It’s not always fun to hear, but your work as an association lends itself to one thing: a whole boatload of complaints.

Your members complain, your conference attendees complain. Heck, even your staff might complain.

Eric Lanke, the CEO of the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA), says that he and his employees dealt with a lot of these complaints at his association’s last event—which vary in severity from chair placement in the convention center to the length of the conference itself.

But rather than having his association put all of its energy into those little frustrations, they’re keeping a closer eye on the performance indicators NFPA created for its conference: Who attended and how did they rate the conference after the fact?

“This put a whole new spin on the question of which comments to act on and which not,” Lanke writes in his blog post. “Because now there was an even more compelling question to answer. How had we done on our key performance indicators?”

In other words, putting those spare complaints in the context of the data being collected helps you decide which issues you really need to focus on.

Ask Yourself These Questions

A series of simple questions can lead you to a more streamlined work day. #AssnChat #EventProfs #Nonprofits https://t.co/k5LWeuxYBA

— ESSAE (@EmpireStateSAE) August 22, 2016

If you’re not careful, your day can be taken up by an array of meaningless tasks that fail to move you toward your larger goals.

At Fast Company, writer Gwen Moran breaks down a series of questions to ask yourself as you work to meet your goals.

One of the questions is particularly pointed: “Would anyone notice if I quit doing this task?” (If the task is me writing this article, yes, they probably would. Just sayin’.)

Check out Fast Company for more.

Other Links of Note

If you’ve recently upgraded to the latest version of Windows 10, you might have noticed that your USB-powered webcam isn’t working so well anymore. You can blame Microsoft for that. (They’re sorry, and they plan to eventually fix the problem.)

Need to know what your options are when it comes to social media tools? This Search Engine Watch post lays out dozens of ways to share your content.

Do the members of your nonprofit’s board enjoy the process of fundraising? No? Well, Network for Good has some ideas to make the idea more appealing to them.

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