The Modern Membership Org

Bursting Silver
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Non-Profit
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The Modern Membership Org with Bursting Silver is the podcast for leaders of associations, unions, and regulatory bodies who are done working around outdated systems and ready to build something better. Each episode brings together practitioners, technology experts, and organizational leaders to talk honestly about what it actually takes to modernize. From replacing legacy workflows and unlocking cleaner data, to adopting AI responsibly and empowering staff to do their best work.

  1. 2d ago

    The System Is the Smallest Part of the Change

    Ellen Turner has been on both sides of a system change. Years before she became a senior consultant at Bursting Silver, she was staff at a trade association when leadership announced a new system out of nowhere. The whole team's reaction: "Wait, what?" On her return visit to the show, Ellen and Riley dig into why the software you're moving to is usually the smallest part of the change. It's everything underneath that actually moves. Ellen breaks down what really shifts when you switch systems. The data structure changes. Reports staff have trusted for years break and need rebuilding. The navigation everyone runs on autopilot is suddenly brand new. Her analogy: buying a new car. You still know how to drive, but where's the light switch, and which stalk runs the rear wiper? Then it gets tactical. The trap of rebuilding your old system, workarounds and all, inside the new one. Why data cleanup has no magic wand (bots once created a thousand fake accounts in her database overnight). How automation moves staff from keying in forms to actual member engagement. And the budget advice Ellen stands behind after five-plus years of implementations: if money is tight, trim the scope of go-live, never the training. Every time she's seen a training budget cut, the organization spent the same money on support tickets within a month or two. Her Monday-morning to-do for any leader considering a change: get a representative sample of staff into the discovery sessions. Somebody in membership can't speak for what somebody in finance needs. If you lead, work in, or build for a membership organization, this show was built for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep12 ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open — make sure staff voices are heard 0:41 Welcome back + reintroducing return guest Ellen Turner 1:28 Ellen's path: trade association staffer to BSI consultant 2:25 Blindsided from the inside — "we're changing systems… wait, what?" 4:08 What actually moves when an organization switches systems 4:44 Data structure, broken reports, and brand-new navigation 5:55 Think of it like buying a new car — retraining muscle memory 7:32 The rebuild trap: recreating the old system, limitations and all 9:27 Weeding out workarounds — must-haves vs. old habits 10:31 EMS then vs. now: when the new features caught up to the hype 13:12 Data you can trust: bots, stale addresses, and no magic wand 16:35 Roles change too — from keying in data to member engagement 19:13 AI, efficiency, and finally getting to the back-burner list 20:33 The training budget trap — trim scope instead 22:24 Testing as training: get staff hands-on before go-live 24:26 Core vs. can-wait: how to phase the implementation 26:55 The one thing you shouldn't delay: data cleanup 28:29 Give staff permission to prioritize training time 31:11 Keep training sessions under 90 minutes — aim for an hour 32:41 The Monday-morning to-do: staff in the discovery room 34:19 Where to find Ellen + wrap-up 🔗 About Bursting Silver We're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America. Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/ LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the show Instagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/ X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilver Facebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138 TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilver YouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 Music Fresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-start Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw #TheModernMembershipOrg #Associations #iMIS #MembershipManagement #ChangeManagement #DigitalTransformation #BurstingSilver

