A team member and I recently had the opportunity to present our services to an association looking for a new management company and it made me remember how much I enjoy Association Management and speaking to volunteer leaders about what is possible when an association finds the right match in management.  We discussed the successes that we have helped our clients achieve and some of the processes we used to reach those successes.  To achieve the many successes there were big and small tasks and sure some of the daily tasks may not be the most exciting but they are all part of the “recipe”  if an organization wants to build membership, the value of membership and the meeting registration and sponsorship revenue.  Focusing on this presentation made the team at Bower Management and I really think about how we have helped our clients.  There were some big achievements and many success stories to share.  The preparation process made us reflect on what we needed to do to get our organizations where they are now.  As I told the group we were meeting with none of the successes were overnight and all took both small and large action items to accomplish.  Some of those small action items needed to implement the programs that helped build membership, membership value and revenue were certainly not the most exciting but they were all necessary and contributed greatly to the finished product or result.

The results we have had with our clients would not have been possible without an engaged and active group of volunteers.  While staff is vital to the success of an organization so are engaged and active leaders willing to “think big and act small”.  By that statement I mean the leaders and staff need to always be looking at what the organization needs to do next and then seeing how that ties back to the Mission of the organization so in other words “think big”.  While staff can do much of the heavy lifting of a project many times it may take the leaders to send an email to a prospective member or a potential sponsor to help get that person or company involved and that is the “act small” part of that statement.  You need  both pieces to make any plan successful.

Some of the successes we shared are listed below but if you want more detail on how we work with the volunteer leaders to create a better organization please visit our “What Our Clients Say…” page at http://www.bowermanagementservices.com/what-our-clients-say.html.

• Increased membership for a client by 24% over a 3 year period
• Increased
  sponsorship revenue for 2 organizations by implementing very simple
  plans
• Established a Mentorship Program for a client and starting the process
  with a second
• Transitioned 2 clients to a website platform that
  was better for their needs and gave staff and volunteer leaders more
  control
• Established a webinar series for a new client to provide additional
  revenue and increase the value to members

If you are wondering if we were awarded with the honor of working with the group we presented to as of today a decision is still pending but I think we did a great job of presenting who we are and what we offer and I would not have changed a thing about that day.

Thanks for reading,
Tim

As a small business owner and volunteer for my regional professional society I work a lot of hours.  Not a complaint at all since I am fortunate to do what I love and am serving associations that I believe in and that believe in me.  Like many of us I typically work between 50-70hrs a week.  Also like many of us I squeeze in the extra work time where I can such as early mornings, at night after my daughter goes to bed and weekends when we are not running around like crazy people for soccer, dance, school and the various other things we all need to get done.  I maintain a fairly reasonable work-personal life balance and due to the flexibility in schedule have had the opportunity to coach my daughter’s travel soccer club for the past 5 years but never really stopped to think about the importance of recharging your personal battery.  I had that opportunity the last week of August when my family and I took a great and stress free vacation to Ocean City, New Jersey.  My family is a dog family and one of the things that has prevented us from travelling is we have three semi-large dogs (ranging from 50-100lbs).  We were able to find a great condo in the center of everything that accepted larger dogs so off we went with 2 of the 3 dogs.  Do not worry we did not leave the third dog alone for a week.  The dog that stayed home is 14 year old and 100lbs.  He has hip problems and some other issues and the trip would not have been good for him so we had a dog sitter come in 4 times a day and sit with him and I came home one night.  
 
The week of recharging was great for many reasons but the primary reason was family and the fact that we were able to give my daughter (and a friend of hers) the week at the shore with no real schedule.  We went to the beach and boardwalk when we wanted.  It was a week of YES.  We even took surfing lessons one day and while the 10 years old girls did great the 44 year old man did just OK (see picture) but it was  a great experience and one I will treasure forever and hopefully repeat many times next year.  The condo was great because I could also set up an office.  I know what you are saying – “Not on vacation!!” – but I have a slightly different philosophy.

I consider my clients second to only my family and as a small business owner I think that is why I am successful.  If I can work a few hrs a day in the early AM or at night and be on a few conference calls I can keep things moving forward for my clients and honestly that saves me stress when I return and that makes me a better husband, father and Executive Director.  I do not think I am alone in that way of thinking.  As I speak with people more of them spend some time working on vacation than did in the past and I do not think that is a bad thing.  You can still recharge and be productive at the same time.  For me it is about work-personal life balance.  If you noticed at the top and here I do not use the term work-life balance because work is a part of life as is personal time so I prefer to use the tern work-personal life balance.

Just as recharging is important to increase your work performance – volunteer and paid – it is also important for the soul.  Work gives us purpose and meaning and allows us to help others either by what we produce or by providing advice or assistance to colleagues, peers or the next generation of professionals.  Recharging is not only for vacation.  To be honest I get recharged when I have a Board Meeting or educational event come up since it allows me to show what I love to do and that is help not-for-profits become better organizations.

To bring this post to a close take some time to recharge yourself today.  It could be a personal or a work related recharge but get recharged in some manner.  It will make you a better person and a more productive worker.

Thanks for reading,
Tim