The Essentials of a Board Orientation

Joining a Board of Directors can be a tricky decision. You are committing your free time to running an organization for the next year or two. You may also be hesitant as to what you are actually jumping into as a volunteer. As the current, Board of Directors, it is important to train your new members and provide background on the association. At Impact, we have a Board Orientation Outline that we provide for our clients. It ensures that the proper information is shared with new board members and nothing is left out. Here are a few essentials you should include on your Board Orientation Checklist! 

An introduction. Take the time at the beginning of your orientation to thank the volunteers for their time and commitment to the organization. This will make them feel appreciated and needed and encourage them to jump right in! 

History: Briefly go over how the organization came to be as well as any policies and procedures that are set in place. 

Expectations. Share the association’s mission, vision, and core values. Explain how their new role falls in line with those values. It is also important to lay out a relatively accurate expectation for the time commitment involved with their role. Hopefully this was already discussed prior to their joining, but should be reemphasized. Lay out when meetings are, how many they should be attending, and more! 

Membership. Include a breakdown of how many member types you have and how many members fall into each type. Discuss the ways in which you would like to grow each type and any discussions that have been made about potentially changing these memberships. 

Strategic Plan. Now that you have covered the basics, it is time to get into the nitty gritty or what the group will be working towards. Communicate your strategic plan and allow for questions from your new board member. 

Your new board member may be a little overwhelmed at first but the orientation is there to help them catch up to speed with the rest of the group. This could be presented as a document or a one on one between a current and new board member. It is important to be available for questions and encourage any suggestions of change from the new set of eyes. If the new board member has questions about something that was left out, add it to the outline for the next newbie!  

If you are interested in seeing Impact’s Board Orientation Outline, email kristen@ImpactAMC.com!

Introducing the Georgia Library Association!

Impact Association Management welcomes the Georgia Library Association 

June 28, 2019, Madison, Wisconsin –Impact Association Management (Impact) is excited to announce the signing of the Georgia Library Association (GLA) as their newest client.     

“Our team is thrilled to have the Georgia Library Association joining us! We have begun the on-boarding process and can tell this is going to be a great organization to work with. Their Executive Administrators, Ingrid and JoEllen, are eager to support their mission and aid in the success of the association.”, adds Jodi Fisher, CEO, Impact Association Management 

About the Georgia Library Association 

The Georgia Library Association was founded in 1897 in order to facilitate partnership among Georgia's librarians who often found themselves isolated in their work. It has since become a leader in library innovation and professional librarianship. The organization is dedicated to developing an understanding of the place that libraries should take in advancing the educational, cultural, and economic life of the state. They also believe in promoting the expansion and improvement of library service and fostering activities towards these ends. 

Contact: 

Jennifer Lautzenheiser 

lautzenheiserj@bibblib.org 

www.gla.georgialibraries.org 

About Impact Association Management  

Impact Association Management was founded in 2006 by Jodi Fisher, and since then they have successfully supported many Associations in growing and increasing profits and memberships. Now expanded into a robust team, Impact consists of Social Media experts, Non-Profit Administrators and Executive Administrative Assistants with impressive backgrounds in Association support, small business operations and international corporations.  Their mission is to provide customized, efficient, and forward-thinking association management services to small and medium sized Associations with a highly skilled, dedicated team of Executive Administrators.  

Contact:  

Impact Association Management 

608.210.3120  

info@ImpactAMC.com  

www.ImpactAMC.com  

Wild Apricot Webinar Review: Member OnBoarding

Continuing education is something we value strongly at Impact. Wild Apricot’s webinars always prove to be incredibly helpful and informative. Both Jill and JoEllen watched the webinar, “3 New Strategies to Boost Your Member OnBoarding, Engagement, and Retention.”

These two learned that members decide within the first three emails from you whether they will continue reading future emails! This is the primary method of contact between most associations and their members, meaning members NEED to be reading those emails in order to stay up to date and informed.

Maintaining a member’s attention, however, is on you. Wild Apricot offered a plan for your first three emails.

·      Let members know that you know what their problem is

·      Solve that problem

·      And connect them to your Value Trigger Point

A New Member Engagement Study found that onboarding programs increase new member renewal ratees on average by 10%. More so than ever today, people are focused on experiences rather than things. Creating a positive early-on experience for members is crucial!

Avoiding Volunteer Burnout

Every association is lucky to have those few people who are so passionate about the organization that they volunteer for everything! They join the group eager to help in every way they can to keep the association moving in the right direction. You might notice that saying “few people” is not an understatement. An associations can be made up of 50 people or hundreds and it will still have a small amount of people who are willing to volunteer their time.

This can lead to the same handful of people volunteering for the board, committees, or events which can result in volunteer burnout. If you notice that your volunteers are becoming increasingly less enthusiastic, slacking on the job, or more and more negative, you might have a case of volunteer burnout on your hands. Recognizing this burnout is the first step in fixing it. Keep an eye out for when your volunteer’s excitement starts to dwindle.

Once you have noticed that a volunteer is starting to burnout, take a look at their workload and figure out how to divvy it up differently. Pass some responsibilities to those who are looking for more to do. This will allow your volunteer some more free time and a moment to catch their breath.

It is also important to show your appreciation for the volunteers. Feeling valued is often a strong motivator in someone’s work ethic. Showing the group that they are special and emphasizing the difference they are making will raise the morale of the group and keep them chugging along.

Another option to take the load off your volunteers, would be to hire an AMC. AMCs are there to do all of the minuscule things that your volunteers either don’t have time for or simply do not want to do. It allows them to focus on the bigger picture of the association, keeping the mission at the forefront.

Volunteer management can be a challenge, however, it is better to keep a close eye on your volunteers throughout their time with the organization than to run them into the ground.