The following guest post is from our friend Sterling Raphael. While possibly having the coolest name ever, he also knows a ton about associations and web presence. So enjoy!

The world has changed and expectations for associations have changed as well. While large associations are investing time and money to come up with the best way to evolve, many MPI Chapters are struggling with the resources needed to overcome their challenges.

From my interaction with many MPI Chapters, there are a few common challenges:

•    Limited or inefficient online tools to facilitate collaboration and relevance
•    Difficulty connecting to and leveraging social media outlets to create awareness and drive participation
•    Understanding best-practice efforts from other MPI Chapters
•    Having disconnected or fragmented communication, brands, or data
•    Not having the staff or financial resources to respond change

NFi Studios considers it an honor to partner with MPI and to provide online solutions saving Chapters' valuable time and resources.  Here are a few steps to how you can take advantage of these online solutions:

Define Chapter Website Needs
A Chapter can be definitive about their online needs by producing a technology audit on what systems that are in use at present, including (but not limited to), their: Content Management System (CMS), Job Bank, Email Newsletter System, Event Registration, Surveys, and Member Database.

Once all the above systems are identified a Chapter should look at how all the systems are working together now, and then what the ideal scenario would be for seamless integration and workflow between systems. The gap between where the Chapter is now, and the ideal scenario, defines the need.

Solicit Member Feedback
Survey your members. The most important aspect is the questions you should be asking. It is best not to ask questions on what systems to use, but rather ask members for their suggestions or how they foresee how things can be improved, or where they’ve experience difficulties.

Use tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Survey Monkey or a Blog to solicit member feedback to understand what they’re looking for on your Chapter Website. Also make sure to leverage any website analytics tools you may have to measure activity.

Contact NFi Studios:
Sterling Raphael
Sterling at NFiStudios dot com
@SterlingRaphael

More than ever I am watching exactly where my money goes. My memberships, subscriptions and fun extras have all feared the hatchet this past year in an effort to clean house and prioritize value.  Not always pleasant, but what remains is smart and more in-line with my goals and personal strategy. Business is no different, and a new program that brings that same strategic, prioritized value to our partners.

Meg Fasy and her team here at MPI developed MarketSmart Business Solutions. And as skeptical as I tried to be with a critical eye on how to communicate the real value to our members, they managed to convince me of three really important things.

1. It’s Customized – With more than 100 products to choose from (including webinars and OGS presentations) you can customize your purchase to fit your unique company. Not only can you sponsor events and advertise with MPI products, but you will also be able to throw in a donation to the MPI Foundation. MarketSmart is like your own personal a la carte combo meal. Boston MarketSmart.

2. It’s Easy – How much do you want to dedicate to MPI? There are five different levels of partnership for you to choose from, Choice, Preferred, Signature, Premiere and Elite. Pick one and you’re done.

3. It’s Personal – My favorite touch… Cheri, Sandy, Katri and Denise. One of these fine ladies is ready to help you through your easily customizable marketing campaign at any hour of the day. They not only guide you through tough advertising and sponsorship decisions, but they have an invested interest in making your company a true partner.

Click here to enjoy our premiere Engage podcast featuring Meg Fasy, Vice President of Marketplace Performance, describing the development of MarketSmart Business Solutions. For more information, please visit www.mpimarketsmart.org.

That’s what we call mutually beneficial opportunities in our office. Not only does the opportunity or task create benefits for two or more parties, but it also reminds us of our IT guru/office mascot, Phu Nguyen. Whenever he’s around, it’s a Nguyen-Nguyen situation. And so is this…

The MPI Foundation Silent Auction from March 8 – 29 will benefit the MPI Foundation and help distribute scholarships to those in need. Therefore, bidding on an item in the MPI Foundation Silent Auction is a direct contribution to the future of your profession, a benefit to your mental health via relaxation and travel, and an overall vote of confidence in the infrastructure of the travel industry as a whole.

It's the ultimate. It's a Nguyen-Nguyen-Nguyen.

