen Yin's Conscious Style Guide
• Trans Journalists Association Style Guide
• Native Governance Center Style Guide
• National Center on Disability and Journalism Style Guide
• American Psychosocial Association (APA) Style
• Lydia X. Z Brown's Glossary of Ableist Phrases

Authenticity reader directories:

• Editors of Color Database
• ACES–the Society for Editing's Editors for Hire database
• Editorial Freelancers Association Member Directory
• Writing Diversely Sensitivity Reader Directory

Check out Melanie's other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Today's guest is Christina Lewellen, MBA, CAE, who has been the executive director of the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools (ATLIS) since 2019. Christina, who lives in Virginia, is a seasoned association executive who brings a data-driven framework to business planning and strategy. She received an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Certified Association Executive designation from the American Society of Association Executives.

ATLIS' magazine, Access Points, won awards from AM&P Network and ASAE after Christina and her team reimagined the magazine. It went from what was, frankly, more of a stuffy academic journal, into a glossy, highly readable, redesigned magazine — but with an intention to use it as their association's No. 1 marketing tool. The magazine is sent to both members and anyone else who wants it, as a vehicle to recruit new members to the young association.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How Christina and her team re-envisioned ATLIS's print magazine, Access Points, to use it as their No. 1 marketing vehicle, starting in 2021.
• Why they now send the magazine for free to anyone: members, non-members, member prospects.
• How they worked with an outside partner to redesign and reimagine the magazine.
• How having a marketing goal and non-member readers affects the content.
• The magazine is an investment, not a money maker directly, but the return on investment is an increase in membership and participating in ATLIS events.
• As a small staff, how Christina considers what projects to outsource.
• What a strong relationship with an outside partner looks like.
• Advice for associations who might want to consider this approach with their publication.
• Why long-form and deep dives in magazines are still important — not everything can be short blurbs and soundbites, especially for our specialized audiences.
• Why flipbooks aren't the answer for digital magazines.
• Access Point's four "buckets," which establish the content, align with the association's existing overall four areas of content.

Resources:

• Christina on LinkedIn
• ATLIS website
• Christina on Twitter

Check out Melanie's other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Today's guest is Jemilah Senter, of MCI USA. Throughout her career, Jemilah, who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has focused singularly on marketing and communications, including marketing strategy, brand developing, marketing technology assessment and implementation, and more. For the past two years, Jemilah was vice president of marketing and communications at MCI USA, where she oversaw the creative team for the associations division. Recently, she moved into a new role to lead marketing for MCI USA.

Jemilah and I are both interested in generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. As members of SIIA's AM&P Network for associations, we were both asked to co-host a generative AI workshop in May for AM&P Network members. Jemilah co-hosted an event in Chicago, while I co-hosted one in DC.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why associations should be paying attention to generative AI tools.
• These are "tools," devices that can assist us.
• Associations should be talking about how they will use generative AI so the entire association is aligned in its approach.
• Generative AI use cases for associations include content ideation, headline writing, background research on a topic, analysis of survey results, ideas for non-dues revenue, creating audience personas.
• An AI tool is like a "booster chair" that can be used to give you that "lift" to get you started on a project or to inspire you on a topic.
• Prompt engineering — how you ask AI a question — is a skill to develop to improve your use of the tool and get better answers.
• Why ChatGPT and similar tools should not be used to write content, which should be authentic, unique and reflective of your brand.
• The biggest risk with these tools revolves around quality control — ChatGPT doesn't fact-check itself. Watch out for incorrect or inconsistent responses, as well as plagiarism. It will also provide made-up citations — asking it for sources is not enough; you need to fact-check those sources.
• Another risk is around intellectual property and copyright. ChatGPT is pulling information from existing online content, so does someone already own that content? And even if not, it's still not unique content.
• Consider creating an association cross-functional team to start exploring use cases for generative AI tools.

Resources:

• Jemilah on LinkedIn
• Jemilah's email address: [email protected]
• MCI website

Check out Melanie's other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Nabil El-Ghoroury, PhD, CAE, is a psychologist and principal at Executive Therapy & Consulting. He has 13 years experience as a nonprofit executive, including four years as CEO of a $6 million association. Nabil is a licensed psychologist who can see patients in over 30 states via telehealth and is available for individual counseling.

As a global speaker, Nabil speaks to businesses and associations on mental health topics such as stress and wellness, burnout, impostor experience, and creating a culture of employee well-being.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How the pandemic lockdown led to social isolation and an increase in loneliness.
• How remote and hybrid work is affecting association staff — and why choice is so important for employees.
• Managers are not trained in how to supervise remote workers.
• Telling the difference between stress and burnout.
• Telling the difference between stress and burnout versus more serious anxiety and/or depression.
• Associations that provide mental health resources and benefits improve employee recruitment and retention.
• It's not just from the COVID-19 pandemic — there's an intersectionality of mental health issues in the U.S. related to social justice issues, microaggressions, the political climate and more.
• The importance of finding ways for social connection, for both extroverts and introverts.
• The importance of supervisors scheduling regular meetings with their staff and teams — and learning how to be better listeners.
• How to incorporate mindfulness, deep breathing, and laughter into your daily lives to help combat stress.

