Our Guest Blogger, Leah Cohen Chatinover, is of counsel at Stanger & Arnold, LLP in West Hartford, Connecticut.  She represents nonprofit organizations of all types and can be reached at lchatinover@stangerlaw.com or through her website ct-nonprofitlaw.com. This article is not a substitute for legal advice, and you should contact your attorney with specific questions.

Part One of Two

E-mail, Facebook, Twitter . . .  the diverse modes of electronic communication have exploded over recent years. We are now able to communicate faster, cheaper and with more people simultaneously than ever before.

To busy nonprofit directors, whose schedules make board meetings seem like a luxury, a new trend in nonprofit governance has surfaced that may run afoul of the law – “voting” by e-mail.

This seems like the perfect solution. An issue or opportunity arises that calls for quick response. Directors are reluctant to attend extra meetings. Why not circulate an e-mail, ascertain that there is general agreement and take action?

The ease and speed of e-mail voting is seductively simple. But, this practice is a trap because a board that relies on e-mail voting fails to comply with legal requirements for a proper vote and exposes its decisions to attack. Nonprofit corporate statutes typically provide for board action to be taken either at a meeting (including a meeting by phone or video conference) or by unanimous written consent. Since an e-mail vote technically does not fit either category, a court could consider an e-mail vote nothing more than informal action, which is not legally valid. Even more likely, an attorney representing a nonprofit organization in a loan transaction might not be able to issue the “opinion of counsel” typically required by a lender. This could delay or derail an entire deal.

Let’s take an example. . . Read the rest of this entry →

The competitors in the Final Round of the 2011 March Mayhem were tense… who would take away the title of Best Resource for members of the Association of Corporate Counsel? Would it be the organization’s In-House Jobline that provided the best member benefit, or did ACC’s Annual Meeting rise to the top?

Echoing the NBA’s March Madness tournament playoffs, this spring ACC asked members to vote for their favorite resources and member benefits. Members could also fill out brackets that pitted 16 of the association’s member benefits against each other to see which resources garnered the most votes. Eight members with the best brackets won Aprizes such as gift certificates for ACC products, services and events — and the grand prize winner even received a basketball signed by the ACC staff.

All we can say is brilliant… simply brilliant. This case study is one of the best examples we’ve seen of ways to both engage members and showcase member benefits. ACC started the project in 2010, and members demanded its return in 2011. Because ACC released the results slowly over 10 days, they built up more and more excitement for the competition and engaged members over an extended period. In addition, the project engaged the staff at all levels and allowed the friendly competition to make everyone smile.

From an article about March Mayhem in Associations Now magazine:

ACC also created a video to promote the tournament, with staff playing the roles of various ACC resources and explaining their purpose. A cross-functional team worked on their own time to produce the video and make plans for the tournament. “When we did the videotaping, we kind of tried to do it all in one day, and the office was buzzing because people were really having a lot of fun with it. They couldn’t wait to get in and film their segment,” says [ACC Director of Membership Marketing Jim] Way. “And it just seemed like it was a big side benefit of the project that I didn’t anticipate, the actual enthusiasm and participation of our staff.”

It’s hard to top a voting March Mayhem tournament to determine the best association resources — but what other things have you heard about to engage members in an online voting event?

A recent infographic from GetSatisfaction.com revealed interesting statistics about workers born in the 1980s and ’90s.

Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, grew  up with the Internet and have come to adopt technology wholeheartedly into their daily lives. Nine out of every 10 Generation Y-ers own a personal electronic device, and 80% of their daily activities involve the use of technology. More than 90% own a personal computer, and almost half have Internet access on their mobile devices.

When it comes to involving Generation Y in your organization’s governance, how do you engage them while still reaching the older members who may be used to less technology (although that’s changing, too. Check out this post on older voters)? Have you moved your election information (candidate bios, voting instructions, etc.) online? Have you made the switch to online voting? And if you have, what trends have you noticed with Generation Y voters?

