Wednesday Buzz: Is Your Force Majeure Clause Strong Enough?

News headlines have been alarming lately. From the one-two punch of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma to scary geopolitical news, you can’t blame people for canceling trips to meetings.

In this tumultuous time, you may want to give your force majeure clause a second look, says a recent post from MeetingsNet  (opens in a new tab). Standard force majeure clauses protect both you and meeting venues from unforeseen circumstances that make it impossible for an event to be held as scheduled. But what happens when people decide to cancel even though dangerous weather or other risks aren’t enough to prevent an event from occurring?

To avoid a big financial loss, meeting professionals should “negotiate to include verbiage that would make it possible to invoke force majeure several days before the event is scheduled to begin,” writes Sue Pelletier.

She spoke with Joshua Grimes, president of Grimes Law Offices LLC, who advises event professionals to add words like “impracticable” and “inadvisable” to expand the parameters of the force majeure clause.

Valuable Assets

https://twitter.com/Moz/status/905281666968629249  (opens in a new tab)

Even the best organizations can catch criticism on social media. But online community advocates can go a long way to help combat the negativity.

A Moz blog post  (opens in a new tab) recommends that nonprofits take advantage of user-generated content to counter negative perceptions and engage audiences year-round. Moz suggests hosting a photo contest via social media. “Photos submitted during the contests could be used as individual posts on social media or remixed across videos, blog posts, or as a starting point for further conversation and promotion development with the individuals,” writes Michelle LeBlanc.

The contest not only helps with generating content but also helps increase positive interaction on your social pages.

Other Links of Note

In some professions, the gender gap is getting worse. CMSWire delves into this issue and questions whether it can change  (opens in a new tab).

Is your organization optimized for mobile? The Capterra Nonprofit Technology Blog  (opens in a new tab) provides a guide for reaching mobile members.

Infographic of the day. CenterCard takes a look at budget complexities  (opens in a new tab).

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