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Great articles by Lindy Dreyer, Andy Steggles, Caroline Fuchs, CAE and a book review from Rebecca Gordon, CAE. One of the best Membership Development Newsletters I’ve seen — ever!

Current Issue – Membership Developments – Newsletters – Publications and Resources – ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership.

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Here in Richmond, one of the major topics of conversation is the financial woes of Richmond-based consumer electronics chain Circuit City. You probably know all about the 150 stores being closed nationwide, but you might not know that they’ve laid off 500-800 workers at their corporate headquarters. In a mid-sized city like Richmond, that’s a pretty big deal.

You also probably know all about their demise… Competitor Best Buy revolutionizes the industry, Circuit City slow to adapt, Circuit City lays off 3000 of their best salespeople as a cost-cutting measure in early 2007, recession hits, Circuit City closes stores, lays off more staff, declares bankruptcy etc. etc. etc.

Well, across the street from our office is one of the remaining Circuit City stores. Last Tuesday, two co-workers and I strolled into this store after a pizza lunch in search of a BlackBerry Storm to play with (no such luck, didn’t come out until Friday). Deciding to stay inside for a few minutes to avoid the unseasonably cold November in Richmond, we browsed around looking at other gadgets.

Then we started to notice something: Whereas you could barely get a sales associate to look you in the eye two weeks ago, now every red polo wearing human in the joint was walking right up to us and asking if they could help us find anything.

At first this was a novel and welcome phenomenon. But after being approached by the fourth associate in less than five minutes, I began to get irritated. Even after shooing one of them away, he insisted on handing me some kind of pamphlet. I reluctantly took it and put it down on a display a few moments later.

After returning to the office and settling in at my desk, I discovered an e-mail from Circuit City in my inbox. It was one of several from them that had arrived in the past week. That was the last straw. I unsubbed from their e-mail blasts. I’ll continue to shop Circuit City because it feels good to support the local economy, but less altruistic shoppers won’t. Circuit City’s intentions are good, I’m sure, but you know where the road paved with good intentions leads.

Simultaneously, this week I’ve received more than one blast e-mail per day on average from an organization I belong to, and not a week goes by that I don’t get an e-mail inviting me to attend a particular upcoming conference. Enough already!

Trying too hard makes you look desperate. And desperation doesn’t do you any favors. Not with me, anyway. It makes me wonder what problem you have that you’re overcompensating for, and if I should be worried about doing business with you because of it.

In these tough economic times, you may be tempted to try a lot harder on the sales effort. Tread lightly. I submit to you that you should try a lot harder on the design effort instead.

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McKinley Matters newsletter is out, as is this month’s Blog Watchdog column. Subscribe to McKinley Matters to get this column and others from the smart people at McKinley Marketing on a monthly basis. As always, I have to say this: I’m a paid freelance writer for McKinley Marketing.

As 2008 draws to a close, most association professionals are faced with thin 2009 budgets and ever-growing to-do lists. This month we focus on doing more with less. Let’s look to the blogs for help:

First, let’s step outside the association blogosphere to hear from Realtor-by-day, basketball referee-by-night, Daniel Rothamel, who goes by “the Real Estate Zebra.” Daniel is a smart and savvy real estate agent who loves social media. The trouble is, his clientele isn’t quite there yet. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t use social media in his market, but he has been forced to re-imagine how to get the results he needs with the tools he wants to use.

In journalism, reporting the news — not running a printing press — is the essential business activity. That’s why David Gammel was relieved to see a traditional newspaper (Christian Science Monitor), in light of declining revenues, favor its reporters over its traditional print periodical. Making the painful decision to get out of the print business, Christian Science Monitor will be able to continue providing high quality reporting, while other papers lay off reporters in order to make ends meet. Does your association have a similar core competency that provides the foundation of your association’s value proposition?

Sometimes, you can go overboard trying to do more with less. Take for instance overzealous web developers who implement all manner of hyperactive and seizure-inducing features like videos that automatically pop up, multiple animated banner ads, Flash intro screens, and on and on. Frank Fortin from Guilt by Association offers up a few more web no-no’s that have him making a quick click on his browser’s Back button. Note: the comments are just as educational as the post.

Finally… sometimes doing more with less means just going back and checking to make sure you’re executing on the basics. Take, for instance, this tale about invoices from Wes Trochlil at Effective Database Management. Does your association do the things that help the money come in quickly? In these times, cash flow can be a serious issue. Bonus tip: Don’t forget Kevin Holland’s advice on dues invoices: Bills get paid, letters get filed.

As always, if you have feedback or a tip, e-mail B {at} BenMartinCAE {dot} com

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From Cindy Butts:

“I recently got an email from an airline that started “Dear Mr. Soandso” … then continued.”

Who begins typing a personal e-mail with “Dear…” anymore? As far as I can tell, only the survivors of deceased African millionaires hoping to transfer a fortune through my bank account and European lottery officials.

Today, e-mails begin as follows:

<Name>,

In olden times, Dear used to mean something. Hand-writing a letter, putting it in an envelope, addressing it, stamping it and mailing it was time consuming and meant you really only sent letters to those you held dear.

E-mail has none of those warm fuzzies. Today, in e-mail, Dear is a dead giveaway, the equivalent of “the following is a paid announcement.” In other words, it’s implicit permission to delete immediately or delay action.

Drop the “Dear” from your e-mail marketing.