  2. Jul 14

    People First: What It Actually Takes to Be a Great Place to Work

    Most companies treat "great place to work" as a line on the careers page. Will Cooper treats it as a practice. He's the Senior Manager of People & Culture at Bursting Silver, and his take is clear: his job isn't to own the culture or hand everyone a rulebook, it's to observe what the team has already built over 15 years, protect what works, and help it grow. That's how Bursting Silver landed its fourth straight Great Place to Work certification and two consecutive years on the Best Workplaces in Canada list. Will takes Riley behind the badge. How the certification actually works, and why it can't be gamed, an all-employee Trust Index Survey across five dimensions plus a culture brief, with anonymity he can personally stand behind. The five values the team rewrote last year. What People First looks like day to day, from manually reading every résumé to leaders who genuinely know their people. How a fully remote team stays close through the Gather virtual office and the annual retreat. And the hardest truth of the job: culture is never "done." His closing advice for any leader is refreshingly un-glamorous, it doesn't take fancy perks; invest in your people and remove the barriers to great work. If you lead, work in, or build for a membership organization, this show was built for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep11 ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open — a great workplace is built by your people 0:38 Welcome + introducing Will Cooper, Senior Manager of People & Culture 2:02 Will's path: Ireland to Canada, 14 years across people, talent & culture 3:18 Joining Bursting Silver in 2023 — and what a People & Culture lead should own 4:43 What "Great Place to Work" actually is — the global standard 5:38 The track record: first certified 2023, now year four, 2× Best Workplaces in Canada 6:07 Why the badge is a snapshot, never the end goal 6:47 Inside the certification — can't anyone just game it? 7:45 The Trust Index Survey and its five dimensions 9:12 The culture brief 10:01 Why Will trusts it — real anonymity, real feedback 14:05 Rewriting the values — and the five that stuck 15:39 How the recognition changes recruiting (applications up 300%) 17:25 Work-life balance, and hiring for the person not just the résumé 20:02 Leaders who actually know their people 20:50 Remote-first: the benefit, the risk, and how BSI protects culture 22:42 The tech that keeps a remote team close — Gather + Slack 24:44 The annual retreat — "I felt like I knew you already" 27:45 What's still hard about culture work 31:53 Will's one piece of advice: invest in people, not perks 33:24 Wrap-up 🔗 About Bursting Silver We're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America. Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/ LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the show Instagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/ X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilver Facebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138 TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilver YouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 Music Fresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-start Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw #TheModernMembershipOrg #Associations #iMIS #MembershipManagement #GreatPlaceToWork #CompanyCulture #RemoteWork #BurstingSilver

  3. Jul 7

    Data Migration Without the Nightmares: Dirty Data, Shadow Spreadsheets & SOPs

    Most leaders picture a system migration as a simple hand-off: pick up the data, drop it in the shiny new tool, done. Des Hymers has spent almost twenty years watching what actually happens. He's a Solution Architect at Bursting Silver, and his take is blunt: a migration is never just technical. Your business drives your technology, not the other way around. Treat an upgrade as a chance to look at how your organization really runs, and it stops being an IT project. It becomes a way to clear technical debt and make things better for staff and members. Des walks Riley through the parts of a migration that never show up on a project plan. Dirty data, and why address data is the easiest thing to collect and the worst in every org he's seen. The "Joan's spreadsheet" nobody remembers to migrate. Custom code bolted on under deadline pressure. And the testing and change-management work that decides whether go-live is smooth or painful. His bottom line: write your SOPs down and get everyone to agree on them, because the business you can't document is the business you can't migrate. If you lead or work in a membership organization, this one's for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep10 ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open — why your SOPs can't just live in someone's head 0:47 Welcome + introducing Des Hymers, BSI Solution Architect 1:29 Des's path: from early-2000s IT to almost 20 years at Bursting Silver 3:06 What a solution architect actually does in a migration 4:52 The myth: "just pick up the data and drop it in the new tool" 5:21 Why it's never just a system upgrade — the business drives the tech 6:57 Dirty data: why it causes so much pain on a migration 7:49 Address data — easiest to collect, worst for every organization 8:19 "Joan's spreadsheets" and the shadow data nobody tracks 9:50 Validating data with modern tools; statuses and effective dates 10:33 Where to start cleaning — flag records, find the good 20% 12:18 Make it repeatable: scripts, pipelines, and validation checkpoints 14:15 Hidden landmines — engaging staff early and reviewing SOPs 16:30 Custom code and configurations — the overlooked variables 20:13 What good testing actually looks like (real data, real edge cases) 23:01 Testing as change management — learning the new "digi-desk" 25:06 Where to start now: get your SOPs written down and agreed on 27:04 Where to reach Des + wrap-up 🔗 About Bursting SilverWe're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America.Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the show Instagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/ X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilver Facebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138 TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilver YouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 MusicFresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-startMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw Ocean Blue - Music licensed through Soundstripe.Code: Q8H0RCWGVGEUNUTQ #TheModernMembershipOrg #Associations #iMIS #MembershipManagement #DataMigration #DataManagement #DigitalTransformation #BurstingSilver

