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

Education and Networking are two of the main benefits many associations and societies offer.  To make these and any events occur it takes dedicated volunteers and dedicated staff to plan and implement the events and provide the members and other stakeholders with these great benefits.  We always need to be flexible in the way we deliver these benefits and should always be willing to try new ideas.  Below are a few success stories from an association that I am honored to be a part of.

Since association and meeting management is what I do every day as my team and I provide service to our clients I know the staff side very well.  Over the past 6 years it has also been my pleasure to serve on the Board of the Mid-Atlantic Society of Association Executives (MASAE).  I am currently Treasurer and in the past has served as Education Committee Chair and on the Golf Committee.  I currently serve on the Education Committee.  The last few years MASAE has tried to add value for our members by trying different types of events.  
 
Three years ago we reinvented an event that was part of the Delaware Valley Society of Association Executives (DVSAE and NJSAE merged to form MASAE).  The event was always held in June and was always in Philadelphia.  The event was the DVSAE main event and our Annual  Leadership Conference.  The focus was senior level education.  I have been fortunate to be part of the planning committee for the MASAE version of this meeting for the past three years.  The event is now termed the MASAE Mid-Year Meeting and is an integral part of the education we offer.  Like many associations MASAE serves a large geographic area and it is necessary for us to have a variety of events in different geographic areas.  The Mid-Year Meeting provides MASAE the opportunity to serve the members in Philadelphia area by providing a full day of quality education with vendors and networking time.  MASAE volunteers recognized a need and mobilized to meet it.  We knew we did not need to create an entirely new event but with some tweaks and improvements were able to repackage a past event and make it fresh and new.

Since I view networking as a very important component of my professional development I wanted to launch an informal “Breakfast Club”. A few other dedicated volunteers and I started planning and have successfully launched this new type of event for MASAE.  The event is held in the morning before the official work day starts.  The event starts at about 7:30am and lasts to about 8:30 or 9am.  The bill is just split between the participants.  At the first session last week we had 12 people and we are now planning a breakfast in Trenton.  After the event we did a quick survey and all 12 people said the time spent was worthwhile and they would attend again.  Many of the comments centered around the fact that attendees were glad to have the opportunity to sit and talk with someone for more than the 2 minute meet and greet at a meeting or exhibit hall.  We also asked for ways we could improve the session and based on that feedback we will have a topic of conversation centered around our professional discipline as a starter.  We will not have a presentation since we want to maintain the informal feel of the event but will have a topic such as membership growth and people can bring problems to discuss, resources they are aware of or great ideas that have worked for the.  In my opinion this is the perfect balance between informal networking and education.  

As I said associations always need to be changing in order to serve the members they have (and members they want to have) better.  It is only through the willingness to change and by taking some calculated risks that your association will improve.  Different members want different things from the association and the person that attends the Mid-Year Meeting may not be the same person that comes to the “Breakfast Club” but by offering a variety of meeting styles in a variety of locations and venues your chances of having what your members are looking for are greatly improved.

If I can be of assistance or you want to discuss the event formats listed above or any other association management issues please call or email me.  I love talking about the power of associations and what a group can accomplish together.

Have a great end of summer.

Tim

It has been a while since my last post and the reason is simply things got too busy and that is a good thing.

Over the past 5 months Bower Management has organized 6 Board Meetings, 7 Meeting Planning Sessions, 12 Member Meetings/Educational Events, 3 Board Elections, 4 Newsletters and participated in numerous Executive Committee
and other Committee Calls/ Meetings.  As I said earlier busy.  The numbers speak for themselves and those of you that produce any of these items you realize the time and dedication that they take.  All of these events were a success due to the dedication and interaction of staff and volunteers.  It really does take a partnership that has trust and open communication to be successful in the management of an association and Bower Management has the great pleasure of serving 4 great associations.

We are always working with our clients to introduce new products and services that the members of our client associations will value and give more reason to renew or join the respective association.  
 
For one of our clients a few years ago that was the introduction of webinars so that we could provide distanced learning opportunities to members and prospects.  That pilot program has led to the third year of a very successful program that now does 6 webinars per year with an average of approx. 100 connections and 600 people per webinar.  The program added a member benefit through a discounted price for members, a reason to join for prospective members and net revenue.

For another client it was instituting an educational half day session on a very specific specialty which is an expanding filed for the industry.  These sessions are held Saturday mornings when the members typically have off from their day jobs and are in the morning starting at 8am and ending at 12:15pm.  The reason for the timing is this early start and end time allows for the attendees to get home and enjoy the weekend with the family and friends while still filling a need for the members and the association.  This session will be held in various locations throughout New Jersey so that the attendees can reduce travel time.  The February 2013 session was a sellout success and the June session will occur at the end of the month.

