National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2007
« back to 2007 | Back to NCAA News Archive Index
More groups opting for management help
|
By Gary T. Brown
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
If associations manage their constituencies’ best interests, who manages associations? The proliferation of associations in athletics has led to a similar rise in association management companies (AMCs) that manage the business of associations and offer project-management services to them as well.
Some associations are AMCs themselves. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics not only is the foremost AD constituency, but NACDA also administers and manages “sub-associations” for marketing, development, compliance and athletics business administrators. Other groups under NACDA’s AMC arm are the athletics directors in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), Division II and two-year colleges. Even though the latter groups are composed of ADs, they each have unique needs and thus desire their own “management.”
Host Communications, Inc., is another familiar name in the AMC game, providing association management for a variety of clients, including the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
One group devoted solely to association management is the aptly named Sports Association Management Inc. (SAMI) in Kansas City, Missouri. SAMI President Frank Uryasz founded the group in 2001 when he saw a need for sports associations to have access to professional management services. Uryasz also is president of The National Center for Drug Free Sport, which contracts with SAMI for media relations.
That service is provided by Kay Hawes, who recently earned credentials as a certified association executive (CAE), the highest ranking in the association industry. As a SAMI employee, Hawes also helps manage SAMI’s other clients, including the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association and the 1-A FARs.
SAMI provides project management assistance to the former and complete management to the latter. The difference between the two types of service, Hawes said, is that for FARA, SAMI provides assistance on a project-by-project basis, whereas the 1-A FARs pay a monthly fee for complete management services.
“For example,” she said, “FARA members have outsourced their Web site to us because they are professors who are involved with athletics — Web design is not something they do every day. So it makes more sense for them — even though they run their own association — to seek someone to do that project for them. The 1-A FARs are what we call a ‘complete management client,’ which means they pay a monthly fee and we manage whatever they need at the time, whether it’s developing a meeting agenda, writing and editing a white paper or establishing a Web site and a listserv.”
Since many associations are created by practitioners in that particular field, they may not have the time or expertise necessary to manage association business. One of SAMI’s clients, for example, is the Amateur Baseball Umpires’ Association — a group established, not surprisingly, by college baseball umpires. “They’re busy being baseball umpires and don’t have time to stay current on what’s going on in association management — they typically have another full-time job,” Hawes said. “So it’s in their best interests to have an association management company manage their day-to-day affairs.”
Hawes also said associations often don’t have the budget to hire a complete office staff to accommodate the association’s needs, which makes it practical to seek professional management assistance. In turn, she said, AMCs can take advantage of managing multiple associations — to the clients’ benefit.
“AMCs typically have people who specialize in meeting planning, communications development and membership processes, needs that are common among associations. Thus, if one association has a great idea about a management service or function, the other clients for that AMC stand to benefit from that shared information,” Hawes said.
Some associations are AMCs themselves. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics not only is the foremost AD constituency, but NACDA also administers and manages “sub-associations” for marketing, development, compliance and athletics business administrators. Other groups under NACDA’s AMC arm are the athletics directors in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), Division II and two-year colleges. Even though the latter groups are composed of ADs, they each have unique needs and thus desire their own “management.”
Host Communications, Inc., is another familiar name in the AMC game, providing association management for a variety of clients, including the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
One group devoted solely to association management is the aptly named Sports Association Management Inc. (SAMI) in Kansas City, Missouri. SAMI President Frank Uryasz founded the group in 2001 when he saw a need for sports associations to have access to professional management services. Uryasz also is president of The National Center for Drug Free Sport, which contracts with SAMI for media relations.
That service is provided by Kay Hawes, who recently earned credentials as a certified association executive (CAE), the highest ranking in the association industry. As a SAMI employee, Hawes also helps manage SAMI’s other clients, including the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association and the 1-A FARs.
SAMI provides project management assistance to the former and complete management to the latter. The difference between the two types of service, Hawes said, is that for FARA, SAMI provides assistance on a project-by-project basis, whereas the 1-A FARs pay a monthly fee for complete management services.“For example,” she said, “FARA members have outsourced their Web site to us because they are professors who are involved with athletics — Web design is not something they do every day. So it makes more sense for them — even though they run their own association — to seek someone to do that project for them. The 1-A FARs are what we call a ‘complete management client,’ which means they pay a monthly fee and we manage whatever they need at the time, whether it’s developing a meeting agenda, writing and editing a white paper or establishing a Web site and a listserv.”
Since many associations are created by practitioners in that particular field, they may not have the time or expertise necessary to manage association business. One of SAMI’s clients, for example, is the Amateur Baseball Umpires’ Association — a group established, not surprisingly, by college baseball umpires. “They’re busy being baseball umpires and don’t have time to stay current on what’s going on in association management — they typically have another full-time job,” Hawes said. “So it’s in their best interests to have an association management company manage their day-to-day affairs.”
Hawes also said associations often don’t have the budget to hire a complete office staff to accommodate the association’s needs, which makes it practical to seek professional management assistance. In turn, she said, AMCs can take advantage of managing multiple associations — to the clients’ benefit.
“AMCs typically have people who specialize in meeting planning, communications development and membership processes, needs that are common among associations. Thus, if one association has a great idea about a management service or function, the other clients for that AMC stand to benefit from that shared information,” Hawes said.
© 2010 The National Collegiate Athletic Association
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy