What’s at Stake?
The Strength of the Association Community and its Credibility.
- Does the association’s community professional development, stewardship, foresight, and subsequent practices reflect the community’s understanding of the small staff association?
Dig Deeper
The vast majority of associations are small or midsize. They reflect the enormous desire to individualize causes, professions, and industry cohorts.
Is size only defined by the number of staff? What about the size of the budget?
I witness a level of complexity in the SSA community that far too many association activists overlook.
The identified talent and capacities necessary to run the SSA can be categorized with the same language applied to larger associations; however, within each of those classifications is a significantly different set of potential solutions.
The failure of the community to recognize the enormous impact of resource deprivation in the SSA is dangerous and unwarranted.
SSAs have fewer staffers. SSA staff are assigned multiple tasks, many of which are not areas in which they were initially trained or hired to perform. These tasks require specific talents and skills for which they are not prepared. It is not their primary responsibility, but they do their best to serve. Examples are communications and marketing, fundraising, event and meeting planning, professional development, technology, business operations, human resources, talent acquisition, and research.
Large staff associations may think they have the same problem but don’t face the same resource dilemma. Because of significantly fewer resources, the SSA has fewer choices in eliminating the problem or finding situations. Thus, solutions like finding a consultant or part-time staff to take on new or extended unforeseen tasks are not a solution that SSAs have readily available, to name one.
What is the responsibility of the Association community in assisting the SSA?
Between this post and the next, I encourage you to consider the issue and offer ideas or counterarguments to those presented here. Place your comments in the reply below, or contact me directly at MichaelB@AssociationActivision.com.