In the day-to-day of keeping your association running, it’s easy to slap a bandage on any problems you encounter. These Band-Aid solutions save time and are good enough to get the job done now. However, these types of solutions often lead to an association that is entirely held together by bubble gum and duct tape. This means weak infrastructure and problems that you discover only when you attempt to grow. Taking an impartial look in the mirror is an important step in identifying opportunities for repair and determining if your association is truly set up for success.
When you are ending a fiscal year, changing board leadership, or conducting strategic planning, adding a Current State Analysis that provides insight into the life cycle of your association is a practical way to assess whether you are ready for success and growth. It will also help your board set appropriate goals and invest resources wisely.
Your Support Team
When conducting a current state analysis, third party support is very helpful to remain impartial and make challenging conversations easier. Partnering with a facilitator can offer the gift of time, allowing participants to focus on being thoughtfully engaged in planning and strategy.
The expert team of association professionals at Impact AMC is ready to support your strategic planning and organizational analysis. Learn more about how our team has successfully supported many associations like yours.
The Process
Conducting a Current State Analysis will help you identify whether your association is focused on growth or day-to-day needs as well as determine at what level various functions are operating. Each association has a different profile and priorities, and areas that are often explored in this type of analysis are:
Membership and engagement
Financial health
Operations, bylaws and governance
Technology and processes.
Where to Start
Setting the tone for a Current State Analysis
This begins with building consensus around the need and purpose of this activity. One of the most frequent issues is objectivity. We know a lot about our organization and experiences, and humans are built to apply this information as truth. Take a moment to check the facts. Do we know that Gen Y is not engaged with our association? Or is that an assumption fueled by Facebook science? Are we sure that in person meetings are the most highly-valued member benefit? Or is that driven by feedback from people who, you guessed it, are physically attending our meetings?
Identifying what beliefs you need to confirm is a great place to start.
Be cautious and intentional if using AI to support
Secondly, AI is often leaned on to speed up these kinds of efforts. However, be cautious! Make sure that the tools you use will protect any data you share, especially identifiable member information. Then, double check the source and accuracy of any analysis that is provided. In many cases, the information we collect has limitations. Smaller populations mean wide margins of error, for example, which can negate a shift in responses or a difference between audience subsets.
The Data and How to Gather It
Holding up a mirror to your association means gathering the data needed for a comprehensive assessment. Start with:
Membership trends
Engagement in events, website content, social media, or other outreach
Financial reports
Strategic progress
Resources, including staff, volunteers, and other less tangible options.
Broadening your audience and gathering anecdotal feedback can identify unique opportunities and threats.
Conduct surveys. Reaching out to current members is a first step. Including lapsed members and potential members who have not yet joined can bring other valuable perspectives.
Step up from survey to interview. Having a conversation with active members, or others who are heavily engaged, reflects what gets people excited and fully committed. These individuals also have the confidence to share challenging insights. Interviews can take time but will draw out common threads and unearth topics that are not captured in a formal survey. Don’t forget to interview your board members. It will help socialize the process and prepare them for the next phases.
Ask your competitors. After all, your missions and members are complementary. What have they learned recently? What challenges are they facing?
Using multiple sources and diving deeper into your data helps prevent superficial assumptions and overreliance on a few repeated questions. Generating a more comprehensive picture than the one-dimensionality of a mirror’s reflection brings goal-planning into a real, 3D world filled with nuance and potential.
Time for a Check Up
If you find yourself relating to the above, you’re not alone. Membership-based organizations led by volunteer board of directors face unique hurdles to accomplishing their growth goals.
Impact Association Management's free 5-question guide ensures you can effectively evaluate your association’s current structure, strategy, and overall capacity to grow, adapt, and stay competitive in your industry. It provides the core questions necessary to help you audit your current state and project into the future. You’ll also find helpful suggestions for how to find the answers to those questions so you and your board can move forward with confidence. Download your free guide!