Some other items we are working on for our clients are listed below:
* Mentorship programs for 2 clients
* Special student sessions and clothing drives for 1 client
* Website transitions to a more updated and integrated platform for 2 clients
* Member phone outreach for a client experiencing membership decline to help grow the association

As I said earlier busy.  This work would not happen without the great staff at Bower Management.  Abby Murray has been with me for over 3 years and impresses me more every day.  We have also had an additional staff member join the team.  Gretchen Kolecki joined the team in January 2013.  Her bio will be on our “Team” page soon.  She is focusing on membership and customer service since as we all know without members there would be no associations.

If I can be of service or provide more information on any of the programs please give me a call.

Be safe and be well,

 Tim

As we finish out the year of 2012 it provides an opportunity to look back at all of the things we all have to be thankful for.  I feel so fortunate to have a caring and supportive family, friends that make life interesting and team members that make work a fun place to be.  One of the things I am most thankful for are the client partners my company serves.
In any service industry it is not always possible to say that you truly enjoy working with each and every client you provide services to but I am very fortunate that I can say that exact thing.  Not only are the organizations themselves important and provide great benefits to their members but all the volunteer leaders that are part of the organizations are great to work with.  Working for people you like and enjoy interacting with is like getting a gift every day.

Something we should all find time to do is give back to the community we live in a consistent manner.  For me that means staying involved with activities my family is involved in.  I am currently Treasurer in the school PTA, a coach for my daughter’s soccer teams and I stay involved in industry organizations such as MASAE (http://www.midatlantic-sae.org/).  For me giving back also means monetary donations to a variety of charities that are centered around the issue of hunger and honoring our veterans.  The hunger related charity I provide a monthly donation to is Feeding America ( www.feedingamerica.org).  Feeding America can provide 8 meals for every dollar donated.  One of my favorite Veteran based charities is the Fisher House Foundation (http://www.fisherhouse.org/ ).  The Fisher House Foundation donates “comfort homes” that are built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers.  These homes enable family members to be close to a loved
one at a stressful time.

This season my family and I also prepared dinner for the guests of the local Ronald McDonald house ( http://www.ronaldhouse-snj.org/).  Ronald McDonald House of SNJ provides a home-away-from-home to families of seriously ill and traumatically injured children who are being treated at nearby hospitals and operates 11 Ronald McDonald Family Rooms within pediatric units of hospitals across the Southern New Jersey region.  They have a program where families or organizations can come in and prepare dinner for all the families.  If you are interested in getting involved or donating to Ronald McDonald house click the link provided earlier in this paragraph.  Preparing dinner was fun and a great way to spend time with our direct and extended family.  We prepared our traditional Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner for the approx. 70 guests.  Below is a picture of us preparing the food.  My 9 year old daughter had a great time preparing dinner and playing with some of the children that were there.

This holiday season was very busy as it always is for us and I think safe to say that is the same for almost everyone these days.  There were many personal reasons for the family being busy but as always  all the year-end activities for all the client partners my team and I provide services for added to the busy nature of the season.  The busy times provides an opportunity for me to practice something I have been trying to master for years – establishing a work/personal life balance.  I am the first to say that this is a work in progress.  In current times when we are constantly connected though smart phones and tablets it is even more important to take stock of how we are doing in the allocation of our time.  Below are a few links that have some useful information on how to establish that balance.  If you figure it out please drop me an email.  I can use any good advice.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/work-life-balance/WL00056

http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/5-strategies-for-life-balance

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sundaysteinkirchner/2012/10/04/3-tips-for-achieving-your-worklife-balance/

http://workawesome.com/work-life-balance-2/worklife-balance/

As a small services based business owner I almost never stop working but one tip that has really helped me and my family is our “no phone” time.  We make sure we dedicate time as a family to read, play, talk, do homework together or some other family related activities and when we do these activities all the smart phones go away so we can focus on each other. The other item that has helped me recently is closing the home office. And when I say close I mean close – I shut the computers and lights off and shut the doors so it is as if the room does not even exist.

One of the days the office will be closed is New Year’s day.  I plan on spending about 8 hours with my daughter assembling her Lego sets that Santa brought.  I am not sure if 8 hours will be enough but we will try our best.  After this recharge it is back to doing what I love to do – serve my clients to the best of my ability.

Best wishes to all of you for 2013.  Please be good to yourselves and each other.

