AMC's 2011 Year-End Recap

We are honored to be part of our clients' many successes and we are excited to share these 2011 accomplishments and initiatives. These are just a few examples of the great things that can be accomplished by energetic, passionate, and visionary association partners whose efforts are mirrored every day by motivated volunteers and AMC staff who work to advance the important missions of your organizations and make you all leaders in your fields.

We are so grateful to be a part of the positive impact you are making in the communities you serve and all of those who benefit from your work.

Raising Awareness

As group advocates, associations strive to improve the lives of people in the community whom their members serve, whether they are patients, retailers, or manufacturers. In 2011, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine produced the "You're Sick. It's Serious" video series, which explains the role of palliative medicine to patients dealing with serious illnesses. The video has raised awareness for palliative medicine and to date has more than 6,200 views on YouTube. The Awards and Recognition Association (ARA) honors student athletes with the ARA Sportsmanship Award. This national award is presented to an NCAA Division I college football player who exemplifies good sportsmanship both on and off the field. The award was recently highlighted by ASAE's The Power of A (formerly Associations Advance America) for its impact on national attitudes about sportsmanship. Media coverage of the award has had a cumulative reach of 750 million from 2005 to 2011 and has helped spread refreshingly positive stories of good sportsmanship amidst so much negative press today.

Innovative Learning

Innovation is integral to successful learning initiatives and throughout 2011, AMC associations offered top-notch educational programs and reached a broader audience than ever before by using cutting-edge technology, social media, and face-to-face workshops. The American Academy of Pain Medicine, for example, offered its premier cadaver workshop at its annual meeting. Designed to advance training in interventional pain techniques with a hands-on learning experience, the workshop proved so successful that it is being featured again at next year's annual meeting. Social media proved to be an ideal platform for interactive learning: the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (ARN) formed a "journal club" through Facebook to engage members and Rehabilitation Nursing Journal (RNJ) subscribers and to encourage further online discussion of RNJ articles.

Making Informed Decisions

AMC helps associations make informed decisions. One way is by using a formal product-development process to help ensure that associations generate revenue when launching new products or assessing existing product lines. The National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) used the process to determine whether or not to move forward with developing a new product. The process enabled the NANN Board of Directors to make a knowledge-based decision leading to the launch of a successful new product. The American Association of Neuroscience Nurses and the National Association of Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) recruited an on-staff products and programming analyst to help ensure that survey results, market research, and other data are available for board members to make informed decisions and identify new business opportunities. Collecting this quantitative data is easier than ever before for clients who have made the move to Personify, AMC's database. The NAHQ board saw first hand the impact of Personify data when they used it this fall to examine an existing product and determine its future. They decided to offer the product in a new format in 2012 to better meet the needs of an audience that extends well beyond their membership.

Building Markets

Construction industry associations are becoming a growing niche for AMC with the Metal Construction Association (MCA), Midwest Roofing Contractors Association, and National Frame Building Association (NFBA). For more than a decade, AMC has partnered with MCA to promote the use of metal in buildings as featured in the September 2011 issue of Forum magazine. For the past 5 years, MCA's successful market development program, The Metal Initiative, has helped increase the use of metal in commercial roofing and walls by 25%. A similar marketing and research effort is the Post-Frame Advantage, an initiative of NFBA, which promotes the use of post-frame construction. AMC is supporting this growing niche by adding key staff to the team, including a technical and research manager with significant expertise in the standards and code communities as well as a market development expert.

Shaping Leaders

AMC's clients are known for successfully developing leaders in their respective fields. The Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (ARN), an AMC client for more than 35 years, is very intentional in this effort and has both a strategic goal of developing leaders and a defined set of leadership skills and criteria that are unique to ARN. These criteria are part of their officer nominating and application process and a foundation of a popular 2-day leadership course that ARN has offered at its annual conference since 2009. The course prepares nurses for leadership roles in both the clinical setting and in volunteer organizations.

AMC clients also partner with other organizations to develop tomorrow's leaders. This year, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine received a $1.2 million grant by the Hearst Foundations' Aging Initiative to fund the training of fellows—the next generation of leaders who will integrate palliative care into the training of students and residents as they prepare for their careers. Over the course of 3 years, 30 awards of $37,750 will be awarded to hospice and palliative medicine fellowship training programs.

A Show of Brands

Strong branding sets clients apart, providing each association with an easily recognizable and enduring identity. In 2011, several AMC healthcare clients, including the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, the Association of Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology Nurses, and the National Association of Neonatal Nurses, developed new branding guidelines to help them update their visual identity and enhance their recognition in the marketplace. Their branding efforts extended across media, from print publications to websites. Throughout this year AMC has been busy redesigning websites for many of its trade and healthcare clients, which included adding stronger search-engine optimization, easier navigation, and a cleaner overall design and architecture. Feel free to browse NAHQ.org, NFBA.org, NANN.org, HOPArx.org, ampainsoc.org, or CNRN.org.

Leading the Association Community

AMC is proud to have been named one of the Best Places to Work in Illinois for the second consecutive year. The award reflects a positive culture, high employee engagement, and a passion for serving our association partners. The award also signifies AMC's strong leadership, both internally and among our association clients and their fields. This year, Association Forum of Chicagoland named AMC Principal, Mark Engle, DM FASAE, the recipient of the Samuel B. Shapiro Award for CEO Excellence, the highest honor awarded by the Forum. Moreover, Mark recently received his doctorate of management from Case Western University. He plans to share his research on effective board decision making with client leaders throughout 2012, starting with a feature article in the January 2012 leadership-themed issue of ASAE's Associations Now.