Focus on the Member
By Ken Monroe

During a recent roundtable discussion of association executives, I was fascinated to hear how two participants answered the moderator’s rather straight forward question, “What’s your most pressing need as an association
executive?” One answered that he needs to increase member enrollment, while the other pointed out that he’s working to understand what members really need from his association.

That exchange points out the glaring contrast between those associations that are merely struggling to survive (i.e., associations with falling membership renewals and dues revenue) and today’s successful associations. Leaders of struggling associations employ thinking and planning processes that are feature-based and tactics-oriented and that result in providing members with a basket of products and services. Their process is not strategic in its orientation and is not relevant to the ultimate goal of meeting members’ needs.

CEOs and boards of successful associations, on the other hand, understand that members are looking for benefits that add value to their businesses, professions, or practices. They use an outcomes-based planning process to continuously focus the association on ways the organization can provide greater value to members. These same executives are seizing on two trends to help them provide greater value: one, the use of outsourcing to free-up resources, and two, the use of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation as a ‘best practice’ that can help improve governance and
management processes.

IDENTIFYING NEW RESOURCES
Executives of successful organizations understand the need to identify new resources that can be used
to better align programs and services with changing member needs, and have seized on the growing
trend to outsource activities or functions. Outsourcing offers three important benefits. It allows you to:

1. Focus your staff and financial resources on your core competencies—areas that represent a competitive advantage to the association and value to members;

2. Achieve greater effectiveness and performance than you might achieve on your own;

3. Realize improved efficiencies and cost savings.

Many association executives have also discovered that all activities are “fair game” for possible outsourcing, even if they’re vital to the operation of core functions. They’ve also found that outsourcing as many functions as possible has another important benefit: it frees the executives up from many day-to-day operations and allows them to focus on mission-critical, high-member value functions of the association.

IMPROVING PROCESSES
The relentless drive to provide greater value to members even has some association executives and board members reasoning that if a high level of financial reporting and compliance with applicable laws and regulations is expected in the corporate world (i.e., compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) then it should become standard operating procedure in the not-for-profit world as well.

By considering the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on their organizations, a growing number of executives are using the legislation as an opportunity to improve the association’s governance and management processes and make them even more responsive to member needs. That, in turn, is leading some associations to consider outsourcing their finance and accounting functions to an external provider that has greater experience and skill sets or can bring greater economies of scale to the function.

SUMMARY
Experienced executives and boards are assuring the continued growth and success of their associations
by maintaining a relentless focus on the needs of members. Everything the association does (i.e., programs, services, core functions) has to pass the‘ litmus test’ of adding value to members. Outsourcing activities and functions of the association—even if they are considered vital to the operation of core functions—is an excellent way to free-up resources that can then be re-directed to providing improved value to members.

Ken Monroe is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bostrom Corporation.