Nearly six months ago, you might have found yourself working remotely for the first time in your professional life.

At the time, everyone was looking for ways to stay productive, and largely scrambling.

With a few months of benefit, a series of new, useful tools have emerged, many of them lesser-known software offerings that can make life easier when working out of the comfort of your living room.

These tools can boost your productivity, make conference calls more bearable, and even improve communication with your team.

Much of the focus on volunteer leader education and orientation is on the board of directors—and rightly so. If the board is dysfunctional, the whole organization will likely follow suit. After the importance of the board comes the importance of committee and task force function.

A board depends on effective committees and task forces to get its strategic and generative work done. If a board has to manage dysfunctional committees and task forces or do committee work, it cannot meet its goals and potential.

Many habits of high-functioning boards hold true for committees and task forces:

When the Trump campaign held its rally in Tulsa, Okla., in June, attendees were asked to sign a waiver releasing the organizers from liability if a participant got sick from the coronavirus.

Here’s what they asked attendees to sign, according to a report by CBS News: "By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury."

Data can be king when it comes to digital marketing, but what data can bring the best results? These five simple stats will not only get you from strategy to wrap up, but they are also scalable for all levels of investment and relevant to both virtual and live events.

Before starting your campaign, look at the data you already have: registration stats, website search results, and document downloads.

For many association pros, technology is a common part of life, but understanding what it actually does to make your association better can feel a bit cloudy. (And not just because most of what we do these days is being managed in the cloud.)

Association executives increasingly need to understand the integration of technology, especially if they are in a small-staff organization where there simply isn’t room for a dedicated technology executive on the team.

Cloud computing was once a nice to have—but over time, it’s increasingly become something of a business imperative, especially after the pandemic changed priorities (and work environments) for many associations.

In the past, it was pitched as a great way to save money on functions that were previously handled in-house.

But some who have looked at their bills of late might not feel quite that way.