The Modern Membership Org

Michele Morgan runs the iMIS Users Group on a staff she describes as "maybe two whole people." That team serves more than 600 member organizations and somewhere between five and seven thousand individuals. She closes on Emergence, the merged iUG annual conference and ASI iNNOVATIONS event landing in Arlington this November, and on why she thinks showing up in person still matters. Her worry is specific. Not that people stop meeting, but that the ideas they would have picked up off each other never get generated at all. If you lead, work in, or build for a membership organization, this show was built for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep18 🎟 Emergence 2026, Arlington, early November: https://emergence.imis.com Early early bird promo code for new registrants: emergence26eeb Register with your ASI login, not your iUG credentials. ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open: there is a lot of power in getting together 1:05 Riley introduces Michele Morgan and the iMIS Users Group 2:09 What Emergence is, and why two conferences became one 4:17 The early 90s at NKBA, and picking iMIS out of three packages 5:54 Volunteering her way in, and 23 years leading the organization 7:14 The biggest misconception: iUG is not ASI 9:27 What independence buys you 11:01 How member feedback actually reaches the product 12:21 Ellen's story, and the emails that make Michele's week 14:11 Amazing volunteers, and the growth from 75 companies to 600 15:58 The iUG Community Impact Award 18:07 Why compete for the same education dollars 19:35 Two whole people, and what to carry out of Arlington 20:52 More than just tech: who the conference is actually for 24:29 Registering for Emergence, and the early early bird code 26:00 The one takeaway: you can't break it, you can only scar it 28:11 What iUG membership includes, and how to reach Michele 🔗 About Bursting Silver We're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America. Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/ LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the show Instagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/ X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilver Facebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138 TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilver YouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 Music Fresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-start Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw #TheModernMembershipOrg #Associations #iMIS #MembershipManagement #iMISUsersGroup #Emergence2026 #Volunteers #BurstingSilver

Members hand their organizations a lot of information about themselves. Career profile, specialization, event history, courses taken, years of service. Then they get an email back that reads as though the relationship started this morning. Neil Gray used to write those emails, and he never forgot how it felt to receive one. Neil is the CRO at Datascout. He came at this from two directions: 25 years in B2B sales and marketing, mostly financial services, and years of volunteering with food banks, Meals on Wheels, and as a mentor for business associations. The volunteering is where he learned the constraint behind everything else in this conversation. A small number of people managing a very large remit, everyone wearing a lot of hats, almost no room to specialize. That is where the paradox he named in his iMIS Users Group webinar comes from. The interactions that work best are the personal ones, and personal does not scale. Riley Miller takes him through what to do about it anyway: the difference between a renewal reminder and a renewal argument, why Netflix appears to know a member better than their own professional association does, what the first 90 days has to accomplish, and where a chatbot earns its place, which is routing rather than deflecting. If you lead or work in a membership organization, this one's for you. 📄 Show notes and full transcript: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep17 ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open: the renewal email that only asks for money 1:12 Riley introduces the episode and Neil Gray 2:26 25 years in B2B, food banks, Meals on Wheels 3:19 Small team, very large remit, no room to specialize 4:49 The personalization paradox, and how the webinar came to be 6:44 "Dear valued client," and the attention it costs you 9:48 Renewal reminder versus renewal argument 15:01 Competing with Netflix for attention, not for product 17:36 Nine seconds, and why your brand is not your logo 23:48 The first 90 days and buyer's remorse 27:40 Chatbots: routing, not deflecting 30:52 When does my membership expire, versus the unusual question 33:31 Be deliberate and thoughtful: Neil's closing summary 34:24 Where to reach Neil, and the move to biweekly episodes 🔗 Mentioned in this episode Datascout ▸ https://datascout.ai Reach Neil directly ▸ [email protected] Ep 16, Your Best Analyst Is Already on Staff ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep16 Ep 7, The 5 Hidden Mistakes Quietly Killing Your Member Retention ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep7 🔗 About Bursting Silver We're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America. Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/ LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the show Instagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/ X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilver Facebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138 TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilver YouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 Music Fresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-start Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw #TheModernMembershipOrg #iMIS #MemberEngagement #Personalization #Associations #AI #MembershipManagement #DataScout #BurstingSilver

