2007: Year of the New Association Blogger

As the days of 2007 start winding down, it's time for my second annual year-end superlatives for the association blogoclump. I'll try to stick as close as possible to the same awards I presented last year. Overall, I think 2007 could be called The Year of the New Association blogger. It seemed association blogs were springing up on a monthly basis. Choosing a best new blogger of 2007 could be challenging, but the choice is clear in my mind. Without further ado, here are my 2007 top picks:

For the second consecutive year, the best association blogger of 2007 award goes to J-Nott, also known as Jamie Notter, the author of GetMeJamieNotter.com and a contributor to AlwaysDoneItThatWay.com and AssociationRenewal.com. Jamie makes time to post to one of his blogs virtually every day, and his posts are almost zero fluff. From book reviews, to citing posts on ASAE & The Center's executive management listserv, to the Harvard Business Review, J-Nott covers important issues for association leaders.

The best blog about associations in 2007 was Acronym, ASAE & The Center's official blog. Regular postings from staff Lisa Junker and Scott Briscoe as well as this year's more prolific guest bloggers, Jason Della Rocca (a whippersnapper CEO from IGDA) and Virgil Carter (a veteran association CEO) have made this blog a true cornerstone of conversation in the association profession.

These next two awards are the hardest...

The best new association blogger. Sheesh! There are so many to choose from, and so many are good friends. Let me differentiate the criteria between this award and the next one, best new blog about associations. For best new association blogger, I'm looking for an elusive combination of association-specific content, ability to let personality shine through the blogged word, someone who gets the social aspect of blogging, and willingness to take on significant issues. Here are the nominees:

• Matt Baehr (and don't forget 501(c)TV)
  
• Cindy Butts
• Jeff Cobb
• Cynthia D'Amour
• Kristi Graves Donovan
  
• Lindy Dreyer
  
• Joe Grant
  
• Maddie Grant
• Tony Rossell
  
• Dave Sabol (new to association blogging, anyway)
• Wes Trochlil
  
• Peter Turner
• Bob Wolfe
  

Let me whittle the list down to my top three: Matt Baehr, Maddie Grant and Wes Trochlil. In the final analysis, I think the edge goes to Maddie Grant, blogger at Diary of a Reluctant Blogger. First of all, it's nice to have a strong female voice back in the association blogosphere. She's unafraid of tackling significant issues, expressing a strong opinion, engaging in other social web stuff, and wearing a blog naked shirt in her profile picture. Heck, I even got a comment from her as I was composing this post.

Okay, best new blog about associations. This category is all about content: in 2007, who started the best, most useful, most frequently updated blog in the association industry? The nominees are the same as above. Again, I feel compelled to whittle it down to the top three, although I think there is a clear winner. My top three are Tony Rossell, Wes Trochlil and Peter Turner. Bottom line for me is that Tony Rossell at Membership Marketing Blog is holding both bloggers and the industry accountable. This year he went toe-to-toe with the anti-marketing meme at Acronym and The Decision to Join. He cites MGI client statistics and both secondary and primary research in his posts. For these reasons, he takes home the top spot for best new blog about associations.

Last year I had awards for the best and worst comments of the year. As the number of association-themed blogs has expanded this year, I've not been able to keep up with comments like I used to. Feel free to comment here with links to what you think are the best comments of the year. Moving on...

And now the most blogged and buzzworthy story/meme of the year. I'm seeing four candidates:

• The meme about why association execs don't read blogs. Summary post.
• The ASAE2007 (and subsequent Great Ideas Conference) mobile backchannel.
• Association blogoclump responds with an outpouring of support to a fellow blogger in need.
• Association growth meme.

Seeing as the ASAE2007 mobile backchannel reemerged at the Great Ideas Conference, I hereby bestow the honor on the backchannel. In all honesty, we could probably have had a "best of" awards ceremony for the ASAE2007 backchannel, and I presume the GIC2007 backchannel was just as lively.

A new award this year: coolest new social media thing of the year. Hands down, Matt Baehr's 501(c)TV is the winner because he broke the vlogging barrier, if only temporarily, for the association blogging crowd. I hope to see something continue.

And finally, another new award for this year: the best blog post of 2007. I bookmarked this post the day it came out, and even called it the best post of 2007 when I first read it. The honors go to the Forum Effect's coordinating blogger, Jeff De Cagna for this post about reality.

Hopefully this superlatives list will inspire others in the association blogoclump to post their own. If you were a winner in this year's superlatives, feel free to grab one of the two buttons in this post and emblazon it on your blog. Well done!

Tagged: Association Management; Associations; CAE; Certified Association Executive