What Is An Association Management Company (AMC)?
In the wake of COVID-19, the meetings and events industry has come to a halt. During this time we’ve been receiving questions about what’s keeping us busy at Redstone these days with the cancellation and postponement of events. We’ve been sharing with you how we’re supporting many of our clients’ transition to virtual programming and events (where it makes sense), however this question has become the catalyst for this blog post, where we highlight the other side of our business – association management.
Redstone is a full-service event AND association management company (AMC). What exactly is an AMC? We’ll explain! AMC’s are for-profit organizations that deliver strategic, operational and administrative support to membership-based organizations to help them flourish. The AMC model provides the staff, knowledge, and resources that allow professional associations, trade organizations, non-profits and charities to effectively manage day-to-day operations and advance their long-term goals. When service delivery is executed effectively, the AMC (Redstone) is often invisible to members of an organization. That’s because our staff integrate seamlessly with the organization and its stakeholders, become experts in the industries and communities that they serve, and often act as the “face” of the organization – the AMC and the organization truly become one.
There are two primary AMC models:
- Full-Service – The AMC primarily handles all operations of the organization. They serve as the organization’s headquarters, assist with strategic planning, and manage day-to-day operations such as membership, governance, marketing, event planning, financial management, committee/board support, and much more; or
- Outsourced Services – the AMC is contracted to assist with a single project or task for an organization. For example, an organization may only need help with their social media, or maybe just their event planning and therefore an AMC would be hired to work on these smaller scopes of work.
The majority of our clients are full-service association management clients, but we also offer “one-off” outsourced services to organizations that don’t require “everything” that we offer. You can take a look at all of Redstone’s services on our website.
Now that you know what an AMC is, you might wonder why an association would work with an AMC rather than the alternatives: either being fully run by volunteers, or having full-time paid staff. Both of these models come with their own challenges. First, volunteers can often lack the time and resources to effectively run an organization as it continues to grow, and may lack expertise in not-for-profit regulations. Secondly, full-time paid staff can struggle to manage all aspects of an organization and often have to outsource many services creating a disjointed service delivery.
Here are just some advantages and benefits of working with an AMC like Redstone:
- Access to best practices in industry and association expertise;
- Complete customization of services and staff;
- Financial benefits – AMCs work with many associations at one time where they can share resources among clients and also offer increased buying power;
- Access to the latest technology; and
- Effective management of day-to-day tasks to allow Board members and volunteers to focus on strategic decisions-making.
Regardless of an organizations’ needs, an AMC can provide customized, streamlined management services to fit any budget! Still have questions? Reach out to us anytime: Hello@RedstoneAgency.ca.
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