There are a few association blogs (as in formally affiliated with an organization, as opposed to the rabble of association staffers/consultants/writers who blog, me included) who are writing substantially about their members’ experience with and reaction to the Katrina disaster. Here are the ones I have spotted so far:

IABC Cafe from the International Association of Business Communicators. From Warren Bickford, the Chairman of the Board:

I spent much of today watching events unfold in New Orleans and along the Gulf coast. What looked bad last night, looks bloody awful in the light of day. The destruction is unbelievable. Millions of lives affected. It’s almost too much to even process in any meaningful way. Thinking that I and other members of the Executive Committee came close to experiencing it first hand is frightening at best.

Thank goodness Charles was so insistent that we leave town. Thank goodness we did. That we made the right decision was brought home to me over and over as I watched events unfold today. We could be there with no potable water, no food, no electricity – and no way out of town short of being evacuated by the military or the National Guard. It was brought home to me again earlier this evening when I saw video of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway with entire sections missing. The causeway was our escape route on Sunday morning.

The Executive Committee were fortunate to get safely back to their homes. Yes, we have homes, unlike the hundreds of thousands of people that don’t have homes any more or won’t have for some time. All members in the area have been affected in some way by this tragedy. If you have information about members, please use the Cafe to pass on what you know. We are concerned and hope to hear they are safe.

BoardBuzz from the National School Boards Association. They have been covering the impact of the disaster on schools in the area and how neighboring states are rushing to enroll refugee students into their schools. The leaders of Texas offering their schools to refugee children was one of the very first acts of genuine leadership and compassion that I saw in this whole mess.

Manufacturers Blog by Pat Cleary of the National Association of Manufacturers. A post from today discusses how their members are offering assistance:

Well today, Katrina’s torrent was matched by a torrent of charity from manufacturers large and small across this great manufacturing nation, some $40 million at last count. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch and Crown Cork & Seal all sent truckloads of bottled water. Abbott Labs sent some $2 million in cash and $2 million in nutritional and medical products. Holloway Sportswear re-opened a closed facility to be used as an emergency shelter for the Red Cross. Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble donated cash and personal care products to the effort.

It is just so heartening to watch the tremendous outpouring of charity and products — the best in the world — from America’s manufacturers. These are our members and we are always proud of them, but at times like these, our hearts especially well with pride. This is still day one, folks. We expect the $40 million number to grow enormously.

That is all I have now. If you know of others, please post a link in the comments of this entry and I’ll update the list.

Update: American Association of Law Libraries has started the AALL LawLibAssist blog for sharing news about their members and to offer assistance to those in need.

Update 2: Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Katrina Relief Blog. The title says it all.

Update 3: Hurricane Katrina Information for Mississippi Hospitals from the Mississippi Hospital Association. Shawn Lea left a pointer to this blog in the comments.

Update 4: ARVO Hurricane Katrina Information Blog by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. TJ Rainsford, who works at ARVO, added a pointer to this in the comments.

Here is a nice debrief on using a blog in conjunction with an association meeting. Note the lessons learned about the pitfalls of sponsorship and starting the blog well before the conference actually launches.

(Via Rich Westerfield.)

Rich Westerfield is working on developing a promotional blog for one of his trade show clients.

…I’m hoping that creating a new blog attached to a specific show and the people behind the scenes at that show will provide a differently compelling story than what Gadling is currently providing.”

I think it is an excellent marketing idea and may even improve the quality of the show itself if the organizers really lower the barrier between themselves and their potential attendees and exhibitors. The way to lower the barrier: the organizers must write authentically and frequently about the show and then listen to the feedback they get from their audience. I’ll be watching this one.

I’ve been reading Sonny Cloward’s Vermont Nonprofit CommunIT blog lately. Lots of good stuff on IT for NPOs, including several pieces on low/no direct cost CRM applications for the non profit sector. He wrote his own review of Salesforce.com and more recently provided a link to another: At Play in the Fields of…Salesforce? Check it out.