Nobody sat down and decided to build a twenty year member history. It happened one interaction at a time. Event registrations, session attendance, course completions, committee service, volunteer hours, dues payments, emails, certifications. Jeff Spring says that pile is one of the most valuable assets a membership organization owns, and that most organizations have a hard time doing anything with it.Jeff has spent his career in the association space, first as an authorized solution provider in Seattle and then at ASI, where he works out of the ASI Center for Technical Excellence in Austin. He sits between clients, partners, consultants, ASI management and the development teams. James Harrison, fifteen years on the partner side with iMIS, runs the interview.Where they land: plain English reporting takes the specialist out of the middle of the question, so the person taking the member calls can ask about renewals herself and act on the answer that day. If you lead or work in a membership organization, this one's for you.📄 Show notes and full transcript: ⁠https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep16⁠⏱ Chapters0:00 Cold open: do not go looking for a system to settle a decision you have not made0:52 Riley introduces Jeff Spring and James Harrison3:03 Seventeen years as a partner, then the move to ASI in Austin4:53 How product decisions get made: an infinite backlog and a finite team6:37 The move to iMIS Cloud, and why listening to every request would have slowed it down8:03 What is new in the last ten years, starting with AI8:14 AI expectations arriving ahead of readiness8:56 The Amazon problem: expectations set by the market leaders9:33 Younger professionals, and why they may not join11:16 What has not changed: change management is the whole job11:57 Every organization is unique, and some of that is inherited12:47 Small organizations are not simpler, they do more with less13:06 The roast beef with both ends cut off15:05 Twenty and thirty years of member data, and iMIS customer number one16:18 What you have actually been collecting all this time17:15 Where to start: just start, and ask a question someone can answer18:00 Pull three years of non-renewals and look back 24 months18:30 iMIS Fusion, Microsoft Fabric, and Power BI with Copilot19:00 Make the staff guess, then check the data19:49 Give it an hour and a name20:37 Nobody needs an analyst in their title anymore21:50 Member health on the record, not a quarterly dashboard nobody opens22:56 None of this fixes bad data23:54 AI enhances people rather than replacing them24:44 What AI cannot do: connect people25:57 How to get heard: enhancements.imis.com and the monthly sprint reviews29:49 Top five for a big technology decision30:38 Talk to references who have been live for two years, not two months31:19 Any big technology project is really about people32:37 Your people and your data, for two very different reasons33:39 Riley wraps up🔗 About Bursting SilverWe're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America.Website ▸ ⁠https://www.burstingsilver.com/⁠LinkedIn ▸ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver⁠🌐 Follow the showInstagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilverFacebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilverYouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver🎵 MusicFresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarudCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-startMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw#TheModernMembershipOrg #iMIS #MemberData #AI #Associations #DataWarehouse #MembershipManagement #AssociationTech #BurstingSilver

