Happy New Year and welcome to 2018! The new year is an annual clean slate for us to reflect on the past year’s achievements and the opportunities we have in the coming months. One of the areas of opportunity and focus for the MSNA Executive Office this year will be to continue to build out our Member Support Program. This program has not been formalized in the past, so we’d like to share some elements of it and how it is relevant for you and your engagement within the Moore Stephens communities.
What is a Member Support Program?
The purpose of the Moore Stephens North American Executive Office is to provide members value by connecting them with resources, offering them tools, and creating communities focused on collaborating and innovating. The Member Support Program is meant to formalize that approach to increase the engagement of each member firm. This does not include a list of member requirements, rather opportunities firms can use as additional channels to effectively execute their individual and organizational strategies.
We accomplish this by
asking,
listening, and
sharing with members to customize the features of MSNA and MSIL to meet their needs. MSNA does not tell individuals and firms what to do, rather offers possibilities.
Important to this process, is two-way communication. We can’t support our firms without understanding their problems and accomplishments, so we strive to have a constant dialogue with our members to add value. Through these discussions, MSNA receives feedback and adds, modifies and even eliminates features that might be outdated or discouraging progress.
Without a formal support program, we risk becoming a disconnected and irrelevant part of the community.
What are the key components of the Member Support Program?
The program has five components – commitment, collaboration, engagement, documentation and tracking.
Commitment –
Commitment to member support comes from two angles. The Board is filled with strong leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to bringing value to member firms, regardless of their size. The goals they have for MSNA in the next year, and beyond, will keep us moving forward, and growing, together.
The Executive Office has traditionally been a valuable resource for members and was recently invigorated with fresh talents and new capabilities. This team is committed to driving change within the management of the association.
Collaboration – While we’ve previously touched on the importance of
collaboration between members, the collaboration I’m referring to here is between MSNA and members. Developing and maintaining close relationships with members is important to the success of the Executive Office goals and initiatives. These relationships keep our community connected to our value proposition and ensure continuity of progress.
This includes intra-regional and global relationships. This past year, MSNA was represented by the Executive Office and members in five regional conferences. While the primary purpose of attending these conferences was to establish and deepen relationships, several opportunities to collaborate arose. Projects from China to Mexico and the United States, Australia to the United States and Canada, the United States to the Dominican Republic, and finally between the U.K. and the United States and Canada all presented the chance to serve clients alongside fellow Moore Stephens member firms.
Engagement – This element is a bit more tactical, but nonetheless important. One of the crucial bits of member feedback we received in 2017 was that member and association information was difficult to access, leading to a lack of
engagement.
To increase member understanding of the features and resources available and how they can add value, the MSNA team will be reorienting members to the tools and processes we have in place. As this re-onboarding takes place, we’ll invite members to share what features they find beneficial, offer insights into where more value could be made available, and how we can continue to improve engagement.
Documentation and Tracking – This final component could come across as a reporting mechanism or an attempt to tell member firms what to do, but rather this element is about access and communication.
With respect to
Documentation, MSNA is pursuing technologies and processes to facilitate sharing of thought leadership and best practices amongst member firms. Further, MSNA is developing a member guide that provides a clear outline of the features available and how they can be incorporated within individual and firm processes.
With respect to
Tracking, firm leaders want more information on their employee participation and how other firms are leveraging their investment in MSNA and MSIL. MSNA is implementing a CRM system in 2018 to manage member information, track member inquiries, record member capabilities and pursue new prospective firms, as well as monitor and share where members are engaging. This information will be vital for firm leadership to determine value and set the bar for future engagement commitment.
In the end, the Member Support Program is to facilitate connections that add value to individuals and member firms. While the connections with MSNA are important, it is critical to the future success of the association that we broaden and deepen the relationships that individuals across member firms enjoy. It is through these relationships that the power of our association will truly be felt in the community.