  4. Jun 30

    How Unions Actually Modernize: Data, People & the Work Behind It

    Most union leaders brace for the worst going into a modernization project; bad data, broken systems, a painful slog. Kevin VanderKley keeps finding the opposite. The Chief Consulting Officer at Bursting Silver joins Riley Miller to explain why the surface chaos is misleading and most unions are in far better shape than they think. The real problem usually isn't bad data, it's fragmented data. The answers exist; they're just scattered across people, locals, and systems that each solved the same problem a different way. Kevin breaks down the one-person litmus test, the member-address example that shows why the same field means different things to different teams, and why so much critical knowledge lives in people's heads with no written path. Then he gets into the work behind the work: building consensus on a North Star, sorting out data ownership and stewardship, setting governance rules before the hard conversations, and keeping the why visible so a transformation doesn't quietly slide into "just an install." This isn't about union identity. It's about union enablement. If you lead, work in, or build for a membership organization, this episode was built for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep9 About Bursting Silver We're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America. Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/ LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the show Instagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/ X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilver Facebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138 TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilver YouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 Music Fresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarudCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-start Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw

  5. Jun 23

    Quick Win AI Use Cases Nonprofits Can Start Using Today | Keith Stoute (BSI)

    Most leaders don't get stuck on AI because they're short on ideas, they get stuck because they have too many and no obvious place to start. Keith Stoute, Chief Product Officer at Bursting Silver and the firm's in-house AI lead, joins Riley Miller to fix that with a tour of quick-win AI use cases a membership organization can actually start on today. Keith covers iMind, the member-facing assistant BSI built for the iMIS Users Group out of decades of forum Q&A (and the retention bump that followed); a conference assistant that cuts decision fatigue and drives registration; a subject-matter-expert assistant that answers questions from bylaws and regulations in seconds, with citations; self-hosted AI that keeps member data in-house; and an AI interviewing agent that captures institutional knowledge before it walks out the door. He also makes the case for "vibe coding" tools yourself, why an AI governance policy is step one, and the one rule that decides whether any of it works: start small, stay focused, and keep it measurable. If you lead, work in, or build for a membership organization, this show was built for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep8 ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Cold open — how to actually measure an AI rollout 0:42 Welcome + introducing Keith Stoute 2:04 A prompting trick: #task #context #interview 3:50 iMind — the iMIS Users Group member assistant 5:52 Cleaning the data: garbage in, garbage out 6:55 The retention bump + disclosing AI to members 8:55 Why targeted and focused wins 9:36 Start with an AI governance policy 10:27 Testing before launch: the "Keith filter" 12:05 Why dumping all your data into AI doesn't work 13:06 Member-data privacy + clean datasets 15:06 Vibe coding: build without writing code 17:13 Join wizards, CE calculators, prototyping to 80% 19:16 The conference assistant — driving registration 21:43 The subject-matter-expert assistant on core docs 23:51 Self-hosted LLMs that keep member data in-house 26:41 Succession planning: an AI interviewing agent 29:47 Keeping a human in the loop 31:36 Advice to leaders: pick one measurable win 35:28 Wrap-up 🔗 About Bursting Silver We're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America. Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/ LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🎵 Music Fresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-start Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw #TheModernMembershipOrg #Associations #iMIS #MembershipManagement #AI #AIGovernance #Nonprofit #BurstingSilver

  6. Jun 16

    The 5 Hidden Mistakes Quietly Killing Your Member Retention | Doug Morris (ASI)

