Association Management

Association Management professionals work with Association Management firms and provide services to professional and corporate groups. These professionals are expected to serve a range of domains viz; executive management, marketing, finance management, communications, meeting management, education & training and many others. Organizations those sought services of association management firms may include professional societies, trade forums, certification agencies, and other groups both small scale and large scale at national and international level.

Some other features of association management profession include membership recruitment and retention, tax exempt accounting, and development of non-dues revenue etc. The most unique aspect of association management is the involvement of members.

Association Management is completely different domain, separates from common management domains because of the unique environment of associations. Associations are unique in the sense Owners are dues paying members. Oftentimes, members also administrate their association through an elected board or other governing body, along with association committees, commissions, councils, task forces, and many other groups and subgroups. In general, the board selects, retains and evaluates a chief executive officer or an executive director, responsible for the day-to-day management of the association and staff members.

The people who work as Association Management Professionals are called Association Managers. The responsibilities of these managers include –

    * Identify goals and plan strategy.
    * Design and implement programs and projects.
    * Create management solutions.
    * Provide leadership training to officers and board.
    * Manage financial and staff resources.

Students who earn Master of Business Administration (MBA) or higher degree in the areas of business education and related domains are recruited as Association Managers in Association Management Firms. Many of them start their own consultancy of Association Management. Widely speaking, Association Management is managing of professional organizations or corporate firms with the help of third organization which completely have mastery in the nitty-gritty of managing human resources, finances, and other industrial and corporate affairs.