Written by: JoEllen Graber, Association Manager, Impact AMC
As I end my term as the President of the Wisconsin Chapter Meeting Professional International, I am proud as a peacock to announce that our chapter has received the accommodation of a Top-Performing Chapter. This is only given to the top chapters in the world and is based on a formula of member satisfaction, retention, recruitment, educational offerings, and chapter reserves. After a year like 2020, I say hats-off to any president and board that lived through it. This year certainly did not end the way any of us could foresee and when I was asked what our keys to successes were, I came up with a few take-aways.
A successful board does not happen overnight. The Wisconsin Chapter of MPI has always been a high-performing board, we were set-up for success. Having sat on this board for six years and in the Office of the President for two and a half that is obvious to me. Our predecessors made sure that we would be able to survive the ebbs and flows of our industry (though I do not think any of them could have predicted a Global Pandemic). A few years ago, we re-structured our sponsorship packages to streamline things for many of our sponsors, instead of going back to the well a few times a year, we are able to make one ask, sponsors, saw the value in this, members liked it as well and we were really able to increase our reserves.
This year we had the right people on the bus and in the right seats. Every year we asked board members to review their job descriptions to ensure everything looked correct. Last year we did it as a team and people were able to compare notes and see exactly who was working on what, where there was overlap and where we had been dropping the ball. This created a clear job description so when we invited people to join our board, they knew exactly the job ahead of them, and if the job would be a good fit. So many times, board fatigue comes when you have a board member that is doing something that they dislike or is not a strength. Having a strong job description lets everyone know right off the bat the expectations of them.
Another key factor was our Administrator, bet you saw that one coming. We have had our current administrator for close to 15 years and they have their hand in everything that goes on in our chapter. I cannot stress how important this is. Being an administrator myself I will never understand why an association would not want one person that is with them year after year that knows all the ins and outs of their group. With some term limits being as short as one year, as soon as some positions finally get the hang of their role, they must leave it. That is if the entire board makes it through a year of service, I will say six times out of ten boards do not have board members that fulfill their entire term. With such a high turn-over rate it is important you have someone that can train board members.
With the difficulties finding volunteers and people who have the desire to serve I see many boards expediting people to serve in the Office of the President and making exceptions to move people up the board. In my situation finding someone who has been serving on our board and then asking them to commit to another 3 years in the Office of the President is almost impossible. We have been encouraging people to take a year or two off and come back and serve in the Office of the President.
I hear some boards say that they do not share their financials with their administrators, wanting separation of the two. Our admin takes the time twice a year to explain our financials to our entire board and then makes sure everyone on the board knows the budget process and their part in it. This ensures that everyone takes responsibility for the budget and offers complete transparency. If your administrator is not intimately involved with your financials how can they help you improve them?
At the end of the day, a board is volunteers, and this year with homeschooling, working from home, zoom burn-out, and anxiety about everything going on in our world board members are just trying to get through the day-to-day. Our admin was the glue and the activator that kept us on track and always had our membership at top of mind.
I think all presidents go in with goals and expectations of their term, for some, it becomes apparent that much of our time is just spent keeping the boat afloat. And before you can blink your eye someone else is at the helm. I would encourage all my fellow presidents to keep following up with your board and volunteering to ensure your association’s future success.