Jim Thompson with IMI Association Executives

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Jim Thompson with IMI Association Executives. Welcome.

Jim Thompson: Hey, Lee, how are you doing today?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about IMI. How you serving folks?

Jim Thompson: Sure. So IMI is an association management company that’s based here in the Raleigh area, Raleigh, North Carolina, and we’ve been in business for, gosh, about 35 years, represent about 23 different clients from anywhere from small regional associations all the way up to big international associations.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Jim Thompson: Oh gosh, Lee. So, you know, it’s an interesting story. So for gosh, for about six years I actually worked in the newspaper industry, was a reporter with the News and Record in Greensboro, North Carolina, and was getting kind of, uh, I would say disenchanted with the newspaper business and. Well, and frankly, considering where the newspaper industry is today, I’m kind of thankful for that. It was definitely a blessing in disguise. But I actually went back and talked to my career counselor at my university, where I attended and made some comment to her that, uh, you know, I just I was sort of disenchanted with the newspaper industry. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the rest of my life. You know, here I am just like, you know, mid-twenties and, you know, just didn’t know where in the world I was going to go. And it just so happened at the time, I was very involved in a civic organization in town called the Greensboro Jaycees and was just very engaged in that, you know, community service. And, you know, she made some comment to me that, um, you know, she said, you know, every time you mention the Jaycees, you get this sort of spark in your eye and a little sparkle. And, you know, she’s like, have you ever thought about going into the nonprofits and actually working for nonprofits? And I’m like, well, you know, may already work for a newspaper industry. I don’t know that I could make any less money. She’s like, no, no, no, you know, I don’t mean like nonprofit, as in, you don’t make any money. But. So I actually worked for a junior achievement of north eastern North Carolina for about a year or so. And then, um, actually had a great opportunity to work for the North Carolina Association of Realtors and actually using my marketing, um, kind of communication skills and a job there. And the rest is history. So, I mean, I’ve been this is this year actually marks my 25th year working in the association industry. So, um, yeah, absolutely love it.

Lee Kantor: Now for folks who are working in an association, but maybe not with a firm like yours that help helps them. What’s your kind of sales pitch to them when you’re when they’re, um, deciding whether to keep going at it alone or to partner with somebody that has the expertise across a variety of associations, like your firm.

Jim Thompson: Yeah, sure. Great question. So, you know, as there’s several, several things, I mean, you know, with with associations, you know, we know that, you know, not all organizations can afford to have their own captive staff. Um, and, and frankly, you know, there’s a lot of costs that go into having your own professional staff, whether it’s, you know, just the overhead that goes along with it. Um, you know, it’s hard necessarily, like you kind of alluded to, you know, sometimes it’s hard to find, you know, somebody that’s good at everything. I mean, you know, it’s hard to find somebody who can do member services, who can also do marketing communications, who can also do finance. So for some organizations, it’s more cost effective to outsource either some or in a lot of cases with our organizations, all of the management services, um, to run their organization just from a cost standpoint. You know, when you look at, you know, we’ve looked at several studies over the years through Amci, which is the, um, AMC Institute. And, you know, you look at what a lot of standalone associations are paying for their, you know, professional services compared to their overall budget. Um, typically association, an association management company can save an organization, you know, anywhere from 5 to 20% a year on their management services, um, utilizing an AMC. Um, also, I think, you know, there are some organizations who I’ll use, um, some of the medical groups, for example, we used to work with a medical group that, um, we had a previous association management company where, you know, lobbying and advocacy was one of their their big things that they, they focused on. And so they spent a tremendous amount of money on that. But what was so. Great about working with the management companies. It enabled them to reduce their expenses to manage the association, but yet be able to put, you know, a considerable amount of resources towards lobbying and advocacy, something that was very important to them. So it allowed them to, you know, save some money, which enabled them to do something that was very important to them.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you find that, um, some of the associations before they, uh, take the leap to working with a firm like yours that they underestimate? Maybe, um, the amount of time and skill and, um, commitment it takes in order to grow an association. And maybe they were on a roll for a while, but as soon as there’s some turbulence and maybe member engagement goes low, or maybe their members are not, you know, rejoining their, you know, they get into a challenge of it’s hard to kind of spin that up from scratch. Whereas an association management company like yours, you have so many best practices and seeing what’s working, what’s not and trends and you’re so on top of it because you are working with a variety of associations that you can come in and make a big difference pretty rapidly.

