People often struggle with change—change is hard and can force people away from what they are used to—but change happens. When there are big changes in association staffing or service providers, or even how an association is managed, it can be challenging for association members, board members and staff [...]
As an accountant working with associations, one question I’ve been asked is, “What is the difference between management accounting and financial accounting?” These are two distinctly different areas of accounting, and if you didn’t study accounting, this is probably something you were not aware of. Up until 2016, these [...]
Thinking of switching membership management systems for your association? Here are a few things to consider before making the change. There are a variety of Association Management Systems (AMS) available. These systems are used for many association services, including membership signup, membership renewal, event registration, sales, and marketing. They [...]
When two associations are similar but different, how can you leverage the similarities to offer dynamic educational opportunities? We offer association management services to two associations that have many similarities but can also be viewed as competitors (they compete for consumers’ recreational dollar spending). When the board of each [...]
Member engagement means nurturing and managing relationships to increase an association’s membership volume, value, and retention, and it is critical for an association to break down what engagement looks like for them. Associations should focus on driving those activities that provide value to members, as well as those that [...]
Most associations have a strategic plan that guides the association in the execution of the vision and mission of the association. Having a strategic plan helps to place the association in the category of being a high-performing association. Characteristics of a high performing association are: The vision and mission [...]
As an association management company, we deal with many associations. Having worked in the association management industry for nearly twenty years, I’ve realized that how an association conducts business comes down to what is written in the by-laws. By-laws are the written rules and regulations for an association directing [...]
Member retention is an important area of focus for every association. Ensuring that your members are receiving value for their membership is a key to retaining existing members and recruiting new members. Many times, this means that the association should be identifying changing needs of members and introducing a [...]
Recently, I was on a call regarding anti-spam legislation (for more information). The mandated “Unsubscribe” button make me think about how valuable, and precarious, member engagement is for associations. With the advent of email, all it takes is literally a click of a button for your members to “Unsubscribe” [...]
Sixty to seventy-five percent of the revenue received by our association management clients is by way of credit card payment. If you can determine the total cost of credit card processing when comparing processors—which is very hard to do—you may find that the company offering the lowest processing rates [...]
