Association Management

OVERVIEW OF BUSINESS MODEL

The number of associations related to different industries and interests is phenomenal. Many of these associations cannot afford to hire (or do not have the volume to warrant hiring) one or more full-time employees to handle the dayto- day administrative duties involved with running the association. Associations are now outsourcing all of these administrative duties to an association management firm. Here’s how it works. The duties that associations want taken care of are administrative.

Common tasks include billing, bookkeeping, and accounting, taking minutes at meetings, collection of annual dues, association event promotion, Web site maintenance, and distribution of weekly or monthly newsletters. Since these tasks will be repetitive and not very time-consuming, you are able to handle the association management for multiple associations, and because the tasks will remain similar between associations, you will be able to work much more efficiently.

Figure The key to success in this business is organization. Make sure that you are always on time with your work. If you don’t keep yourself organized or you take on too much work, you increase the chance that you might not perform up to the associations’ expectations of your firm. This could result in the termination of a management contract and ultimately will affect the professionalism and overall appeal of your organization’s services.

SKILLS NEEDED