Jim Thompson: Oh, 100%. That’s I mean, you’re right, only I mean, that’s the you know, I say that’s the beauty of being in an AMC environment is that, you know, for example, with our organization, you know, I my role as vice president of client relations here at IMI. So not only do I serve as the executive director for two national associations, but I oversee our account managers. And, you know, between all of our account managers, you know, they have, you know, 150, 200 years of experience of, you know, combined association experience between the lot of them, um, you know, so if you’ve got an association that’s come into us that’s maybe struggling with growing their membership or, you know, maybe they are looking at, uh, you know, revamping their conference and making it a true, you know, hybrid experience or, um, you know, looking at developing a certification program, whatever the case is, you know, chances are, you know, one of our account managers has been down that road before and has the experience that they can, you know, bring to the table. Um, and if our account managers don’t have it, certainly one of our, one of our VP’s, you know, in our client relations or client services or our, our current president of IMI, you know, certainly several of us have had have been down that path before. There’s really not much that we haven’t experienced in some way, shape or form.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is the typical pain that an association before they begin a conversation with your firm? Like what are they going through where it’s like, hey, maybe I should be calling IMI. Um, you know what is happening in their world that kind of precipitates that, that call to you.

Jim Thompson: You know, I think one of the big things that I, I see from, uh, association, you know, and I mean, this is, you know, not counting the associations who maybe were at another management company or whatever the case is, but maybe and I’m just using the example of, you know, an association who decides that they want to go to a management company for the first time. They’ve never they’ve all been run internally. Maybe, um, you know, for a lot of associations, it’s they’re they’re tired of being stuck in the weeds of, of running the association while also trying to lead the association. Um, and that’s a hard thing to do. I mean, when you get to the point where, you know, you’re trying to grow the association, but you’re so busy running the organization and you’re in the organization that’s it’s hard to be thinking outside and thinking about, you know, where you want to go strategically because you’re so busy caught up in just the running the day to day. So, you know, for an association who’s looking to take that next leap and grow their organization, maybe they have been all volunteer run for a long time. You know, this is an AMC is a great opportunity for them to kind of put some of those administrative duties to the side and let somebody else do the run, the run, the association while they spend time working on the association.

Lee Kantor: Right. So it’s a delegation, not an abdication.

Jim Thompson: Correct? Exactly, exactly. Because again, I think that’s the problem. I mean, most associations that are, you know, especially ones that are all volunteer run, or maybe they have some, you know, some, you know, small minuscule administrative services. You know, it’s still they get caught up in trying to be a volunteer, but also managing the business, you know, managing the business of the association. So.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. It gets. I’ve been involved in a variety of levels in a variety of, of groups like that. And it just when you’re relying on all volunteers, then you’re at kind of the mercy of volunteers and the volunteers, you know, have jobs and lives and a livelihood that’s really their most important priority. And then if you need them to, you know, make the association the most important thing. It’s it’s just a really difficult needle to thread.

Jim Thompson: Absolutely. I know I always you know, and it’s something I always tell my staff and I’ve taught, I’ve taught association one on one programs for a number of years. And one of the things I always try to remind staff that worked with the associations is like, you know, don’t be offended when your volunteers don’t do what they say they do. I mean, say they, you know, or say they, you know, they’re supposed to do because, you know, as much as, you know, yes, it’s our our job is to run the association. And that’s our main priority for them. You know, the association may be their third or fourth priority in their life. I mean, between, you know, they have day jobs, they have families. Chances are they’re type A people. They’re very involved in other. So they’re probably involved in other organizations. They have other time commitments that they’re dealing with. So yeah, you’re right. I mean, you can’t expect a volunteer to make the association their job.

Lee Kantor: So when an organization decides to work with you and your firm, where do you know where’s the first thing they notice, like, oh, this is a good idea. This is really freeing up time. I’m seeing that. I am getting to think big picture. Is there something that happens, maybe like a quick win for an association when they start working for you guys?

