Members of associations across all professions are finding it increasingly difficult to rationalize membership and return on investment in belonging to an organization. They want new services offered by associations to help provide them with the tools they need as a professional. Association leaders, such as boards of directors, [...]
Association management has two primary areas of accounting that are highly important: financial and managerial accounting. It is important that association leaders must be familiar with both. Most association accounting tasks fall into one of the two categories, and although the two disciplines have a lot in common, they [...]
Marketers are storytellers, and gone are the days when it was a straight-up sales pitch, and customers would flock and buy. The narratives have changed from a long, tedious, lengthy detail list of features to quick, catchy, and compelling short messages that spark curiosity and enhance emotions. Apple did [...]
New to association management? So was I as of seven months ago. Stepping into my new role, I found it fascinating to learn how my personal life and related work experiences transferred into the association world. Yet, there was still a period of transition. Even though I felt supported [...]
Association members usually fall into two categories: mandatory and voluntary membership. While mandatory associations typically support regulated professions, voluntary associations can be a community of like-minded industry professionals, general enthusiasts, or businesses whose combined dedication allows the organization to exist. Membership recruitment comes into play for voluntary associations since [...]
Ever find yourself over-booked because you promised to help more than one person forcing you to be in multiple places at once? I know I have, and it can be a very stressful situation. Ever find yourself in the same situation working on association tasks where you have multiple [...]
Coming into the world of association event management offered many changes from my background in planning social events. I was used to working with one individual for any particular event, which changed to working with several individuals. What was once the bride for a wedding, or the couple for [...]
What is a Reserve Fund? Reserve Funds are liquid assets that associations set aside for anticipated future expenditures, or to serve as a cushion against any unplanned expenses. Five Best Practices for Managing your Restricted (Reserve) Funds Use the Class tracking functionality in your accounting software If your association [...]
In association leadership, we know how important it is to members that they feel heard and seen. With this in mind, we survey members, request feedback, and provide ample opportunity for them to communicate their needs and priorities. This process is extremely important, but if we aren’t actively listening [...]
My last pre pandemic blog article discussed how The Best-Intentioned Association Boards can get Sidetracked. As I reflect on the way we conducted board meetings during the pandemic, it is interesting to reflect on this article from over two years ago. It focused on making the best use of [...]
