Last week, a Wellington-based association was hacked by scammers through their emails.

The association received a legitimate invoice by email from one of their members and was approved by the CEO and forwarded to the accounts department. Between the CEO and Accounts, the banking details were changed and the accounts clerk changed the bank accounts details to the new ones. Payment was made and it went to an offshore account.

A great procedure to have in place, is that if any bank account details are changed that they are confirmed verbally by phone before any change is made in your financial package. It would be wise to apply this procedure to your business.

In this instance, if that procedure had been implemented, the association would not have lost a significant sum of money.

The Accounting Income Method (AIM), the new pay-as-you-go option for managing provisional tax through accounting software, is now available for small businesses with an annual turnover of under $5 million.

With AIM, you pay provisional tax only when your business makes a profit. AIM will suit businesses that are growing, new, have irregular or seasonal income, or find it difficult to forecast their income accurately. AIM makes managing cash flow simpler because provisional tax payments are based on a business’ actual results.

Here’s how you can start using AIM in the current tax year:

• If you have a balance date of 31 March and file GST every month, you will need to pay your first provisional tax instalment by 28 May 2018.
• If you pay GST every two or six months, or if you’re not registered for GST, your first filing deadline for AIM is 28 June 2018.

Software providers MYOB, Reckon and Xero are offering AIM in their tax management accounting packages. MYOB is also providing AIM to their business customers. You’ll find more information on their websites.

Talk to your software provider or tax agent about whether AIM is right for your business. Visit www.ird.govt.nz/aim for more information or take a look at the free webinars on AIM at www.cchlearning.co.nz

Kia ora

I hope you’ve had a fantastic April and a strong start to the new financial year.

With the recent spotlight on the “Association of the Commonwealth” I have been keenly observing the star power of the New Zealand Prime Minister on the international stage. Politics aside, from this side of the Tasman we are little bit in awe of the positive and authentic leadership your Prime Minister is demonstrating to the rest of the world.

Staying on leadership, I am delighted that we are able to walk the walk and support our emerging association leaders by offering scholarship opportunities to the AuSAE LINC conference in Auckland in September. With the generous support of the NZICC, 10 individuals will have the opportunity to join the conference and access the premium professional development and networking opportunities the conference offers. To find out more or to apply please email brett@ausae.org.au for an application.

Lastly, I am looking forward to joining you in Wellington on May 1 for the “Conference Engagement Symposium”. Conferences are such an important part of all of our businesses, and taking a day out to focus, and learn from industry leaders and one another will be invaluable. If you haven’t yet registered it’s not too late! Brett will be doing it all over again in Auckland on May 3 !

Until next month

Toni Brearley, Chief Executive Officer

Happy April!

The AuSAE team are in “conference lock-down” as we look forward to welcoming over 400 delegates in Adelaide next month at ACE 2018, the premium conference for association leaders in Australia and New Zealand ….. time is running out – have you registered?

This years’ program has been curated to address some of the key challenges association managers are facing including engaging the next generation, re-thinking models of membership and delivering more with less.

We have brought in speakers from outside the sector to dare you to think differently, and big picture thought leaders addressing technology, leadership and the continued need for human connection.

The best learnings though I find, are from the conversations, interactions and connections made during the conference, that continue long after the taxi ride to the airport.

I invite you to join us in Adelaide on May 28 – 30 and allow us to ignite your thinking!

“We are hard wired to connect. When human beings who trust each other interact face to face, their capacity to have a positive cognitive effect on each other’s brain and body is something which no robot or screen has”. Dr Fiona Kerr, ACE Keynote Speaker.

Until next month.