Moira is the President of Ellipsis Partners, which works exclusively with associations and nonprofits on digital and technology strategy. She has over 30 years in association technology, 15 of them as a senior association staffer before she started advising them, and she has no platform to defend. In this episode she and Riley Miller walk the whole arc. What actually breaks before a leader starts a search, and why trust is the thing that goes first. How to tell a requirement from a feature. Why the champion of a new membership system should almost never be I.T. And why the vocal person everyone labels change resistant is usually the one who knows exactly where the system fails. If you lead or work in a membership organization, this one's for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and the full metaphor index: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep15 ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open: an AMS supports your competitive advantage 0:49 Welcome Moira Edwards, President of Ellipsis Partners 2:14 What the association's side of the table lets you see 3:32 Why replacing a system feels like hugging an elephant 4:14 The AMS with tentacles: revenue, events, certification, committees 6:22 Frustrated with your system, or actually ready to leave 7:05 When trust breaks: stale tickets, brittle changes, costly integrations 9:02 Matchmaking: not the perfect partner, the one you can live with 10:10 A hundred small cuts rather than one dramatic failure 11:14 Requirements tied to strategy, not a feature checklist 14:12 What does your association do better than anyone in the world 16:44 Breaking the elephant into bites 17:11 Unique, critical, expensive: the three things to listen for 18:51 The complex dues structure, and what it took to simplify it 19:53 When a selection gets treated as an IT project 22:12 Who should champion a new system, and why it is not IT 25:25 Listen to your mavericks, the people labeled change resistant 28:35 Choosing change versus having it enforced on you 29:42 Build your own criteria before you sit through a demo 33:21 Thirty years in, what still makes her optimistic 36:34 Wrap-up, plus where to find Moira 🔗 Moira Edwards + Ellipsis Partners Ellipsis Partners ▸ https://ellipsispartners.com AWTC, Association Women Technology Champions ▸ https://awtcglobal.org 🔗 About Bursting Silver We're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America. Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/ LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the show Instagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/ X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilver Facebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138 TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilver YouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 Music Fresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-start Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw #TheModernMembershipOrg #AMS #AMSSelection #Associations #iMIS #MembershipManagement #AssociationTech #BurstingSilver

A year ago, Bursting Silver gave everyone in the company access to ChatGPT and started running hackathons, lunch-and-learns, and working groups. It worked, until it became obvious the informal approach couldn't keep up with how fast AI moves. So the team formalized it: a 12-month AI adoption program called Project Navigate, named at a company retreat in St. John's, Newfoundland. In this episode, BSI CEO Al Povoledo joins Riley Miller to open the books on how the program actually works: a competency framework so people know what good looks like at their level, a self-assessment to find the gaps, optional training paths measured at the company level, governance guardrails that keep client member data out of AI systems entirely, and a working group that ships new skills, connectors, and policies every week. Al also gets honest about the hard parts, like catching people who outsourced their judgment to the machine, and shares the question he'd ask any leader before starting: are we ready? If you lead, work in, or build for a membership organization, this show was built for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep14 ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open — "This isn't going to take away your work" 0:49 Welcome back Al Povoledo 2:49 The informal year: hackathons, lunch-and-learns, ChatGPT for everyone 4:22 The St. John's retreat + naming Project Navigate 5:28 The working group: hired guns, SMEs, and the CEO in the room 7:05 Why the plan is 12 months 7:43 Four stages + four pillars: competency, assessment, training, policy, tools 10:20 An enablement program, not an expert factory 11:41 AI governance: guardrails on the bowling alley 12:48 Skill + connector sprawl: standardize half, experiment half 15:49 The rollout: weekly releases + a website built in a week 18:32 Client member data is job one — "It's not ours" 20:04 A head start, not a replacement 22:52 Optional courses, company-level measurement 24:30 Hardest part so far + biggest surprise 27:04 What changed after the retreat 29:00 The kickoff question: "Are we ready?" 30:37 Wrap-up + free AI adoption checklist 🎧 Listen on your platform of choice Spotify ▸ https://open.spotify.com/show/6293pjIqImlDM6sBJyW2tm Apple Podcasts ▸ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-modern-membership-org/id1893830462 Amazon Music ▸ https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/15cd6bb8-9048-4c3c-9571-78665dd91a1a/the-modern-membership-org iHeartRadio ▸ https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-modern-membership-org-330500783/ Castbox ▸ https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Modern-Membership-Org-id7169003 🔗 About Bursting Silver We're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America. Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/ LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the show Instagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/ X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilver Facebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138 TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilver YouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 Music Fresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-start Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw #TheModernMembershipOrg #AI #AIAdoption #AIGovernance #Associations #iMIS #MembershipManagement #BurstingSilver