Learning and Leadership at the AMCI Annual Meeting

Attending the annual meeting of AMCI, the Association Management Company Institute, is something I look forward to every year. It is always energizing to gather with colleagues from around the country who share the desire to deliver exceptional service and understand the effort it takes to help client-associations achieve their missions and visions. While we are technically competitors in the AMC world, we have great respect for each other. We share our successes, discuss what works and what doesn’t, and trade insights about new tools and technologies to make our processes more efficient.

A few discussions stood out to me this year: we talked about forming small groups and meeting monthly to talk through current and emerging issues within the AMC landscape. This will allow us to promote the collegial feel of an AMCI meeting more often throughout the year and support each other through challenges.

We also explored the idea of bringing staff together virtually for professional development opportunities, with multiple AMCs sharing the cost. This could also give staff a platform to discuss their wins and struggles in a safe and supportive environment of their peers.

The AMCI annual meeting offers so many great sessions from experts and thought leaders. One that stood out to me this year was “The (AMC EOS) Real World,” which explored the Entrepreneurial Operating System as it applies to AMCs. The presenters explained that each AMC should look at ways to adapt the traditional EOS to meet the unique needs of their organization, their AMC staff, and their individual clients. A few things that resonated with me were that a team can only be successful if each team member is in the proper seat, and that a team needs to be disciplined and accountable for the organization’s overall success, not just their individual tasks. This is why regular check-ins and meeting agendas are essential — to keep everyone in the loop about how individual tasks tie in to the overall goals.

The AMC-by-size roundtable sessions are always an opportunity to connect with colleagues who understand my day-to-day experience as a leader in an AMC with a small staff. This year, we talked about the topic on everyone’s minds: artificial intelligence (AI). As leaders in small AMCs, we discussed tools to consider for AI implementation, including tools to help create content like videos and graphics, tools for learning more from demographic and engagement data, and other potential AI tools that staff members could use to help them complete tasks.

In addition to insightful conversations with colleagues, we were treated to two keynote sessions from powerful speakers. The first day’s keynote from Trent Gillespie of Stellis AI made me understand the importance of AI in our current work environment. AI is here and it’s not going anywhere, so we need to embrace it while setting clear guardrails and training staff on how to use it safely and ethically. The presentation encouraged us to think about how we’re currently using AI and how we could be using it to be more efficient and deliver more services to clients.

In the second-day keynote, Kevin Eikenberry discussed developing a leadership pipeline within your organization. He explained that a list of names isn’t enough of a succession plan; leaders need to picture who will be future leaders and how to get them there. Leaders must understand what leadership means to them and how to set future leaders up for success. One of my favorite takeaways is that leadership is skills (things that can be taught) and verbs (actions that can be demonstrated) — and leadership is not easy!

With another thought-provoking and rewarding AMCI annual meeting behind me, I look forward to implementing what I learned with the team at Capital Association Management (CAM). I hope that we will embrace AI safely, work more effectively as a team, and model and teach good leadership to the next generation of AMC leaders. To learn more about CAM and the great work we do for client-associations, visit www.camwdc.com.