Jim Thompson: Yeah, I think, you know, I think probably the biggest quick wins are when, you know, especially if they’ve they’ve afforded us the opportunity. One of the things that we offer to all of our clients is a if they don’t already have one, is a sort of a mini strategic plan that kind of gives them some, you know, just some, you know, a few goals and objectives and tactics, tactics that they can accomplish over the next year or two. Um, and I think usually within the like, first, you know, 60, 90 days, you know, after a few board meetings when we’re sitting with them and, you know, we’re we’re we as staff are reviewing the status of the strategic plan and kind of keeping them, you know, monitored and up to date on where things are kind of being that sort of, um, you know, I look at referred to as sort of the air traffic controller, you know, just making sure all of the planes are flying where they need to be flying and going where they need to be going. Um, you’re just taking care of all those things for them, and they and it’s so nice for them to be sitting at board meetings and hearing updates about where they’re at and where they’re still lagging behind, where they need to go, which then enables them to be thinking futuristically and not sort of in the minutia of, you know, that kind of level of detail.

Lee Kantor: So now, any advice for the association’s out there when it comes to member engagement? In today’s world, where everybody is kind of pulled in 50 million directions and now you’re in a work world, especially where it’s hybrid, where some people are working remotely, some people are in the office like it’s a whole different kind of association, I would imagine, in today’s world as compared to, you know, ten years ago.

Jim Thompson: Absolutely. Um, you know, I think at the end of the day, the organizations that I’ve seen that are most successful at today’s, you know, modern, you know, 21st century membership engagement is those organizations that don’t forget those 18th century practices, meaning like people still want to talk to people, whether it’s by phone, um, or, you know, in person. Um, and when those opportunities aren’t available, you know, making those interactions available virtually as much as possible. Um, you know, I think organizations that are truly embracing the hybrid model, um, you know, I use one of my associations as a great example that I work with. Um, they have truly embraced the hybrid model for their conferences and are starting to see record numbers of people attending these meetings. Um, but it’s because they’re being very intentional about the experience. You know, a lot of associations say they run a hybrid meeting, but in fact, really all they do is put a camera in the back of the room and stream the meeting. And the true definition of hybrid is those meetings that completely replicate the in-person experience, but to a virtual audience. So making sure there’s engagement, making sure there’s activities, making sure there’s networking opportunities, making sure that, you know, there’s a chance for the in-person audience to interact with the virtual audience and vice versa. You know, so I think association is a truly get that, you know, that it is a two way street between, you know, interacting in person, interacting virtually. Um, but then not forgetting those personal connections, you know, the handwritten note, you know, it’s like a thing of the past, but, you know, it’s something it means a lot when you’re, you know, getting things like that. Um, you know, a 21 person, 20 year old year old who just joined an association, a handwritten thank you card means just as much to them as a, you know, 60 year old, uh, member who’s been around for 30, you know, 40 years, you know, so it’s like, not missing those little human touches that, um, are really important to anybody. Not forgetting them.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. It’s something in our organization we call relationship building moments is how to create more and more of those in the interactions, because you have to constantly be pushing the value, or else people are, you know, if they’re not getting the value, they’re not going to just keep rejoining. You know, you have to continually think of ways to just create more and more value for your members, or else they’re not going to be members.

Jim Thompson: Absolutely, absolutely. And and the funny thing about it is, you know, as much as we say that, you know, it’s like, you know, I’ve again, I’ve been in the association industry for 25 years. Like, I can’t think of a time when I’ve been involved in the association world where we haven’t been talking about the importance of creating member value. I mean, it’s just something that always it’s it’s it should always be in our DNA. I mean, we should always be thinking about that. I mean, one of the things that, you know, I really strive for with all of our account managers is, you know, it’s one thing to provide member service. It’s another thing to provide a member experience. You know, it’s something that they’ll remember because everybody, everybody at the bare minimum should be providing member service. That’s just the bare minimum that you should be doing. But, you know, organizations that create experiences, like you said, are developing those. Those relationships relate relational experiences and moments. Um, I really like that term that you used there. Um, because I think those are the associations that are more successful.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Is there a story maybe you can share when you, um. You don’t have to name the association, but maybe share with the challenge that they were having. And then after working with you, how you were able to take them to a new level.

