Advertising, Public Relations, Recruitment Marketing, Digital Advertising, Association Management
The New Jersey Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (NJAASC) approached SCG to take over an executive director role for their association in late winter of 2023. NJAASC was seeking member events and meeting management, vendor and membership management, accurate record keeping and tracking, website management, financial management, and administrative support over their board of directors.
With association membership growth and sustainability as the goal, SCG was to develop a strategy to stabilize accurate and secure record keeping, monitor the member database, website, digital member materials and resources, and marketing channels. SCG was expected to manage membership events, meetings, and related communications. The goal was to create a seamless experience for the end user from event registration through the experience on-site at the event, and to end of the event, therefore creating a positive member experience.
When SCG acquired the NJAASC account, membership record-keeping and payments were tracked with some informal and insecure methods.
The NJAASC board of directors also experienced unusual changes in leadership throughout 2023- 2024, resulting in a slate of new responsibilities that needed monitoring by SCG. With the change in management groups and the leadership, it was a primary concern to stabilize the membership base and continue to offer key membership benefits.
SCG developed a new website platform through Wild Apricot with the support of an IT and web design expert in the spring of 2023. To date, over 900 contacts, including a tiered membership structure, are currently managed through the platform. With three categories of membership, the Wild Apricot platform enabled the association and SCG to manage access and parameters to membership benefits and online payments, creating a seamless experience for members. With the presented challenges of the changes in leadership, the board of directors shifted a large project to SCG with the management of the weekly member e-newsletter, The Pulse. The Pulse E-newsletter has been consistently viewed by the board and members alike as a large benefit of membership with the association, so a seamless transition was crucial. SCG took over the e-newsletter with acquisition of content, discussions with supporting vendors, a redesign in June 2024, and database management. NJAASC was also tasked with member phone calls and has initiated membership campaigns.
SCG has continued to monitor and add elements to the NJAASC website and strategize new concepts with IT support and the board of directors. SCG has managed various NJAASC committees to implement goals and projects on behalf or at the request of the membership.
Recent additions to the website in 2024 have included a searchable vendor function by category, which was a request of the vendor members. A new survey report on the shortage of anesthesia staff, which is accessible to members-only, was developed and added to the website in April 2024.
SCG has also updated to the membership page layout and design to improve the application experience for prospective members.
Regarding email marketing, SCG utilized the association management staff to establish an e-newsletter process to create a seamless transition for the membership base. A new timeline was discussed with the board of directors to implement a bi-weekly communication schedule for the e-newsletter, along with a planned redesign for June 2024, and a review of e-mail stats scheduled for August 2024.
Since acquiring the account, SCG has hosted five NJAASC Member Meetings including two larger annual conferences. Each event hosts over 100 attendees and vendors, typically 30-50 vendor displays, and educational sessions.
Figure 2 displays event attendance from the time that the account was acquired through a full year of events into 2024. Attendance has remained consistent with 273 attending the 2024 annual conference and 274 attending the 2023 annual conference specifically.
Despite some changes for the association since March 2023, the group remains financially strong with 177 active ambulatory surgery center members in 2024. The group currently has 64 vendor members, including 13 new member companies in 2024. NJAASC hosts five active committees for members, which participate in items such as planning member events, managing vendor opportunities, surveys, and industry benchmarking. Member benefits and experience has been the cornerstone of all projects initiated by SCG for NJAASC.
