Christine says the DC office has been a longtime goal of the 1,500-member association, which is HQ'd in Greenfield, Mass. At a retreat this summer, the OTA board voted that policy was its #1 priority. And between the slew of food safety and nutrition legislation in Congress and the first organic garden on the White House's South Lawn, it was about time. The office, which OTA shares with the Ozone Transport Commission, was also chosen for its proximity to USDA and FDA headquarters. Christine is interviewing applicants for a legislative position this week and plans to add a third admin employee to the DC office soon.

Christine must have the cleanest desk in DC right now. The longtime lobbyist took the executive role at OTA less than a year and half ago and has since worked out of a home office in Alexandria. She tells us she won't have much time at her new desk—she’s usually on the Hill or on a plane. This summer, she traveled to NY for the association's first media tour, which involved 11 interviews in two days with pubs ranging from The New York Times to O magazine.

Giving a first year dues discount is the most effective way to recruit new members, according to a 2009 survey by Marketing General, an Alexandria-based association marketing agency. MGI account supervisor and AU marketing prof Jim Doyle tells us it's a myth that people won't pay a higher rate the second year if the organization offers a first year discount. "The renewal decision is based on value they saw in first year, not the cost in the second," he says. Anything less than 15% isn't perceived as a discount, Jim adds, but stating the number of dollars saved, instead of a percentage, can sometimes make the discount seem bigger than it is.

Direct mail is still the most effective way to bring in new members, the survey shows, followed by word of mouth and member-get-a-member campaigns. "A piece of mail physically is in the way. You have to touch it," Jim explains. E-mail, however, is the fastest growing medium for recruiting new members. Jim also tells us that associations wait too long to send out a renewal notices and don't do it frequently enough. Additional “touches” with members are almost always cost effective, but don't waste your time with the chronic non-responders: "The 17th piece of mail isn't going to do it."

We knew associations were in love with Twitter, but here's proof. The American Dialect Society voted “tweet” (noun and verb) as word of the year at a meeting in Baltimore last week. The association of linguists, writers, historians, lexicographers, and other logophiles voted “google,” the verb meaning to search the Internet, as word of the decade. (Take that “Altavista,” meaning to disappear rapidly; eg, “Tiger Woods really altavisted this decade.”) Both words sure beat the American Name Society's choice for 2009 Place Name of the Year: “Salish Sea.”