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Our New Online Digs!
We are thrilled to introduce our new website! The site has truly been a labor of love, from the broad strokes to the tiniest details. We meticulously honed the design, accessibility, and layout of content – all to ensure it reflects who we are as people and as an organization. Here are some of the…
Client Success Stories: Hartford Medical Society Wins 2021 Merit Award for Excellence in Association Communications from ASAE
We’re proud to announce that our client, Hartford Medical Society (HMS), has been recognized by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) with a 2021 Merit Award! The Award showcases the work we did in collaboration with HMS to rebrand their website and revitalize their organization. The Gold Circle Awards competition is the premier association…
How I Invented the Association Management Company (AMC) Model
By Ben Markens, President and CEO It was my 50th birthday. I was at the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia, and my friend, Steve, asked me to meet him for a drink. I was attending an association meeting for the industry that I had worked and consulted in for almost 30 years. The association was…
Time to Embrace the Unconventional
By Kate Smith, Vice President of Operations Throughout my professional career, I’ve always enjoyed the unconventional. From theme parks and roller coasters to sharks and the Caribbean, my background has positively shaped my approach to association management. You may wonder, how does lifeguarding or running a theme park apply to membership development? How does tagging…
A Note to the Community
Eight minutes, 46 seconds. According to prosecutors, that’s the amount of time that George Floyd was pinned by the neck under a white Minneapolis police officer’s knee. When I saw the video footage, like so many others across the United States, I was enraged, saddened, and deeply disturbed. Since then, the memory of George Floyd…
Remote Work Was Horribly Isolating. Then I Did This.
By Beth Reed, Office Administrator We are living in a time of isolation. While I’m thankful that TMG works with associations and nonprofits, allowing us to operate virtually, it only took a few days of remote work to realize how alone I was feeling. Yes, I had plenty of work to keep me busy: plenty…
6 Tips for a Killer Association Virtual Engagement Strategy
By Irene Costello, Marketing Manager Hello COVID-19, goodbye annual conference in Florida. The shift from in-person to digital engagement in the association world has been sudden, ubiquitous, and, for some organizations, difficult. Despite challenges at the start, online programs have the potential to reach even more members than before by removing physical limitations and costs.…
How to End a Remote Workday – the Markens Way!
Associations and businesses fortunate enough to be working from home are facing new challenges: finding ways to communicate virtually, keeping active in an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, and getting their minds to stop focusing on work once the day is done. This can be particularly tricky if your home office is steps away from your living…
The Ultimate Guide for Operating Your Organization Remotely
COVID-19 has forced associations, membership organizations, and businesses to quickly shift to remote work. For some, this is an unprecedented shift. Luckily many of us are going through the same transition together. Wherever you are in the process, from getting started to making the most of your team’s resources during this new time, we’ve compiled…
Planning and Tracking Your Association’s Success
“If your association is as successful as you’d like it to be…then don’t change anything.” – Ben Markens Odds are, your association doesn’t fall into this category. Even the most successful companies and organizations across the globe consistently strive to improve. After all, what’s the worst enemy of progress? Complacency! Whether you want to grow…
Does Your Association Need a New Management Model?
If your association is struggling, you might be thinking about changing the program offering or dues structure. But what if the issue goes deeper, to the very way you run and operate the organization? There are four main models of association management, from volunteer-run all the way to full-service management from an association management company…
3 Ways to Motivate Member Volunteers
By Tessa O’Sullivan, Senior Account Manager As an association manager, I work with passionate volunteers every day. Then, after work, I become one of those volunteers! In my personal time I serve on the executive board for the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society. Not only do I take the minutes, attend meetings,…
Boards Gone Wrong!
How to do the Right Work as a Board Member Are you on an association or nonprofit Board of Directors? Take a moment to reflect. Do you find yourself spending more time volunteering than you would like or think you should be? Are you on the edge of burnout? If so, you might be doing…
3 Ways to Make Your Boring Name Badge Useful
No matter the conference, meeting, or event, you need to create name badges for your attendees. A well-done badge is essential to streamline networking, making introductions easier and name recall seamless. What’s in a name badge? Ideally, much more than a name! Done the right way, you can transform basic name badges into…
4 Ways to Keep Your Event Program Out of the Trash
When it comes to association conferences and events, an attractive, user-friendly program book may be the single most important material you give attendees. Done right, the event program will be a valuable resource that attendees will refer to throughout the event and maybe even keep as a guide when they return back to their office.…
Pics From Our 30th Anniversary Party
We recently celebrated our 30th anniversary with an open house at our office! We invited our community in to celebrate the milestone with us—and had some excellent food and drink, of course! Our city’s mayor, Domenic Sarno, even pronounced the day “The Markens Group Day” in honor of our 30 years in business. Check out a…
Would You Try This Crazy Approach to Event Marketing?
Here is the ultimate measure of association event success: You offer free registration to your next conference or workshop. After the event, you ask attendees to pay what they believe is fair, based on the value they received—and that number could be $0. Ultimately, you exceed revenue expectations. Sound like an insane stunt? The American…
4 Hot Topics Affecting Associations Today
There are associations for everything—even, believe it or not, for association professionals like us at TMG! We recently spent a great weekend in Chicago attending two conferences: the American Society of Association Executives’ (ASAE) annual meeting and the Association Management Company Institute’s (AMCI) AMCs Engaged conference. (That’s Ben, BW, and Lou at ASAE’s opening keynote…