    Most membership organizations don't lose members in one dramatic moment, they lose them quietly. Doug Morris, VP of Sales, Support & Engineering at ASI and a decades-long veteran of the iMIS community, joins Riley Miller to name the five hidden mistakes behind it: email noise, the ignored once-a-year member, not helping members grow, one voice doing all the talking, and a digital experience that isn't worth coming back to. Doug's fixes don't require a technology overhaul: segment your email, text when it matters, make your mobile app a year-round habit, build learning pathways members are proud of, bring more voices into your content, and call one member a day. Plus the bonus mistake that turns members off faster than anything else (check your checkout page), and why Doug calls DataScout's enhanced profiles the number one secret weapon for retention. If you lead, work in, or build for a membership organization, this show was built for you. 📄 Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep7 ⏱ Chapters0:00 Cold open — the once-a-year member problem1:32 Doug's background: CSI to ASI3:50 The five hidden retention mistakes6:13 Segmentation, dynamic content, real personalization8:08 Cutting through the noise with texting11:02 The once-a-year member + the year-round mobile app13:11 Helping members grow: LMS + certifications15:39 One voice — the 10-minute tune-out18:17 A digital experience worth returning to + call a member a day21:35 Where technology helps: Text Messenger, mobile app, TopClass23:25 Bonus mistake: credit card surcharges26:27 DataScout — the secret weapon28:12 Wrap-up 🔗 About Bursting SilverWe're a fully remote consultancy specializing in modern CRM, iMIS, and AI solutions for membership organizations across North America.Website ▸ https://www.burstingsilver.com/LinkedIn ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bursting-silver 🌐 Follow the showInstagram ▸ https://www.instagram.com/burstingsilver/X / Twitter ▸ https://x.com/burstingsilverFacebook ▸ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579548728138TikTok ▸ https://www.tiktok.com/@burstingsilverYouTube ▸ https://www.youtube.com/@BurstingSilver 🎵 MusicFresh Start by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarudCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_fresh-startMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/XN-tBgJ5CVw #TheModernMembershipOrg #Associations #iMIS #MembershipManagement #MemberRetention #DataScout #BurstingSilver

  7. Jun 9

    Community User Groups: Getting More from Your Solution Through Peer Learning

    When Ellen Turner started her first iMIS database job, she didn't have a manual. She had a community. Two weeks into the role, she was sent to her first iUG conference, where seasoned members took her under their wing, answered her "I'm brand new and have no idea what this means" questions, and sent her home with pages of notes. That experience didn't just get her up to speed, it set the course for everything that followed. Whether you're on the verge of upgrading to EMS, recovering from staff turnover, or just trying to write a SQL expression that won't throw an error, there's a community of people who have been exactly where you are, and who genuinely want to help. As Ellen puts it, not everybody makes their ice cream sundae the same way, but everyone walks away with a sundae. Show notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep6 #TheModernMembershipOrg #Community #iMISUsersGroup #AI #iMIS #MembershipManagement #BurstingSilver

  8. Jun 2

    AI for Non-Profits: Practical Use Cases That Deliver Results

    This episode features James Schwartz, CTO of Bursting Silver, discussing how AI can be practically adopted by non-profit organizations. In this episode: Why so much AI "demos well but doesn't deliver", and how to tell the difference before you buyThe practical, unglamorous use cases that actually move the needle: member inquiry triage, data cleanup, auto-tagging and segmentation, and predictive analyticsHow Data Scout took members from a 1–2% engagement rate to 15–20%Why being transparent that a message is AI-generated builds member trust instead of breaking itHow to adopt AI in bite-sized chunks instead of as a daunting transformation project and what James would tell a stretched executive director to do firstShow notes, transcript, and links: https://www.burstingsilver.com/podcast/ep5 #TheModernMembershipOrg #AI #iMIS #MembershipManagement #NonProfitTechnology #BurstingSilver

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About

The Modern Membership Org with Bursting Silver is the podcast for leaders of associations, unions, and regulatory bodies who are done working around outdated systems and ready to build something better. Each episode brings together practitioners, technology experts, and organizational leaders to talk honestly about what it actually takes to modernize. From replacing legacy workflows and unlocking cleaner data, to adopting AI responsibly and empowering staff to do their best work.

Information

  • Creator
    Bursting Silver
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Bursting Silver
  • Show Website
    The Modern Membership Org