Toni Brearley, Chief Executive Officer

Topic: How to Future-Proof your Association - Strategies for Success in a Digitally-Disruptive Landscape

In this inspiring yet practical workshop, author, commentator and entrepreneur Bernadette Schwerdt digs deep into the world of disruptive innovation and reveals:

• the four tech factors driving digital disruption that underpin the unprecedented growth experienced by billion-dollar startups like Uber, Snapchat etc and how to apply those principles to your association
  
• how to identify what members really want and use low-cost funding tools to generate world-class ideas on a budget
  
• the upcoming digital marketing trends that will impact all associations and NFPs
  
• the top 3 essentials questions you must ask if your association is to stay relevant in a global economy
  
• the surprising success strategies behind some of Australia’s most innovative and disruptive NFPs - what they do differently and how to profit from and leverage those strategies for success

Guest Presenter: Bernadette Schwerdt

Our guest presenter Bernadette Schwerdt is an author, speaker and digital marketing strategist. She is the director of the Australian School of Copywriting, a former advertising agency account director with the Young & Rubicam Group and a corporate trainer with over 26 years’ experience. 

Her best-selling book, 'Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs’ documents the start-up stories behind Australia's most successful digital mavericks and reveals the strategies and processes that underpin their growth. The book’s popularity has seen it become a podcast and a 5-part documentary series for Fairfax Digital.

Melbourne l Tuesday 26th June 10am- 4pm

Register Here

Sydney l Wednesday 27th June 10am-4pm

Register Here

On 17 April, Inland Revenue made changes to streamline business taxes. It’s part of the department’s commitment to create a modern tax system which is simple to use, makes it easy for everyone to get their taxes right, and fits as seamlessly as possible into people’s lives.

You will have seen and heard about the changes over the last few months, but here’s a reminder of what’s now in place:

• The new ‘My Business’ section in myIR, where you can now manage tax types like Fringe Benefit Tax and Gaming Machine Duty. For help navigating myIR, visit http://cdn-au.mailsnd.com/50257/va-tsulCRK-su8H9RAifesKwCPCrPv_Gq9Lf0KnijSI/1922576.pdf
• The ‘Accounting Income Method’ (AIM), a new ‘pay-as-you-go’ method for managing provisional tax, is now available. Talk to your tax agent or software provider about whether AIM is right for your business, and go to www.ird.govt.nz/aim for more videos and information.
• Parliament has recently passed legislation which will require employers to file PAYE information every payday rather than monthly. This is voluntary from April 2018 and mandatory from April 2019. Find out more at www.ird.govt.nz/payday

As always, we will be working closely with Inland Revenue to support you and answer any queries about the changes.

Visit http://www.ird.govt.nz/transformation/businesses/ for more information.

The National Convention Centre is Canberra’s leading meetings and events venue; unrivalled in facilities, size and scope. The Centre is diverse, flexible and equipped to handle events of all sizes.

Inclusive space, personable staff and process friendly - our $80 Day Delegate Package is designed with you in mind.  Whatever your conference needs in 2018 we have a creative solution for you. To check availability and pricing - ncc.sales@ihg.com

To find out more details, click here. 

Innovation, collaboration and financial control are key to ensuring strong, sustainable not for profits in today’s world, writes Community Sector Banking CEO Andrew Cairns.

Australian not for profits never cease to amaze me. I hear countless stories of incredible programs and passionate people making a real impact. They are on the front-lines, empowering the most vulnerable people in our society, advocating for our rights, and protecting our environment. Not for profits are essential for strong, sustainable and happy communities.

Yet, today’s not for profits face a mountain of challenges. Some 3,000 new charities pop up each year, jostling for the same decreasing pool of funding and grants, according to The Australian. At the same time, the demand on not for profits is only mounting.

Australia is facing social crises that are complex and on a massive scale – from domestic violence to unaffordable housing pushing people into homelessness. Not for profits are increasingly being asked to step in for governments to address these problems.

How can we ensure strong, sustainable not for profits in today’s world? This is a question I genuinely work to answer every day. Community Sector Banking was formed 15 years ago, when a group of not for profits came together with a plan to take control of their financial destiny. It’s an ongoing project and much as it genuinely excites me, I won’t bang on about it – I know you’re waiting for the answer to that question.

How can we make not for profits strong and sustainable? There’s no one silver bullet. Innovation, collaboration and financial control are key.

These are all fairly lofty concepts, so I’ll give you some concrete examples of collaboration strengthening a not for profit.

Mission Australia Housing has teamed up with the private and government sectors to deliver what’s billed as Australia’s largest social housing project: the redevelopment of Sydney’s Ivanhoe Housing Estate. Mission Australia will have onsite offices to provide support programs for social housing tenants, creating a pathway to empower people into the private housing market.

