Today’s post is a guest post by Meredith Bower Holt of the American Society of Association Executives. Meredith is a Senior Manager, Membership, and is the staff liaison

Although small in staff size, there’s nothing small about the missions and scope of the estimated 52,000+ small-staff associations in the U.S. I spend most of my professional life at ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership working with hundreds of small staff association executives and staff volunteers.

“My volunteers,” as I tend to call them — although fully aware they’re volunteering their time, energy and expertise to ASAE and not to me personally — are a talented, diverse, smart and super-busy group of people who are dedicated to giving back to the association management profession. ASAE’s Small Staff Association Committee is comprised of some truly unique, energetic and passionate people who volunteer for ASAE.

What do I know about small-staff associations? In a former professional iteration, I ran a thriving doggie daycare in downtown Washington, D.C.  I was the business manager, which meant that I did everything — from bookkeeping and HR for our 10 part-time young staffers to marketing and building a company website to (let me not kid myself) picking up a LOT of poop.  A fervent dog-lover since infancy, I threw myself into the job, despite the fact that I worked for the business’ founder and owner who essentially let me run the business and kept me from benefiting from profiting from any of my efforts.  But that was (mostly) OK – because I was paid in doggie love: licks, wagging tails, and yes, even hugs.

I’ve never run a small-staff association, but I do know what it’s like to be responsible for everything from the most mundane to the most complex. And so I think I “get it” … why small-staff association executives and staff are so dedicated and passionate about what they do for their members, about what their organization’s mission is and how they can best achieve that mission.

I love working with small-staff volunteers; that they are willing and eager to donate their precious, limited time never ceases to surprise, humble and inspire me. It’s incredibly rewarding to work with these volunteers, to achieve things each month that serve to benefit ASAE’s small staff association community as a whole (see www.asaecenter.org/smallstaffresources as an example.) The Small Staff Association Committee, along with the committee’s open (or ad hoc) volunteers, created the concept and much of the content for this central resource for ASAE small staff association members within a few months!

And I hope they find it rewarding as well. Because what they do for ASAE, they are doing for their fellow small staff associations – and there’s nothing “small” about that.

If you’re an ASAE member and want to be involved as an open (or ad hoc) volunteer to the Small Staff Association Committee, please visit www.asaecenter.org/vts and check out the available opportunities!