Dan Roam’s ability to communicate complex topics through pictures has always fascinated me.  The Back of the Napkin is one of my favorite books, and has been an invaluable help for me in communicating ideas and problem solving in our association.

Dan is now tackling the hardest part of health care/insurance reform:  How to explain it for America.  No small task – but I think his efforts are highly commendable.  No matter what your political affiliations or personal opinions may be, Dan’s illustrations are a great lesson in brevity and clarity.  His original post contains background information and guiding notes (make sure to read the comments for some great insight and differing opinions).  For convenience, his slideshare is embedded below.

What are your thoughts on the following?

• How have the white house AND opposition groups not picked up on this concept to help their own PR efforts?
  
• Instead of releasing an 1,100 page document for interpretation, wouldn’t a summary through visual keys and stats be easier and more effective?
• What’s missing from Dan’s summary?
  

photo by http://www.lighting-masters.com

These guys provide an obscene amount of relevant content and thought provoking discussions regarding the association community.  I’ve been crossing cyber paths with them for a few years, and just finally met Jeff (albeit briefly) at ASAE’s Future Leaders conference.  Why should you be following them?

Jeff De Cagna @pinnovation great blog, great presenter (spoke for our association recently), and one of those people you meet and just hope their intelligence rubs off on you via osmosis or something.  His weekly online chat through #assnchat has been a huge help for me personally.

Ben Martin, CAE @bkmcae great blog, group facilitator (thank you again for the google group, it’s a lifesaver), and thought leader.  I’ve heard he’s an awesome speaker as well – hope to meet him in the near future.

Make sure to follow these two, and have a great weekend!

When I started our family blog, naming it was easy.  But trying to name this blog is much harder than I anticipated. (see the working titles on the poll below for verification.)  Figured it would easier to crowdsource the project, and see what becomes of it.  If Best Buy’s CMO can ask everyone to participate in writing a job description for them, surely we can create a decent name for this space, eh?

WHY?

• We are constantly trying to justify the use of twitter and other social media channels for our association – and a simple exercise/example like this would be some extra ammo to use.
• This blog is kind of like my own experimental playground.  Why not have some fun with it?
  
• Other people’s ideas are always frequently often usually better than my own.
• It’s Friday, and hopefully a few of you out there are looking for a time-kill or distraction from the end of week wrap-up work!
  

Topics/Themes to be covered from time to time:

• Association Management
• Marketing
• Why Will Ferrell is the Funniest Man on the Planet
• Social Media Trends
• Sports
• “The Office”
• Pop Culture Potpourri
• Work/Life Balance (not my advice, just exploring this mythical concept…)

Thinking about the channels and entry points to this site, content shortened URLs, retweets and emails will be the primary vehicles for traffic.  At least a dozen people will see it… Then again, maybe there will be a surge in folks searching google for “random blog, topic undefined.”

PLEASE VOTE ON THE POLL BELOW & RETWEET FOR HELP!

LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING THE RESULTS – Thank You!

photo by sunderlandbookgroup.files.wordpress.com

My friend and fellow Leadership Academy classmate, Lauren, started this feature a while back on her blog . Love the concept, as it sheds some light on the popular #followfriday updates.  Its hard to describe why someone is worth following in 140 characters…and doesn’t seem very effective.  Sometimes a little explanation is helpful!

My picks this week (in addition to Lauren of course:)

Mizz Information -  @maggielmcg

Each time I read Maggie’s blog posts, I find myself saying “THAT’S IT!  That’s exactly what I was thinking!”  I’ve had the chance to pick her brain via email, phone, and about every other medium available – and can’t thank her enough for all the great tips, insight and generosity.  Awesome gal – make sure to follow her!

Mack Collier - @mackcollier

I think the sign of great thought/content is the number of times you refer back to it.  Not the amount of self-promotion included, or the prompting for follows from an individual…just the good stuff.  Mack’s blog posts and tweets are constantly on my list of resources passed along to colleagues and RTs…. and always provoke thought.  Thanks Mack – keep up the great work!

Do you have recommendations?  Pass them along – always on the lookout for more!

image by fredcavazza.net

1. % increase in productivity for users of social media in the workplace. Its the magical ROI # everyone wants to know, but can’t quantify yet!

2. # of injuries related to mobile web browsing/typing while scouring FB, Twitter, and others. This includes automotive related accidents (simply stating “texting” as the cause of an insurance claim isn’t sufficient or accurate any longer.)

3. # of new words created from S.M. usage (i.e. tweet, DM’d, Facebookin’, etc.) now approved by Webster’s and other official sources as official parts of the English vernacular.

4. % of S.M. users that consider each social media channel their preferred source of news. Has it replaced the Daily Show in 18-34s yet?

5. % of students that utilize S.M. channels as the preferred method of research.

I know there’s more to be researched. What would you like to see?

Journey is the greatest band ever. That has nothing to do with this blog, but still felt it necessary to state.

I’m a social media junkie – love seeing the landscape change hourly, and all that it allows us to do collectively.  And its an awesome distraction/time-kill.

*photo by The Despair, Inc.

I’m a young association professional, father, husband, soccer player, coach, and fanatic. Oddly, on some level  each one of these hats compliment the others.

5.  I started this blog to contribute on some level. Felt bad about leaching off all the great posts, information, and discussions going on.  We’ll see how it goes.

photo by Abundance Highway