--- title: "Turn Members Into Hackers (the Good Kind)" id: "43859" type: "post" slug: "turn-members-into-hackers-the-good-kind" published_at: "2018-08-22T03:58:13+00:00" modified_at: "2018-08-22T03:58:13+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2018/08/22/turn-members-into-hackers-the-good-kind/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2018/08/22/turn-members-into-hackers-the-good-kind.md" excerpt: "Associations can enlist their members to participate in quick-sprint hackathons to help develop new products and services. In exchange, participants get a highly engaging experience. Here’s what one hackathon looked like at #ASAE18." taxonomy_category: - "Meetings / Events" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "Hackathon" - "Innovation" - "Member Engagement" - "Membership" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "Director" - "Manager" taxonomy_persona: - "Association Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Turn Members Into Hackers (the Good Kind) Not all hackers are bad. Some hack for good. And increasingly, [hackathons](https://associationsnow.com/2014/06/users-guide-hackathons/) are becoming a popular way to drive innovation and solve problems. It may sound high-tech, but these events don’t require much in the way of resources or budget, according to Jamie Murdock, vice president of sales at Experient, who spoke to attendees in a [Deep Dive session (opens in a new tab)](https://annual.asaecenter.org/profile.cfm?profile_name=session&master_key=E7862C43-B1AE-1DAB-F1AB-F7F71AC1BC0A&page_key=F4458708-F33E-21D2-BFC7-58C1D87E59A0&xtemplate&userLGNKEY=0) Tuesday at the 2018 [ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition (opens in a new tab)](https://annual.asaecenter.org/) in Chicago. “Hackathons are what I call beautiful chaos,” Murdock said. “It’s about being messy and creative and channeling that into innovation.” Your typical hackathon is a 24- or 48-hour sprint with just a few ground rules. Teams must use a specific tool to solve a specific problem. Then, they are left to their own devices to think and build something quickly. Murdock said he likes to incentivize a hackathon with fun prizes to get “competitive juices flowing.” And while you might think of hackathons as a design or product development method for techies, Murdock said they work for all types of organizations. He cited [Redfin (opens in a new tab)](https://redfin.engineering/hackathon-at-redfin-1dff4e7b141e) , [Cornell University (opens in a new tab)](http://events.cornell.edu/event/health_hackathon) , [Cleveland Medical (opens in a new tab)](https://clevelandmedicalhackathon.com/) , and [Hilton (opens in a new tab)](https://hiltonhackathon.splashthat.com/) as good examples of organizations that host annual or semiannual hackathons. For associations, hackathons can be a great way to engage members, especially those looking to volunteer through some hands-on work. In return, the participants get a highly engaging experience with nonstop peer-to-peer networking and learning. A few ASAE members got into the hacking spirit at this year’s Annual Meeting. Here’s how it played out. ### Hacking #ASAE18 Over a 24-hour period from Monday morning to Tuesday morning, a group of members met to rethink common component relations techniques, tools, and practices. Four teams were created before the conference, each with a different component relations challenge to address, and four team captains were designated: Christina Hartle, CAE, director of chapter relations for the Mid-Atlantic Region at American Inns of Court; Peggy Hoffman, president of Mariner Management and Marketing, LLC; Charlotte Muylaert, marketing leader at Billhighway; and Lindsay Currie, director of stakeholder engagement at Regulatory Professional Society. Currie’s team was tasked with creating a volunteer leadership portal, and in a single day onsite, they designed a blueprint for a digital tool that makes volunteer matching easier. “We decided to build a flexible tool that could identify certain skill sets,” she said. To get to the finish line, the team used free or easy-to-use collaboration tools, including LinkedIn Groups, ASAE’s Collaborate network, and Google Docs. And while they met for the first time on Monday, they did a lot of remote preparation and groundwork beforehand. “Start by talking to your team in advance and find a common set of tools to do the work,” Currie said. “Our topics and teams were formed online. We did an online survey to secure our challenge concept and relied on networks to introduce teams to the hackathon concept.” While most Annual attendees left Chicago with more knowledge and expanded networks, Currie and her team members got something extra: a prototype for a new volunteer leadership portal, which they called Flex. “It’s named Flex because it’s a tool designed to match members based on specific needs or skill sets,” she said. “It can be used in so many flexible ways, and we hope it makes the volunteering process easier.” Have you hosted a hackathon to develop a new product or service? How did you involve members? What tips or tricks did you learn along the way? Post your comments below. (vgajic/E+/Getty Images Plus) [Tim Ebner](https://associationsnow.com/author/tim-ebner/) Tim Ebner is communications director and press secretary at the American Forest & Paper Association in Washington, DC. He is a member of ASAE’s Communication Professionals Advisory Council and a former Associations Now senior editor. [More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/tim-ebner/) Tags: [#Hackathon](https://associationsnow.com/tag/hackathon/) [#Innovation](https://associationsnow.com/tag/innovation/) [#Member Engagement](https://associationsnow.com/tag/member-engagement/) [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/) **Stay Informed** [Subscribe to our free newsletter](https://associationsnow.com/newsletter/) , *Associations Now Daily News*, to find out what’s happening in the association world every business day. ## You Might Like - [PodcastAssociations Now Presents: Beyond the Tech Stack: How AI Is Changing the Association PlaybookOctober 29, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/10/29/associations-now-presents-beyond-the-tech-stack-how-ai-is-changing-the-association-playbook/) - [ArticleWe Are All Community Builders: Strengthening the Vital Aspect of Associations That AI Can’t ReplicateOctober 6, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/10/06/we-are-all-community-builders-strengthening-the-vital-aspect-of-associations-that-ai-cant-replicate/) - [ArticleHow to Spot Members at Risk of Lapse Before They LeaveAugust 5, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/08/05/how-to-spot-members-at-risk-of-lapse-before-they-leave/) - [PodcastAssociations Now Presents: Beyond the Contract: Building Stronger Destination PartnershipsSeptember 24, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/24/associations-now-presents-beyond-the-contract-building-stronger-destination-partnerships/) ## Comments **Comments are for ASAE members.** [Learn more about comments on this site.](https://associationsnow.com/comments/) [Log in](https://associationsnow.com/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fassociationsnow.com%2F2018%2F08%2F22%2Fturn-members-into-hackers-the-good-kind%2F%23comments) to your member account or [join ASAE](https://my.asaecenter.org/select-a-membership-type/) !