Haven; Home, Safe in Bendigo is another great example. Their award-winning Sidney Myer Haven project pairs housing and education to build resilience and long-term capability in its residents. Collaboration between government, and the private and philanthropic sectors has made this program possible, enabling people to turn their lives around.

These projects show the power of collaboration to generate sustainable not-for-profit programs, and make a positive impact in our communities. In my position, I’m privileged with great insight into Australia’s not-for-profit sector. I know of countless projects and initiatives, which offer lessons that go towards answering that burning question.

There’s no one silver bullet to make each and every not for profit strong and sustainable. Every organisation is unique and as such, they require a unique solution. Yet, all must take the first step on the path to sustainability. And that step is questioning: what are your unique challenges, and goals? How can you innovate, collaborate and gain financial control, to ensure long-term sustainability and impact in our communities?

Originally published in Pro Bono News

An accomplished leader in the health field has joined the organisation to lead its policy and advocacy, the PSA has announced.

Outgoing CEO of the Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (GBMA), Belinda Wood, has been appointed to the role of General Manager, Policy and Advocacy of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA).

Ms Wood has over 23 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having worked constructively with policy makers and political decision-makers, and built trusted relationships with stakeholders over the past three years in her role as CEO of GBMA.

She led negotiations of the GBMA’s first ever Strategic Agreement with government in 2015, and again in 2017.

Prior to holding the role of CEO, Ms Wood was the organisation’s policy director.

She has also previously worked as a policy manager for the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

Ms Wood holds a medical science degree in pharmacology from the University of Sydney, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

PSA National President Dr Shane Jackson welcomed Ms Wood’s appointment on behalf of the Board.

“The PSA Board recognises that as this is an important time for PSA and for the profession, we need the right team to deliver tangible improvement in the recognition of the role of pharmacists in the healthcare system,” he said.

“I am confident that Belinda will drive the PSA agenda of expanded roles for pharmacists, improved recognition of the expertise of pharmacists and will also lead our work on improving remuneration for pharmacists.”

Ms Wood said, “I am excited to take on this important leadership role with PSA and look forward to working with a dedicated team led by incoming CEO Graham Catt.

“The PSA Board has set a clear strategic direction to secure the organisation as a leader in health policy while continuing to set high-quality practice standards and ensuring pharmacists are supported to be the very best healthcare professionals they can be.

“My focus will be to represent PSA as the leading professional body for Australian pharmacists, advocate for pharmacists to be fully utilised in medicines management and develop opportunities for pharmacists regardless of where they practise their profession,” she said.

This article originally appeared in the Australian Journal of Pharmacy

By Nicki Hauser, Director, FineHaus

By definition, membership associations exist to serve their members – so ensuring your members are satisfied and engaged is a key strategic priority for every association.

It seems obvious that, in order to deliver on this strategic priority, you need to know how just how satisfied your members are with what you are doing. As the saying goes, if it’s not measured, it’s not truly managed.

Even more importantly, you need to understand what makes your members satisfied. Understanding the relationship between your members’ satisfaction with what you are doing and what your members value most is critical if you want to develop a strategy to improve member satisfaction and engagement.

If you can’t answer these questions definitively, you are not certainly alone!

So what can you do to find this out?

1. Satisfaction Indicators

There are a number of indicators that can be used to infer member satisfaction and engagement. These include:

- Renewal rates: If your membership renewal rates are declining, this is a good indicator that something is going wrong with your association. Conversely, if they are increasing, this indicates you are doing something right. However, the big question that tracking renewal rates doesn’t answer is ‘what’ – what are you doing that is right or wrong – and what do you need to do to improve your renewal rates?

- New member growth: Likewise, if your new member numbers are growing, this tells you that you are doing something right and are offering something that members’ value. Again, the unanswered question is – what?

- Participation rates: Participation rates for your individual events and other programs show whether members are engaging with your offerings. - If you also survey member satisfaction with each offering, this data can provide valuable insight into member engagement. The missing piece then understands the relative value of your key programs to members – and how this impacts overall member satisfaction and engagement.

