There’s a person who feels like the one piece that holds your entire team together—but she just told you she’s quitting. Hyperventilating yet? Then just imagine how the Olympic snowboarding team feels right about now.

The tale of Shaun White in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Essential, but Gone

You don't have 2B an Olympian 2B important to your team's success. What happens when a team member quits? http://t.co/uCWT9TurpV #assnchat

— DelCor (@delcor) February 7, 2014

If there was a certain redheaded snowboarder you were hoping to see conquer the Olympic slopestyle course in Sochi, we have some bad news for you: Shaun White took a step back, choosing to focus instead on defending his gold medal in the halfpipe. This was a bummer for snowboarding fans; White would have been a huge draw for the new event. Delcor’s Eric Magnuson notes that the story offers a good lesson on what happens when you lose a crucial team member. “Shaun’s self-removal from an event to which his popularity was elemental calls to mind what can happen on a project team when one of the core members leaves,” he writes. “Sure, the association environment may be warmer, less thrilling, and unwatched by most of the world. But when you’re the project manager or business owner, the impact feels as big.” Magnuson discusses a similar situation that happened to a colleague and how the vendor’s team is working to regroup as a result. Side note: Check out this month’s issue of Associations Now, which features volunteer board members discussing a similar hypothetical involving a departing CEO. (ht @delcor)

Cost-Benefit Ratio

Three Things that Make Expensive Conferences Worth It http://t.co/uH2fydzukL via @MemberClicks #csae #assnchat

— Meagan Rockett (@rockettm) February 7, 2014

Justifying a conference’s value: Going to that big, expensive meeting is always a little scary—because it’s big and expensive. You wonder, is it worth it? (And so does your boss.) But as MemberClicks’ Sarah Hill notes, there’s plenty of reason to occasionally invest in attending a premium event—even if it might cost you an arm and a leg. Among the points Hill makes: You’ll potentially come home with some hugely worthwhile ideas, often from talking to industry peers. “Some are fully formed and some are half-thoughts and they’re not all winners, but there’s always a ton of thinking and planning to do when I get back,” she writes. “Sometimes they turn into game changers!” If you can’t make it, she says, there’s always social media to keep up with the happenings onsite. (ht @rockettm)

Ever bite the bullet to pay for an event that was just outside of your budget? Tell us about it in the comments.

U.S. Olympic snowboarder Shaun White. (photo by John Lemieux/Flickr)