AMR

AMR Management Services is committed to advancing the practice of association management by sharing applicable and useful information with associations. We hope that you will find our quarterly newsletter helpful in achieving your association's goals and fulfilling its vision. We also encourage you to contact us at info@amrms.com with any suggestions you might have to help us improve this product.

Resources at a Glance

Association Boards and Staffs: Different Roles - Same Values
Covering Your Assets: Important Considerations for Protecting Your Association's Financial Stability
ePhilanthropy: What is it and how does it work?
Do Your Members Have Issues? Options to Deal!

Association Boards and Staffs: Different Roles - Same Values

By Hank Phillips, VP Association Management

No association or other non-profit board of directors training session would be complete without a review of the board's responsibility for setting policy and the staff's separate and different responsibility for executing policy. It is extremely important for a board and staff to understand and adhere to the lines that separate their different roles and responsibilities. A blurring of those lines by one encroaching into the other's territory can result in an association becoming dysfunctional.

There is a problem with this, though. So much emphasis is placed on what is different between the two that sometimes little or no attention is paid to matters that should be the same for the board and staff. Most important among these is a shared commitment to the core values of trust, respect, and communication. These values serve as the underpinning to the staff-board relationship. Neither the board nor the staff is any more or less obligated to contribute in building a foundation of trust, respect and communication. Failure to do so by one or both will lead to an association becoming dysfunctional as surely as when one crosses the line into a role or responsibility held by the other.

Covering Your Assets: Important Considerations for Protecting Your Association's Financial Stability

By Evelyn Kircher, Accounting & Member Records Director

Strong internal controls serve as a foundational first step toward accountability for an association's finances. For volunteer-managed associations, the implementation of strong financial controls can be difficult. A lack of time and expertise as well as the location of members across a wide geographical area can present major hurdles. Association Management Companies (AMCs), in contrast, can provide the centralization of expertise and resources to make an association's finances secure and streamlined.

ePhilanthropy: What Is It And How Does It Work?

By Nella DeCesare, Director of Marketing

The onset of the "World Wide Web" (www) has literally changed the world as we know it. While Internet communication network technology has been around since the 50's, the service that operates using this technology, the "www", really came into play around 1981-1990. Since then a whole new world has opened up; a world allowing trust, community building, and change within the buying habits of people all over the world. In addition, the way we do business has changed too.

While fundraising and relationship-building for nonprofit organizations have traditionally been dynamic activities, the use of the Internet can enhance those activities and provide a vehicle for effective communication. The use of Internet for fundraising and relationship-building is called ePhilanthropy. In more detail, it is:

A set of efficiency-building internet-based techniques that can be used to build and enhance relationships with stakeholders interested in the success of a nonprofit organization
The building and enhancing of relationships with volunteers and supporters of nonprofit organizations using the Internet

It also includes the contribution of cash or real property or the purchase of products and services to benefit a nonprofit organization, and the storage of and usage of electronic data and services to support relationship building and fundraising activities.

Now that we know what it is, how does it work? Utilizing electronic methods should not take the place of any offline fundraising and/or relationship-building efforts. In fact, ePhilanthropy really adds a new dimension to an offline approach. When integrated with the offline approach, ePhilanthropy may provide a cost and communication-effective means for reaching potential donors who may be out of reach through traditional communication methods. With all that said, the best way to ensure online success with ePhilanthropy is to have a strategy in place.

An integrated ePhilanthropy strategy should include the following ideas, which should be utilized in combination with each other:

Do Your Members Have Issues? Options to Deal!

Resubmitted by Nella DeCesare, Director of Marketing

The inevitable answer to the question posed in this article's title is, yes, association members have issues. It is the nature of associations to coalesce around issues of interest to their members. Those issues may stem from a shared profession, interest or cause. Association leaders must understand organizational options to help members deal. They usually involve one or more of the following:

Using volunteer help
Outsourcing to a third party
Dedicating association staff

Evaluating Options: When considering models for addressing member issues, association leaders must examine the availability of member time and knowledge. Some associations may have a fully-engaged membership with the time and background for such activities. Time is hard to find. The reality, though, is that most association members are pressed for time and simply cannot delve into the issues shared with fellow association members. This is especially prevalent in fast-paced industries, such as the medical and technology fields.

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