Resources:

• Nabil's website: https://executivetherapy.solutions
• Email Nabil at [email protected]
• Nabil on Twitter
• Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a Surgeon General Advisory in May 2023 on the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection.

Check out Melanie's other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Joy Burwell is the director of communications and membership at the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association (AOPA). She manages the communications and marketing for the organization and oversees the membership department.

Before joining AOPA three years ago, Joy was assistant vice president of communications at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. She also spent six years at Amplify Public Affairs and has worked at the American Academy of Nursing. She is a graduate of James Madison University and received her master's degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University.

Joy recently oversaw the launch of AOPA's new logo, vision, mission and strategic priorities—with a small association staff of only 14 people.

Topics covered:

• Combining the communications and membership teams into one department and what that means for strategy and content.
• Undergoing a strategic planning process that led to a rebrand.
• Making a plan to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic focused and reenergized.
• The benefits of hiring an outside consultant.
• Creating a new "rallying cry" for the association and its members.
• The process of creating a new logo with an outside firm.
• Tips for creating—and then launching—a new logo (including a video launch).
• Focusing on telling members' stories on social media.
• COVID-19 silver linings: less-formal communications, and people across industries more willing to help one another.
• Using data to inform and drive decisions.

Resources:

• Joy on LinkedIn
• AOPA's #WeAreOandP social media campaign
• AOPA relaunch video
• AOPA's website
• Melanie on LinkedIn
• Melanie on Twitter @MelEdits
• Email your podcast guest and topic recommendations to [email protected]

Carrie Hartin is president of sales solutions and services at MCI USA. Carrie lives in Baltimore, Maryland. At MCI USA, she leads a team that generates revenue for more than 40 associations across the U.S. They provide a wide range of customized sales solutions—in media, sponsorships, training programs, and more.

Topics covered:

• Dealing with current revenue challenges.
• The changes over the years in what marketers are looking for—from ad sales to multi-channel approaches.
• The speed of content and the ability to update and change content very quickly.
• The challenge of mapping out a member experience that connects a variety of content and resources.
• Solutions to the challenge of creating more content with fewer internal resources.
• The mindset needed to move your association content forward.
• Engagement as the currency of today's advertising marketplace.
• A few tips on how to move your digital-first plan forward right now.
• How providing revenue for associations gives them financial freedom to do more to meet their mission.
• How to develop unique partnerships between your association and marketers/advertisers.
• Why it's important to be nimble and able to pivot.

Resources:

• WeAreMCI.com
• Access the free Ultimate Event Marketing Guide from MCI.(MCI will publish a revenue recovery guide in fall 2022, so look out for that soon.)
• MCI on LinkedIn
• Carrie on LinkedIn

Email your Association Station topic and guest recommendations to [email protected]. Diversity is a plus!

Today's guest is Samantha Whitehorne, senior director, and editor-in-chief, of Associations Now at ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership. Sam leads content development and management of ASAE's Associations Now media channel.

Throughout her 17 years at ASAE, Sam has managed both print and digital channels and developed content that positions Associations Now as the definitive source of news and thought leadership for association professionals. Since Associations Now initially launched in 2005, it has won more than 60 awards from FOLIO, Association Media & Publishing, Association Trends, and others.

Prior to joining ASAE, Samantha worked at Prevention magazine. She earned an M.A. from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications and a B.A. from American University.

Topics covered:

• Sam's evolving role at ASAE over 17 years.
• The evolution of Associations Now, which was a print magazine. Now, it's a digital-first media channel.
• How they use an artificial intelligence-driven platform for member e-newsletters.
• How Associations Now staff and their outside partner develop content each day.
• Around 2020–but pre-pandemic—digital revenue overtook print revenue for the first time.
• How they saw that both advertisers and members were becoming more interested in the digital content.
• Associations Now has never said they're getting rid of print entirely; they create special publications in print.
• When they eliminated the print magazine, ASAE wanted to give members something new. So, they relaunched AssociationsNow.com and redesigned their e-newsletters at the same time.
• Associations Now created new Deep Dive feature packages online on specific topics.
• Examples of digital and sponsored content products that Associations Now now sells.
• Advice for when you reduce or eliminate print publications.
• Being transparent and acknowledging the grief some staff may have over eliminating print.
• The exciting opportunities of multimedia and video in association content.

Resources:

• Samantha on LinkedIn
• Samantha on Twitter
• AssociationsNow.com
• Associations Now Deep Dive packages

Email your Association Station topic and guest recommendations to [email protected]. Diversity is a plus!