Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Not everyone has the day off, but if you do, we encourage everyone to find a MLK Day of Service Project and spend a few hours giving back to the their communities.

Very often we only think about doing service projects around certain special days or holidays. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course – every bit we can give helps, no matter when it is. So if you do give a few hours of your time back to the community today, consider asking about other opportunities throughout the year. Of course, with our busy schedules, it can be extremely difficult to commit to volunteering more often, and we don’t want to presume that everyone has that time. If there’s no time for volunteering (and believe me, I understand), there other ways to give to the community. Donating food or gently used clothing takes very little time and can make a world of difference. Last year, I donated several huge bags of clothing, shoes and books to Goodwill, and it took just a few minutes to drop everything off. (I’d like to think that people who were really in need ended up wearing the clothes I didn’t want to take during my move.)

What’s one simple thing you can do this year to make a difference to your community?

As you probably know, here at MemberClicks, we’re dedicated to meeting the technology needs of small staff associations. So, to show our appreciation for the work they do and the causes they support, we’re naming October as Small Staff Appreciation Month! We’ll be celebrating small staffs all month long with special content on this very blog , and we’ll also be giving away tons of care packages designed to make your lives a bit easier. (Hint: What will help you save you time, let you be more productive, give you new ideas or keep you motivated? Get excited!)

We’ll have more info in the coming days about what exactly the giveaways will include and how your association can be entered, but today is all about getting involved! You don’t have to be a MemberClicks customer — anyone who’s passionate about small staffs, from consultants and vendors to the small staff organizations themselves — can participate! Be sure to check out this page for info about the giveaways at the end of September!

E-mail me at shannon@memberclicks.com and let me know if you’re interested in guest blogging here at the Splash blog, or if you want to participate on your own blog. We’ll be profiling small staff organizations all month long, so if you’d like to share your association’s story, e-mail me!

Everyone here at MemberClicks is really excited to show our appreciation for the organizations we support every day. If there’s a special small staff association in your life, take a little bit of time to participate. We’ll be linking to all kinds of awesome small staff content during October, so stay tuned!

“Net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time,” Al Franken said at the Netroots Nation conference.

Whether you usually agree with Franken or not, this is one issue that associations — especially smaller ones — should be concerned about.

The First Amendment is near and dear to my heart, as I’ve written here before. And net neutrality is a huge issue that affects everyone who uses the Internet in the United States. (I’m thinking that would be most people.)

Shelly Alcorn gives the lowdown in this April post (which I certainly encourage everyone to read), but essentially, we all have been receiving Internet access from service providers. Your provider and connection level determine your speed, so you either have a fast Internet connection or a slow one. The speed at which websites load depends on your connection level.

However, big Telecom companies have been trying to deregulate and change this for years.

Why is this a problem?

Nonprofit organizations and associations rely on the Internet for grassroots advocacy. It’s an easy, cost-effective way to reach thousands (or millions) of people. But if corporate America gets its hands on Internet (de)regulation, Internet Service Providers will be able to discriminate among different types of content. Imagine a world where one particular website loads much more quickly than another, purely based on its content.

According to savetheinternet.com:

Net Neutrality is the reason the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation and free speech online. It protects the consumer’s right to use any equipment, content, application or service without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network’s only job is to move data — not to choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

This is a big deal for small nonprofits and trade organizations. The big cable companies want to be the gatekeepers to the Internet, and big companies will decide what sites load at which speeds. It should go without saying that competitors’ sites will load more slowly.

Small organizations can’t compete with Big Telecom. Net Neutrality makes sure that small businesses and organizations don’t have giant hurdles to jump in order to succeed. In order to make sure the Internet continues to be a level playing field for all advocacy organizations, and that no Internet users are subjected to “pay for speed” business models, sign a virtual letter to the head of the Federal Communications Commission. Keep yourself informed about FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski and his agenda. Keep yourself informed by visiting freepress.net.

Every organization, no matter how big or small, has the right to use the Internet for marketing, advocacy, communication and community. Smaller organizations, especially, depend on the Internet because it’s so cost-effective. Stay informed about Net Neutrality and why it’s so important.

Image source

By Thomas Howard, MemberClicks President and CEO

Associations are all about people and the causes important to them. The vast majority of these groups are run by small teams of mission-minded individuals who tirelessly promote the causes they love.

Everywhere across America, small staff associations represent the diverse passions of this country. There’s the Denver Coach Foundation. The Northwest Polygraph Examiners Association. The Southern Snow Seekers. The San Diego Recruiters Roundtable. The Minnesota Paralegal Association. The National Recycling Coalition. The National Storytelling Network. The New England Science Writers. The list goes on and on and on.

These are the associations that define the very identity of America. But unlike their larger counterparts, they face significant challenges with respect to budget, time, technology and manpower.

That’s why we take what we do at MemberClicks so seriously. It’s why we do what we do. We’re not just a business. We also define ourselves by our mission to champion small-staff associations and help them overcome their obstacles.

Unlike other companies who are widening their scopes and entering the small staff association space, “small staff” isn’t just a trendy buzzword or new market opportunity to us. We live and breathe it each and every day, and have since 1998.

We have a first-hand understanding of the challenges they face. We understand that a one-size-fits-all approach to membership software doesn’t work in their unique world. We realize the magnitude of our responsibility to help them focus on their missions instead getting caught up in the details of technology.

Technology allows small staff associations to expand their reaches and grow their causes. If we do our job and do it well — if we can play even a small role in advancing the causes of the vital small staff associations we serve — we consider ourselves successful.

On behalf of the MemberClicks team, I am so excited to announce that we were invited to join ASAE’s Small Staff Association Committee (SSAC)!

Here at MemberClicks, we truly are all about small staff associations and we champion their needs and causes every day. And that’s why we’re all very proud and excited that Mark Sedgley, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, is going to be participating in the committee for the 2010-2011 year.

“MemberClicks has been dedicated to small staff associations since our founding, and representation on the committee will allow us to meet their needs even better,” MemberClicks President Thomas Howard said.

These buttons are all over our office and we love giving them away to enthusiastic association professionals!

The American Society of Association Executives’ SSAC was founded to help meet the needs of organizations with 10 or fewer staff members.  One-third of ASAE’s current association executive/association staff members work for small staff organizations, and the SSAC advocates tirelessly for them.

Additionally, the SSAC creates small staff-specific educational programs, maintains and updates content on ASAE’s website and works to increase networking among small staff association executives. There are several webinars and events each year dedicated specifically to the unique needs of small staff associations.

“I am very excited about the opportunity to both serve and give back to the small staff association community.  This is a group that we have lived and breathed for more than 12 years,” Sedgley said. “We are eager to not only share our expertise, but also continue to learn from other thought leaders in this space.  Simply put, the SSAC is what MemberClicks is all about.”

We’re also proud to announce that we’ll be hosting the first-ever Small Staff Association Reception at ASAE’s Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Join us on Monday, August 21 at 5 p.m. (location TBA) for tons of networking opportunities. Small staff organizations truly do represent the uniqueness of our country’s culture, and we’re proud to champion their missions!

Small staff associations rule!

For more information, visit http://asaecenter.org/smallstaffresources or memberclicks.com.