Tim

The MASAE Annual Meeting occurred on November 28-29, 2012 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  For those of you that have
not attended – You need to!! This was another great event full of excellent educational events and plenty of networking.  I have been attending this meeting regularly for the last 10 years when it was the NJSAE Annual Meeting and I have always been impressed with the speakers and the attendees.  I always leave the meeting with a few takeaways I can implement. The formal educational sessions are great and worth attending but an equally important part for me is the networking and less formal interaction.  I pick up tips and tricks from my colleagues as we are talking at the social events, in the hallways or in the exhibit hall.  It is a great group of people and that is what separates this meeting form the many others out there.  For more information on MASAE and the events we offer please visit http://www.midatlantic-sae.org/. 

I have always felt that continuing education is very important to the growth of the professional and the association management profession.  If we want to continue to add value for our clients and the associations we serve each of us must keep developing as a professional.  Bower Management Services was pleased to sponsor the MASAE Annual Meeting Scholarship for 2012 and will be sponsoring it again for 2013.  The scholarship winner receives complimentary registration for the event and one night at the meeting hotel.  People interested in the scholarship self submit and need to meet certain qualifications.  After the closing date of the submissions a Scholarship Committee reviews the submissions and selects the winner.  This year’s winner was TC Field-Bobroski.  TC is Executive Director for the International Pediatric Association managed by Association Headquarters.

The meeting this year fell very close to all the devastation that Hurricane Sandy created so we added an additional element so the meeting attendees had the opportunity to give back to the people most directly impacted by the hurricane.  The attendees were asked to bring canned and non-perishable food to the meeting with them and everyone did great and contributed many necessary items.  We filled a complete industrial laundry bin!!!!  Pictured with the donations from left to right are Tim Bower, Victoria Elliott, Dan Lemyre, Erica O’Grady, Pat Koziol and Don Pendley.

All,

I went on a zip line canopy tour with some friends this past weekend.  It was a great time and brought to mind a few things that I think have a place in both our personal and professional lives.

The first was the idea of trying new things.  It is easy to become complacent in our daily lives – personal and professional.  Taking the time to do something new and not in our ordinary scope gives us a different perspective.  I think it is safe to say we will not always be perfect the first try but after a few attempts it will become easier and in many times a standard process.  The fist zip line I actually ended up upside down.  For those of you that have zip lined this is not uncommon and is actually a lot of fun.  By the last zip line I was maintaining a stable position.  I had the process down. 

The second is really a two part item – trust and control.  During the zip line tour there were various challenges.  There was a balancing bridge, a few rappelling stations, a net climb and an area that you
needed to traverse by using a rope and pulling yourself across.  I did some better than others.  One of the most difficult moments for me was rappelling.  Like many of us in the association management profession I like to be in control and this was one time I was not in control.  This exercise also involved trust.  The guide
that was handling my rope as I repelled down was about 100lbs and I am about 250lbs.  I did the math and thought how is this little person going to hold me as I rappelled down because if she lets go I am falling about 25 feet onto my back.  The guide was a true professional and did this hundreds of times so she
knew what she was doing but I needed to trust her as I took that leap down and boy am I glad I did.  It was a blast and there was a second and much higher repelling station and because of the results of the first station I had trust in her ability. Trusting others and allowing us and them to be successful is essential and all of us will be better off when we succeed together.

The third was dealing with failure and still giving it a try.  I could do all of the challenges pretty easily and very quickly except for traversing the platforms with the rope.  Based on the results of the first 10 people that tried I was pretty sure I was not going to be able to complete the challenge but when my turn came I gave it a try.  I did not need to since all of the challenges had a much easier way to get to the next platform.  To put it nicely I did not do that well and what part I did not complete was not very pretty but I did try and I was not afraid of failing.  It actually gave me a new goal to work towards.  The next time I do this tour I will do better on that challenge and may even finish that challenge.  

I think the three items above – trying new things, giving up control and trusting others and being willing to fail are essential to growing as a person and as a professional and I hope to continue to try new things even knowing I may fail at some but I am sure I will have more successes than failures.

I hope you trying something new and different this week.

Thanks for reading,
Tim

I just came back from a client Board Meeting.  We covered the normal business and prepared and approved the 2013 budget.  Even after 17 years of managing non-profits and working with many different boards I still leave every Board Meeting energized by the passion and focus demonstrated by the volunteer leaders.  I realize how important staff is to the smooth operations and continual improvement of an association but it is the paasion, focus and hard work of the volunteers that make any association and the work produced by the association great.