Are you managing a small-staff association? Would you like your decisions to be data driven but don’t have the budget to hire someone to do the analysis for you or don’t know where to start? Don’t worry. It’s not only possible, you can get started right away.

Before we get started, however, think about how you collect and view your association data now. You might have association management software (aka an AMS), or you might keep a series of spreadsheets or a simple database, or you might use a combination approach.

It would be easy to tell you to throw out your legacy reporting system and choose a brand new one, but often that just isn’t possible. We work with many small-staff associations just like yours, and based on our experience with them, we’ve developed a few recommendations to help you do a DIY data analysis without breaking the bank. The insights the data reveal will either give you confidence that you’re meeting your goals or will uncover areas where you need to devote more time.

And these suggestions will work no matter how you track your data. Let’s get started!

Get your staff members on the same page

We’ve heard many tales of systems that “just don’t work.” We hear that numbers change depending on who runs the reports, that staff members use old reports they’ve developed themselves, or that no one is certain that any report is accurate. Even something as simple as printing name badges for an event can become a problem when two staff members can’t agree on what font or layout to use or how often to produce badges.

Start your data analysis by getting your staff involved. Their willingness to use standardized reports can make or break the process. As you develop new reports, allow staff members to challenge the results. They can help you catch logic problems in the reporting or highlight unexpected results.

Plug into your staff’s institutional knowledge

Someone on your staff knows the data in your system very well. They know that John Smith and Jack Smith are the same person. And they know why he has two records. They probably even know why no one has consolidated his records until now.

Especially if you are new to the association, find the person or people who really know your data and get them involved in figuring out what questions to ask. These people can save you time and money.

Decide what you want to know

Make a list of the questions you’d like to answer. Here are some of the most common questions we hear:

Membership

1. How many members do I have today?
2. Has our membership grown in the past five or ten years?
3. Did our membership grow or decline during the pandemic years and where is it now?
4. What segments of our membership are growing or declining?
5. Can we afford to discount dues for certain segments like students or retirees?

Meetings & Events

1. What happened to registration counts and attendance at our biggest meeting in the past five years?
2. How do our registration numbers compare to pre-pandemic levels?
3. Does changing the location of our large meeting affect our registration numbers?
4. Is registration (for small or large meetings) ahead of, behind or about the same as last year?

Revenue

1.  Is revenue in total increasing or declining – this year, over 5 years, over 10 years?
2. What programs or services are contributing the most or least to total revenue? Why?
3. What costs are increasing or decreasing for each program?
4. From most to least, can we rank what programs generate the most revenue?

Develop new reports to answer questions

The questions you have developed will drive the creation of new reports and comparisons. Work with your staff to include all the variables you need in queries or reports to ensure accuracy.

For example, if you want an accurate member count, you’ll need to decide how to count members who don’t pay dues during the year, such as emeritus members, retirees or lifetime members. You would also need to decide how to count members in a grace period. After their initial membership expires, are they still active members or do they become members again only when they pay annual dues? These details are important. Without them you can’t produce accurate numbers and analyze.

Be sure to name new reports and queries so that everyone knows what the report will show. Using the same report across time will ensure comparable counts and will allow you to make accurate assumptions. Also, all staff members need to know which reports will give them the best information possible.

Finally, investigate the lifecycle of a report. If you run a report today and then run the same report in two weeks will you get the same answer? If you forget to run a report today or the run date falls on a weekend or holiday, can you run it later and get an accurate report? You’ll adapt your process to match the lifecycle of your reports.

Automate as much as possible

If you want reports available at the same time every month or at set times in a registration process, find a way to automate running those reports. Automation ensures that reports are generated exactly when they should be, and most AMS systems have the capability to run reports automatically. If you’re using spreadsheets, you might have to get more creative in designing ways to automate the process to ensure that you create reports at the same time every year, month or week.

Pick the low-hanging fruit

It’s likely that your finance or marketing software comes with some standard reports. Use the reporting capabilities of any software package you’re using. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, if you don’t have to. Examine the standard reports and use them if possible.

We recommend that you develop a plan of action for gathering and analyzing data. Indicate who will do what tasks during the process. The results will likely inform your decisions about your overall plan for the coming year.

If you keep data in several places, you can consolidate it using stand-alone tools that are currently available. These tools allow you to input data from spreadsheets, small databases, your AMS, event platforms and more, and report from all of them. You don’t have to be a data analyst to get good results.

If you have questions about your project, we’re always ready to help. No obligations and no hard sell. We understand your challenges because we’ve worked extensively with small-staff associations.You can watch a quick video about how we worked with The Leadership Institute to solve their data dilemmas or contact us at Intellidata.