Keeping Track of the Board -
How Associations Can Manage Committee Relationships with Simple Project Management Software
Associations and nonprofits have a built-in system of resources that are essential to their operation. Board members are elected by peers to help steer the direction of the organization. Education committee members help choose content for the education events. Ethics groups help keep the reputation of the association and its members strong. And membership committees drive recruitment and retention of the association members, the lifeblood of revenue streams in most associations.
Yet with these resources comes a very difficult challenge that association staffers must overcome. The board and committee members are usually volunteers who may live anywhere and who have a myriad of communication techniques and technology types. A simple project management software package that is web-based can bring the volunteers together to increase productivity and to get things done.
Messaging: How to avoid "Didn't you get that?" syndrome
One of the challenges to traditional email solutions for messaging a committee is that one committee member might send to all the right people. The next member simply replies to one person, and a third committee member doesn't reply at all. An online project management solution will allow committees to centralize their messages, keeping everyone in the loop at all times.
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Tasks and Milestones: Preventing the dreaded "I didn't know I was supposed to do that" response
Another huge challenge in corralling volunteers is getting them to accept and complete their assigned tasks. A simple project management software package will allow the association staffers to assign tasks to individual committee members, and the whole committee will be able to see when tasks are completed (or not!). Adding this type of accountability and transparency to volunteer management will no doubt improve productivity.
Project Stages: Managing the Executive Director's "Where are we with that?" questions
Most associations juggle projects among multiple committees, and online project management software should enable them to track the progress of all projects at once, both by Project Stage and by Project Manager. At any time, a supervisor in the association should be able to understand the progress each committee is making on any outstanding project.
Time Tracking: Getting to the root of "Where does the time go?"
It's no secret that association staffers are frequently overworked, but putting too many tasks in the hands of volunteers can sometimes cause volunteers to burn out and quit. Using a time tracking feature on an online project management system will enable associations to see how much time volunteers are spending on projects, giving association administrators the insight they need to decide if the association needs to increase staff. In addition, tracking the time spent on projects will help association staffers internally as well, displaying the true cost of time spent on committee collaboration.
In a nutshell, associations can avoid a whole host of common committee work problems by getting all the volunteers together using simple project management software. |
