Organizations of all types from nonprofits with a local mission to professional and trade groups and even the chambers of commerce are contracting out their management functions. Since many organizations have grown beyond the size that volunteer officers can effectively manage, but are not large enough to justify renting office space and hiring employees, they turn instead to the services of association managers, people who make a living administering professional and trade associations on a contractual basis.The association manager provides a cost-effective solution to staff an organization. He or she also enables the organization's volunteer leadership to concentrate on program and policy issues rather than administrative tasks and provides the organization with continuity during leadership changes.
Association management services, also called executive director services, have existed for over one hundred years. What association managers specifically do depends on which functions their clients want them to handle. However, to serve clients well, they need to be prepared to do just about everything an organization needs to have done. They may keep membership lists, write and publish the association's newsletter, answer phone calls, handle incoming mail, send out information about the organization, keep the financial records, collect dues, pay bills, make arrangements and take reservations for membership meetings and events, help raise funds, and book speakers for meetings as well as national conventions. They may also get involved in membership development, professional education, lobbying, and marketing. With today's office technology, all the tasks involved, however, can be done from someone's home.
There are literally tens of thousands of associations across the country and around the world representing professional and grass roots organizations, special interest groups, and just about anything you can think of that brings people together for a common mission. Although they may start out small, the administrative duties of managing the association's day to day business may soon overtake the ability and time of volunteers. In cases where an association cannot yet justify hiring a full-time administrative director, they often turn to people that contract professional administration services. In addition to providing needed administrative direction and support, the association management service provider frees up volunteer time to focus on the mission, policies, and program strategies for which the association exists. That's where you come in. It becomes a cost effective, smart business decision for an association's boards of directors, and a good opportunity for entrepreneurs with administrative and management skills, and the desire for a home-based business. - association management service providers can charge up to $35 per hour and earn up to $52,000 per year working 30 hours a week!The scope of the work needs to be defined with your clients and agreed upon between you and association leaders to which you will report. Expect to talk about things like:
1) member services and development - collecting dues, keeping membership lists, coordinating newsletters and other literature about the organization, answering phone calls, receiving, distributing, and responding to mail, organizing meetings and conventions, booking speakers or personally doing public speaking on behalf of the association,
2) fundraising - helping with events, coordinating fund drives and mailings,
3) good business practices - bookkeeping, ordering of supplies, maintenance of equipment, office cleanliness.
If all this sounds like a lot, don't fret. Today's technology will be your greatest office assistant. Most business records and project coordination can easily be done on a computer, and by establishing a few communication links with frequent users or sources you need, can be done from home.
Along with a basic set of office management skills ,a computer, and a phone. It is very important in a business like this to be skilled at dealing warmly and patiently with people. Remember, associations live and breathe because of the dedication of volunteers who lead busy lives outside their involvement in volunteer tasks. It is not uncommon in volunteer setting to see egos clashing and conflicts of interest causing rifts within groups.
At times like these, your ability to be a gracious and respectful employee is important. The same goes for interaction with association members association members - you may often be the first person they come in contact with in the organization and how you deal with them can make or break their willingness to belong.
Lastly, once you've done all these things right, your organizational skills - or lack of them - will be the clincher in the level of your clients' satisfaction and will help you win or lose your business with them.
What can you hope to personally gain out of a business like this besides a earning a good income? Well, you may have the opportunity to do some traveling to interesting places, attend stimulating meetings and conventions, and meet prominent people within the industry. And with the variety of tasks you may be asked to perform, boredom should be the last thing you run into.
Finally, because most volunteers are contributing from the heart, they can be highly appreciative of a job well done that saves them extra time and hassle they don't have. Be prepared, however, to be on the same schedule as volunteers - on call as needed, working evenings and weekends, and brushing up against organizational politics.
To get going in your new businesses, you'll need to start by finding a way to tap into an industry either you know something about or can learn something about to get started. Ask a knowledgeable friend, read up in an area of personal interest, and find out everything you can about the issues the industry faces and the specific types of associations that serve these industries. Become familiar with the dynamics of how the industry operates.
Then start contacting. Call presidents of professional or trade associations. Join a group or two and network. Volunteer to do a workshop for association teams on how to manage their project. Read and respond to classified ads regularly.
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