Jim Thompson: Yeah, sure. So I’ll use the example I was talking about with the conference, for example. So, um, you know, when the, when we were our in-person meetings had always been doing really well, um, and then we went, you know, pandemic hit, we went all virtual. Those meetings were fairly well attended, and we were doing a virtual, um, component to our conference. And, you know, the very first meeting back from the pandemic, you know, we had a pretty good number of folks attending the virtual meeting. And then, you know, the the subsequent two meetings, the attendance just dropped, just plummeted. Um, and so we knew, you know, we have got to do something about this if we’re going to continue to offer a virtual component to this meeting, we’ve got to do something to make it more valuable for those. So we actually, um, put together a task force, um, and that was made up of, you know, people who have attended virtual meetings in the past. Um, we actually did a virtual town hall that we invited every, every person who had ever attended a virtual meeting with us in the past, whether they were had been in person before or only virtual, and just really gathered a lot of feedback from them. And from that developed a new sort of hybrid experience. But one of the big components that we incorporated was, and we call it a, um, it was basically a virtual meeting liaison or a, you know, so basically, you know, we had somebody on the ground who was sort of our go to person so that, you know, the in-person, the virtual audience always had, you know, a connection with the in-person audience via this person.

Jim Thompson: So they were basically like their advocate. I mean, they were essentially advocating for them in the in, in the in-person meeting. And so, you know, we even had, you know, we would we did things like, you know, the after the keynote speaker presented, um, we have had like a little green room set up with the camera and the zoom meeting set up where the speaker came over and actually had a conversation with the in person with the virtual audience, like during the networking break. Um, and so they got a chance to have a one on one conversation with the keynote speaker that even, you know, the people in the in-person audience didn’t even have a chance to experience. Um, we even had a situation where we had staff members that were attending virtually, and they they messaged the our virtual advocate and said, hey, I see our one of our team leads at the meeting and her birthday is today. Is there any way we could sing her happy birthday? And we actually had them shown up on the screen at the conference and had them sing Happy Birthday to her at the in-person audience, you know? So it was like that we sort of just broke down those, you know, work with them to sort of break down the barriers between that in-person and virtual experience. So it was almost like they were one, if you will. Um, and we’ve been and we have been slowly, steadily, you know, they started out, I think their last virtual meeting they had they had about 45 people on it, and we were almost 100 people attending that meeting this year.

Lee Kantor: Wow. And that just when you focus on that kind of human being to human being, it just makes a world of difference. It, it, you know, it it literally humanizes the virtual right. You are getting that hybrid experience. They’re not just, like you said, throwing a camera in the back of a room and with a wide shot and saying, okay, here, we did it. Check the box, you know. Right. Exactly, exactly. Um, so if somebody wants to learn more or maybe they’re frustrated with their membership, maybe they’re frustrated with their, uh, events. Um, what is the best way to connect with you or somebody on your team?

Jim Thompson: Sure. Um, you can just email me. My email address is really simple. It’s just Jim. Jim at I’m, I a e.com.

Lee Kantor: And if they go to I am I a e.com that website. Uh they’ll be able to find more information about the firm and the different associations you work with and things like that.

Jim Thompson: Yeah, absolutely. Matter of fact, there’s and there’s a link on there. If you’re interested in a submitting a proposal or RFP, we can you can go on there and click a link. If you’re, if there’s something that’s, that’s, you know, you’re specifically interested in a service or whatever the case is. So absolutely.

Lee Kantor: And then you serve associations around the country or globally.

Jim Thompson: Globally. Yeah. We have like I said, uh, in our intro, we have anywhere from, you know, small regional associations all the way up to we have a 1 or 2 national international associations.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a sweet spot or a niche or it’s kind of industry agnostic?

Jim Thompson: Um, we’re fairly industry agnostic. I mean, we, um, we have sort of identified what we would refer to as our ideal client. Um, we have a set of core values here at IMI. Um, but one of the big, big ones that we subscribe to is around the areas of collaboration. So, you know, one of the things we our sweet spot I would definitely is full service clients. Um, but we really like to work with those groups to have, you know, very diverse boards. Um, you know, so and I don’t mean just diversity from a race standpoint, but just, you know, from a gender, you know, urban versus rural, you know, just seeing boards who have a who have a diverse diversity of thought, I would say, um, and then just, um, you know, working with groups that are that view us as partners and collaborators and not just, uh, you know, we’re we’re not if you’re looking for somebody to just manage your association, that’s not us. We’re there to lead with you.

Lee Kantor: Right. It sounds like you’re not looking for, um, a transactional relationship. You’re looking for a relationship. Relationship where your partners and you’re all kind of rowing the same way.

Jim Thompson: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Um, and once again, that website is, I, am I a e.com? Uh, Jim Thompson, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate it.

Jim Thompson: Absolutely. Lee, thanks for the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.