Plain reads on membership, technology and the operating models that actually hold. Written for the people who run member organisations, not the people who sell to them.
A database does not retain members. Connection does. Everything here starts from that, and follows it into how associations are run, funded, and rebuilt for what membership has actually become.
For twenty years we built membership systems the way the whole industry built them, and we watched what the model does in year five and year ten. This is the honest account of what we built, why we stopped, and the question every member organisation should ask about its own platform.
Read the essayWhat makes a member stay is rarely the thing the renewal notice measures. The difference between a record and a relationship, and why most platforms only ever manage the first.
ReadNew essays in the series appear here as they are written. No schedule, no filler.
The writing is the thinking. NeXy is where it gets built. The best way to see the difference is a conversation with your actual requirements on the table.
Writing on how member organisations actually run, from twenty years inside their systems. No product announcements dressed as insight, no drip campaigns. An essay, when it is ready.
Unsubscribe any time, with one click, and it actually works.