A recent article in ASAE’s Associations Now magazine shared 33 Simple Ways to Build Member Loyalty. The list is well worth reading, and a few of their tips stand out in our world as great ways to engage members for the long haul. Here’s our take on a handful of tips:

• Tip #7: Ask Questions
  The authors advise associations to collect feedback from members on their needs, concerns, interests and views. Many associations with whom we work use online voting software to provide a secure, tamper-proof method for advisory voting and other polls. (Read “Online Voting Vs. Online Surveys: There Is a Difference“)
• Tip #19: Get Things Done Efficiently
  When it comes to voting for board elections, bylaw revisions and other propositions, members hate hassle. They want to be able to vote online with a seamless, integrated system that doesn’t involve multiple passwords and other roadblocks.
• Tip #20: Be Honest
  If an election or voting event has even a hint of scandal, you lose the trust of your voters. A verified, third-party online voting system can make your election tamper proof and scandal free.
• Tip #27: Personalize Your Communications
  Members don’t feel special when your invitation to participate in an election is addressed to “DEAR MEMBER.” Personalize your emails to make sure your members know the invitation is just for them, complete with their unique link for voting as well as username and password. In addition, you should make sure that your ballots can be customized to member types. (Read about the American Anthropological Association’s custom ballots here.)
• Tip #32: Acknowledge Achievements
  Your members work hard in their industries, and many associations offer awards for outstanding work. Simplify the process with an online contest/award management system that makes recognizing members easy.

What do you do to increase member loyalty? How has it affected your retention rate?

Does your organization offer industry awards to your members or constituents? According to a 2010 article on the Top 15 Association Trends, organizations are offering more awards than ever in an attempt to recognize industry leaders and create more connections with active members.

According to the article, “More than a few groups have developed recognition programs around competitions that engage members and sponsors and boost the impact of social responsibility initiatives.” For example,

The National Association of Letter Carriers organizes the largest one-day national food drive in the United States each May and tracks and honors chapters that gather the most donated food. And the American Bankers Association Foundation launched a successful contest in 2009 to reward one bank with $1,000 to donate to a local school if its employee volunteers educated the one millionth child participating in ABA’s annual Teach Children to Save campaign. The program has reached 3.4 million youth since 1997 with 80,000 bank volunteers teaching the importance of lifelong saving, but the contest has added extra zing.

What kind of contests and awards have you implemented, and how do you spread the news for nominations and entries? Do you use social media to promote your nomination process, or perhaps engage online voting into the contest to encourage member participation?

How do you make sure your voters remember to cast their votes?

The other day we passed a housing development with these lawn signs, urging residents to mail their Satisfaction Surveys in by the deadline. This type of in-your-face reminder helps keep a voting event top of mind for your constituents, especially if your voting is happening in one day at one location, such as at a conference or at a school.

When it comes to online voting, your organization can combine both electronic reminders with other notifications to make sure your voters don’t miss their deadlines.

Next time you have an online voting event, try some of these reminder methods:

1. Send targeted emails to your voters to remind them to vote. The emails should be personalized with each voter’s login information to make voting simple.
2. Include reminders in all outgoing email blasts from your organization, such as newsletters, updates and more.
3. Have staff members include a reminder in their email signatures.
4. Send out reminder postcards that will arrive a couple of days before the voting deadline.
5. Place ads or notices in your organization’s publications (hard copy and/or electronic), as well as other key industry publications.
6. If your voters all work or live in the same community, place yard signs or posters in the area.
7. Encourage candidates and other interested parties to send out reminder notes to their databases as well.
8. Post reminders on your organization’s social networks, such as your LinkedIn group, Facebook page or Twitter feed.
9. Try bulk text messaging.

What other reminders have you used to get the word out? What has been the most effective?

In many association elections, candidates fill out a written form and perhaps upload a headshot to help voters decide who to elect. But in today’s society where YouTube is the number two search engine after Google, associations that encourage candidates to create short intro videos can increase their presence on the web as well as generate buzz for the election.

When we asked our clients how they increased voter turnout in elections (See 22 Practical Ideas to Increase Voter Turnout), we discovered several associations helped their candidates create intro videos to help voters decide. The Special Libraries Association created SLA-TV to showcase candidate Q&A sessions, statements and other association video. They said the videos not only help the candidates come to life for the voters — they also show the members that SLA is on top of new technology.

A recent article in ASAE’s Communication News offered 10 Ways to Get More Out of Your Videos. We’ve respectfully borrowed some of the author’s tips to help your organization leverage candidate videos into bigger visibility.

1. Know Your Brand, Show Your Brand
   Give your candidates guidelines to create their videos, then use video editing software to add your organization’s logo and the name of the election. SLA helps candidates produce great videos by recording them at their annual conferences.  That way the videos look uniform and professional, and SLA controls the branding. Read the rest of this entry →