The Modern Membership Org

Chris Walton is back. More than 45 unions have replaced their systems through the ACTU's Union Innovation Hub, and he has watched every one of them. Riley Miller asks him what union leaders should learn from that before they start. His first answer is blunt: never do a custom build from scratch. From there Chris walks through why unions put the decision off, what goes wrong with each of the usual routes, and why starting from a shared base lets a union put its time and budget into the part that's truly its own. He also explains why he skips the long requirements phase, the three things that still sink projects (data, the person running it day to day, and change management), and why go-live is the starting line. The conversation covers checkoff, AI, and what North American unions might bring to the Hub. If you lead a union with a system decision anywhere on the horizon, this one's for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep20 🔗 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 #Unions #UnionLeadership #iMIS #MembershipManagement #LabourMovement #BurstingSilver

Jeremy Jalie spent seven years selling a general CRM platform into UK membership organizations before coming back to ASI. James Harrison asks him what he saw from the other side. His answer starts with the gap between what organizations want and what they need. The wants are data tools, automation and AI features that demo well. The needs are membership, renewals, subscription finance, events and education, and a general CRM ships with almost none of them. Somebody has to build that part, and it follows you for years: who funds product development, how flexible you really are, and what it costs the day you want to change partners. Jeremy also covers the UK market, where AI adoption really stands in UK associations, and the Datascout and iMIS features he has been most excited to get back to. If you lead or work in a membership organization, this one's for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep19 ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open: what you are really buying with a general CRM 1:01 Riley introduces Jeremy Jalie 3:04 From ASI client, to ASI, to a CRM partner, and back 6:49 What a membership organization gets on day one 8:36 Need versus want 10:58 The 80 / 15 / 85 picture: you are buying the partner 12:46 Tight budgets and a services business model 15:31 Starting further ahead, and who funds product development 17:37 Sprint reviews and features every client gets 18:36 The flexibility that isn't there 20:07 "We want to change our CRM partner" 22:01 National bodies in the UK, provincial regulators in Canada 27:09 Where UK associations really are with AI 32:16 Datascout, IQA, and segmentation in plain English 35:41 The Personalization Paradox 37:21 Clowder, TopClass, and OpenWater 43:20 Specialist organizations need specialist tools 44:46 Riley's close 🔗 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 #CRM #Datascout #BurstingSilver

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