From our MPI team member, Brooke Dillier:

One of the key themes running throughout today's knowledge sessions centered around the telling of stories.  Stories can be told, written and shared in so many ways.  One such way that continues to evolve - is the story told through Twitter.  MPI's EMEC audience has taken its conversation to the digital Twitter streets, in such a comprehensive and smart way, I felt compelled to commend and thank the Twitter story tellers of EMEC 2010.  As a virtual attendee of EMEC 2010, I was able to quickly piece together the events of today, and obtain solid images of what happened throughout the sessions and events.

By no means did I get the same experience you all did onsite but from 8,098 kilometers away from the event site, I sure got to know what you were experiencing and how you felt.  Your Twitter posts were content-centric, and supplemented with real time photos and video footage - all helping to paint a fabulous story book of the day's activities.

This cohesive combination of technology and face to face experiences, truly embodied the value of hybrid events.  In the digital words of @bmacmpi "technology is not either or, it's the reality."

To give you some idea of the story as it unfolded for me this morning, here are a stream of Twitter posts that impressed me:

@RuudWJanssen: #emec10 building digital game plan by Sam Smith in spacey room 

@RuudWJanssen: 16 MPI singers on stage cocreating a song #emec10 "make it and they will come, cocreate it and they're already there"

@RichardLambLive: Just a message for back home: we're so at work here #emec10 ...NOT ;) http://yfrog.us/0ssqzz

@samueljsmith: Try a Sample of the Awesome food at #emec10 

@RuudWJanssen: #emec10 political intelligence good metaphor gazelle/lions/giraffes by Dave Bancroft turner in exec track sala 2 excellent 2 session start

@MrsBarbican: #emec10 great mindset for the conference after great session with Jon Bradshaw!

@a6walker: Learning about 3 steps of Personal Branding: Extract (Self Discovery), Express (Communication Plan) and Exude (Networking) #emec10

@miguelseven: Playing pong live at the #emec10 with all 400 people. Excellent tech from#swarmworks fun and memorable. Great start to our day!

@RichardLambLive: Check this semi-live Swarm Gaming video http://yfrog.us/0iizxz#emec10

@RichardLambLive: Some of the spotted Trends during the Big Brainstorm #emec10http://bit.ly/bvqsHs

@RichardLambLive: Impression of the Big Brainstorm #emec10 http://bit.ly/dy2JRk

@RichardLambLive: Big Brainstorm at #emec10 was very inspiring. Lots of trends found & translated into innovations 4 Meetings & Events http://twitgoo.com/fcorb

Keep it up Twitter Story Tellers - I look forward to experiencing the event through all of you again tomorrow!

From our MPI team member, Brooke Dillier:

The Monday morning of EMEC 2010 started off with a high energy, content rich keynote presentation by Jim Lawless.  Jim first challenged the audience to ponder, "What have you come here to do ladies and gents?"   MPI's Director of Events, Bridget Sypolt, took copious notes - recounting some of the valuable life/career rules Jim shared with the audience:

• Act Boldly
• Write your own rule book - Challenge it hourly
• It's all in the mind
• The tools for taming tigers are all around you
• No safety in numbers
• Do something a little scary every day
• Understand and control your time to create change
• Create disciplines - do the basics brilliantly
• Never give up - If you have to give up on something, give up when things are good and choose another path

Jim encouraged us to tame the Tiger within us all.  The 'Tiger' is the thing that stops us from doing something and achieving our goals.  Sometimes we have to turn off our inner mind and move past the inner dialogue that tiger can conjure up.  Jim shared a personal example of speaking before a crowd.  If your inner voice tells you, "You Suck. You're Ugly," tell it to shut up and move on - you can overcome this tiger.  Jim closed with the thought that we are all writing the story of our lives every day. Someday we will look back and wonder if we wrote our story or if the tiger stopped us from writing.  Jim gave us so much to think about personally and professionally, with these strong concepts in mind.

All of those attending EMEC 2010 received  a free copy of Jim's book.  Thanks MPI for this content contribution!  The free books were in high demand - the audience responded positively to this keynote address.  The Twitter boards went wild.  @mediacoach: Jim Lawless. Stunning presentation #emec10  Never, never give up/ I believe this was Edison's philosophy too!