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Conversation about Great Ideas is continuing online: David Gammel wants to empower you to make changes to your website! In a recent post on the High Context blog, he shares his Great Ideas slides about how to do just that. Jeff Cobb of the Mission to Learn blog was inspired by Dan Roam’s presentation at Great Ideas (I particularly like the drawing Jeff shares). At the face2face blog, Sue Pelletier continues the conversation about Twitter at Great Ideas. More Great Ideas videos are now available online, including Patti Digh’s general session presentation, as well as Bob Carr of SHRM talking about meeting strategies in a down economy, Howard Horowitz of the American College of Healthcare Executives on taking education programs online, and Carolyn Fazio of Fazio International on creating contracts with your volunteers. Ann Oliveri has some thoughts about being human at the Zen of Associations blog, inspired by Patti Digh’s talk and other conversations she had at Great Ideas. And last but not least, a bunch of new photos were added to the Great Ideas Flickr pool since we all returned from Miami.

What would you do if you only have 37 more days?? I am sure most of us will be mentioning this morning’s closing speaker, Patty Digh. Her talk was very personal and I was impressed with the emotional and intellectual response I had to her presentation. It was personal in the fact that I think, from observation, that it impacted each of us at a level much deeper than just our profession. She spoke about being able to live each day to the fullest and do those things that are a value to you. Don’t do something because of fame you may receive or the accolades….do it because it means something to you. Be selfish but selfless. Realize that you are part of a larger community and that what you do impacts that community as much as that community impacts you. The greatest idea is to take a step back and look at the big picture. If you were unable to attend the meeting and are looking for a great takeaway, I do suggest looking at a copy of her book Life is a Verb . If anything, the pictures that are included will have a small impact on you and your great perspective.

There’s an “unsession” on vibrant volunteerism in associations going on throughout Great Ideas (brought to us by the Component Relations Council). The session has included both face to face conversation in the unsession area and “virtual” discussion via flipchart. The flipcharts are set up around the area with questions at the top; attendees can leave their answers whenever they’d like. Reading over the flipcharts, there’s some interesting thoughts being shared. (For those of you who aren’t here, leave a comment with answers of your own to these questions!) In one word, list your favorite volunteer management tool. – Telephone – Email – Twitter – Conversation – Trust/truth – Listen – Authentic appreciation and a hug [hey, that's not one word!] Why do you volunteer? – Fun – Love – Purpose – Loyalty – Improving my personal brand – Network – Give back What’s the most difficult volunteer skill to teach? – Set priorities – Delegation – Group play – Letting go – Time management – Conflict resoltion – Culture of inquiry – Innovation – Doing rather than thinking – Giving up ownership

Patti Digh, author of Life Is a Verb , spoke to a packed and emotional room at Great Ideas this morning–her talk moved a lot of people (myself included). Reading over my notes, it’s hard to pick one central point to highlight. One comment of Patti’s that really spoke to me personally was this: “We complain about the culture we’re in as if we’re only visitors here–but we create the culture!” It’s easy to complain to colleagues about things you can’t do because “our culture,” “the board,” or “the higher-ups” won’t allow it. But, Patti argued, your choices are part of what keeps that culture stuck in that same mode. Can you go to work tomorrow morning and announce to everyone that “We’re going to be completely different from now on!” and have it magically happen? Probably not. But you can make choices that lead to the culture you want rather than the culture you have. If you make those choices consistently and are committed to the change you want to make, you’ll inspire others. And once others are making choices that reinforce yours … powerful change can happen. Admittedly, that sounds easier than it really is; making choices that go against your organization’s existing culture, and making those choices consistently over time, is hard. But it can be done. It’s been done. You could do it too.

Hi and thanks for taking the time to peruse through a first time blog entry. As a later-comer to the not-so-new world of social media I wanted to find out first hand how to relate to these forms of communication. I am not entirely sure how integrative I want this all in my professional and personal lives. Yet the potential of social media to interconnect people in new ways is both intriguing and exciting. At the Great Ideas conference I decided to go “all in” and really follow other association bloggers who were present, listen to the discussions and try my hand (okay, pecking fingers) at tweeting content during the sessions. Thinking about it afterwards, I felt both exhilarated and a little overwhelmed about the experience. On one hand, listening to the live discussion and watching it translate into an online event through Twitter was amazing. At times there were discussions happening outside the classroom regarding the topic; then the occasional question came from the online world back into the session itself. Amazing! Here was an ability to engage an audience without significant high tech engagement and still carry the significance. Simultaneously I was following other folks tweeting about the other sessions I couldn’t attend. Wow! On the other hand, at times I simply couldn’t keep up with the flow. I am a bit older and a bit set in the ways I absorb information; as I clumsily worked my smartphone keyboard I would be distracted and miss part of the live discussion. The twitter stream was hard to grasp too – having to scroll back up to track the online comments, or doing a search for a hashtag were cumbersome tasks. Sometimes I felt that I couldn’t do justice to what the speaker was trying to communicate in 140 characters, resulting in an inadequate comment or not sending one at all. As a regular presenter and educator I wanted to not denigrate the information, even as the topic was ironically about social media. So, a week after my own internal experiment, where am I? Still interested and intrigued – heck, I’m even willing to embarrass myself through the occasional blog. I’m tweeting less, for which my nonassociation friends are grateful. My posts are more directed, working on content as well as style. I haven’t yet begun to figure out how to integrate/separate pure personal from pure professional. I’m not feeling as unconsciously incompetent (not knowing what I don’t know) as I did two weeks ago; yet I’m not sure if I’ve reached conscious incompetency (knowing what I don’t know). I certainly do thank the ASAE folks who helped me to work and understand this technology, whether in sessions or online. That’s the wonder and power of associations – getting great ideas from folks willing to help out!