DrakeCo in the News

Steve Drake quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today about the Social Media Workshop Drake & Company led for Businesspersons Between Jobs (BBJ) on May 20.

During the full-day seminar, Steve talked about becoming a content expert and Twitter aficionado; Becky Hadley covered Facebook and I talked LinkedIn and Delicious. All topics were introductory, hands-on and geared towards helping professionals "between successes" find new jobs.

"You've been given the gift of time," Drake told the 60 participants. "Now is your chance to become a content expert and get ahead of the curve on these new technologies that people with jobs don't have time to learn."

Here's the full story: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/story/7AF648CA61A11406862575C400762B06?OpenDocument

Find out how DrakeCo can help your organization learn social media and effectively use it to recruit new members, raise money and promote your message. Contact Brian Reuwee: reuwee@drakeco.com or (636) 449-5050.

DrakeCo honored for Cause Marketing

From AdAge
by Karen Egolf on 05.28.09 @ 10:00 AM
Full story here: http://adage.com/goodworks/post?article_id=136888

From funding children's hospitals to inspiring people to walk every day, cause marketing efforts are being honored today at the Cause Marketing Forum's annual conference in Chicago.

The Cause Marketing Forum's seventh-annual Cause Marketing Halo Awards recognize companies that team up with nonprofit organizations to help a variety of causes. "The Cause Marketing Halo Awards demonstrate the good that can be done when businesses and nonprofits team up," says David Hessekiel, president of the Cause Marketing Forum, an organization he founded in 2002. "It's a competition in which we all win."

According to Mr. Hessekiel, cause-marketing spending is projected to reach $1.57 billion this year.

Topping this year's winners are Timberland and Share Our Strength, which won the Cause Marketing Golden Halo Awards for their long records of innovation and achievement in cause marketing.

In addition, 18 category awards are being presented:

Best National/Local Integration:

• Gold: Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities: KPMG and Major League Baseball
• Silver: Trees for Troops: FedEx and the Christmas Spirit Foundation

More: http://adage.com/goodworks/post?article_id=136888

The Cause Marketing Forum produces an annual conference, workshops, teleclasses and causemarketingforum.com, a website offering free resources to businesses and nonprofits interested in developing such programs.

Just say no

A recent listserve query got me thinking about a topic: How to say no to a volunteer leader without offending his or her sensibilities.

Saying no to a volunteer is tough because many board members are not used to hearing "no." Often board members are senior-level leaders who are used to issuing directives to agreeable subordinates.

But resources, particularly staff time and money, are finite. And in this economic climate, associations cannot afford to devote resources to issues, requests, directives from an individual without support of the board of directors.

Without giving up too many trade secrets, here's my process for dealing with the situation:

1. Ask questions about the idea, request, directive.
   What's the objective? Who should be involved? What's your timeline? etc., so he or she understands I'm listening to his or her idea, not just dismissing it.
2. Determine strategic fit
   Determine how he/she feels the idea, request, directive fits into the strategic plan. Get him/her to flush out the idea, perhaps he/she will realize it's not on mission -- or you'll realize it is.
3. Refer to the budget
   If the idea, request, directive isn't included in the budget, that's a stop sign many board members are willing to accept. Depending on the situation, give him/her a brief cost analysis, including staff time and opportunity cost.
4. Present it as an either/or an option
   If they are insistent despite the budget argument, present them with a counter-weighted option: What are you willing to give up to devote resources to this idea, request, directive?
5. Revisit the idea
   Offer to revisit the idea when the strategic plan and/or budget are up for review.
   

I'm also fortunate because I work for an association management company. Our volunteer leaders hire and retain us to be experts in managing associations. They often look to us as consultants and partners who share in the development of ideas and creation of a strategic direction for our association clients.

Sometimes it's in the organization's best interest to say no.

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts from other association staff members.