- Open rates on newsletters and emails, website visitation, engagement with social media etc: This data can provide useful insights into how engaged your members are with your communications. What it doesn’t tell you what they value most.

The other thing to remember is that these are all lag indicators of satisfaction (for example, after your unsatisfied members fail to renew) – which is often too late to do much about it.

2. Ask your members!

Perhaps not surprisingly, the best way to determine member satisfaction and to understand what is important to them is to actually ask your members!

The key areas to cover in your member satisfaction research include:

- Member satisfaction with your services, communications touch-points and governance

- What are the key drivers for member engagement

- What do members value and how do they perceive membership value for money

- What are member’s renewal intentions

- How likely are they to recommend your association to others

- Why new members join.

How to ask

You can survey member satisfaction via qualitative research (for example, by running focus groups with representatives from key member segments) or by conducting quantitative membership satisfaction surveys, where you survey all members and analyse the responses to provide insights.

Quantitative research has the advantage in terms of time and effort to conduct, reach to your whole membership, statistical reliability of results and the ability to compare results over time.

A word of warning - think carefully if you are planning on saving money by whipping up your own research in-house and sending it out using a tool like survey monkey – particularly if you do not have access to in-house research expertise.

Designing membership satisfaction surveys that provide sound data that you can rely on for decision-making takes expertise and experience. It can be hard to know what questions to ask and how to ask them to get the insights you need. You also risk perceptions of - or actual bias - in the survey design or results analysis.

A badly designed and conducted satisfaction survey can actually do more damage than conducting no research at all.

There are a number of respected companies that can conduct independent membership satisfaction research for your association. And it doesn’t have to cost the earth. As an example, the cost to participate in the beaton/FineHaus Member Satisfaction Benchmarking research, to be conducted between October and November 2018, is just $1,500 (ex GST) for small associations.

Overcoming the common excuses about member research

Finally, don’t let these common excuses prevent you from understanding just how satisfied your members are and what makes them happy – and then developing data-driven strategies to improve your results each year:

- Excuse # 1 – Member survey fatigue: Some associations argue that their members are over-surveyed and that they don’t want to burden members with yet another survey. If you think this is the case for your association, then it is time to step back and ask how these surveys support the achievement of your strategic priorities. If one of your strategic priorities is to have satisfied, engaged members, then you simply have to make room for this research in your member survey program. And, by the way, research amongst association members that beaton has conducted over the years, shows the vast majority of members when asked whether they are surveyed too much, about the right amount or too little, answer the right amount or too little! No association should listen to a few squeaky wheels.

- Excuse # 2: ‘We know how our members feel’: Sometimes boards and committee members take the view that a member satisfaction survey is unnecessary because their level of satisfaction is indicative of how all members feel. This is patently untrue – your board and committee members are your most engaged members and potentially the most biased about their experience! They are not a representative sample of your membership.

- Excuse #3: Lack of money and expertise: Access to independent, expert research doesn’t have to cost the earth (see beaton/FineHaus Member Satisfaction Benchmarking program as an example!).

- Excuse #4: We surveyed members recently and don’t need to do it again: Even if you are offering exactly the same programs, to exactly the same members, member satisfaction with and expectations of your association can (and do) vary year to year for a whole range of reasons - and you need to be on top of this. It is important to track satisfaction and engagement each year to measure your performance and so you can continuously tweak your strategies. No association is perfect – there will always be room to improve.

- Excuse #5: Fear of the results: Sometimes, association leaders are concerned that results of the member satisfaction research might be poor and reflect badly on them and their team. If you are afraid this might be the case for your association, then this is actually a very strong indicator that you need to bite the bullet and undertake independent member satisfaction research forthwith! Only when you definitively know what is going on, can you develop robust strategies to improve your association’s performance moving forward.

Performance boosting

Finally, member feedback to an association is like oxygen is to the body.

Without enough, performance is compromised. With a good supply of oxygen (member feedback), the body (your association) can be trained to function at the highest level. Makes you think, doesn’t it!

If you would like to learn more about participating in the 2018 beaton + FineHaus Member Satisfaction Benchmarking, download the information kit now or contact Nicki Hauser.