Organization:
The New York Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers (ASAP) is committed to working together to support organizations, groups and individuals that prevent and alleviate the profound personal, social and economic consequences of alcoholism and substance abuse in New York State. ASAP represents the interests of the largest alcoholism and substance abuse prevention, treatment, research and training providers in the country. ASAP also welcomes membership from coalitions, businesses, organizations and individuals that support ASAP's mission.
Prevention program members include both school and community based programs. Treatment program members include: out-patient treatment, hospital based in-patient and community based residential treatment, methadone treatment, and vocational/educational service providers working in collaboration with treatment programs.
Challenge:
ASAP and its members are facing continual federal and state funding cuts because of the present financial and political climate. The addiction and behavioral health (ABH) prevention, treatment, and recovery facilities are being forced to look for more creative solutions to their day-to-day business challenges.
They needed to continually offer better member benefits that deliver solutions to their membership business challenges, and enhance their administrative ability to manage the many functions of the member benefits. Extensive database management and marketing muscle is needed to continually communicate the member benefits ASAP sought for their members. They also needed to create lasting partnerships with vendors that would be willing to reduce prices on a larger scale, yet offer a higher service level to even the smallest organizations in the association.
Finally, ASAP needed to come up with solutions for their membership to help attract and retain their most important assets, employees. Even with high unemployment in the United States, the addiction and behavioral health community is hard pressed to find qualified employees who want to enter the field and make it a lifelong career.
Students wanting to specialize in healthcare needed to understand the career path to the addiction and behavioral health field. Career information had to go beyond ASAP membership to the entire northeast addiction and behavioral health community, as well as to high school and college career counselors.
Like ASAP, administrative requirements of all associations are similar, whether a multi-million dollar organization or an organization that takes in only fifty thousand dollars a year. The departments that are required to run an organization include:
Many associations struggle to reach a fully established position because they do not have the initial funds to implement the administrative infrastructure that is necessary to attract additional funds for further development. Often member dues do not cover the cost of what an association requires to help resolve many of the members’ needs, but most associations cannot increase membership costs to the level needed to run the association.
Not having these funds to build the administrative infrastructure can stall the development of an organization or even end the organization altogether. This is particularly true in a slow economy when members may consider cutting out membership fees to an association to save money, even though the association can help members find solutions to their financial challenges.
Solutions:
College Benefits Group (CBG) and College Benefits Publishing (CBP) customized an administrative, database management, and communications platform to meet the association’s member benefits needs. First, to build a strong collaborative benefits model, three very important components must be considered. These three parts must work in balance with each other or the collaborative benefits model will not function effectively:
Database Management
A good database management system produces and maintains data for communications, which would include website and published information; data for and about vendors providing member benefits and services; and data for insurance underwriters so that ASAP could provide alternative employee benefits and insurance options at reduced prices for their members.
As part of their collaborative benefits model, College Benefits Publishing has a proprietary database management system already in place, which was then configured for ASAP’s particular needs. The association did not need to spend scarce funds to create the database system or hire the qualified staff to manage the system.
The CBP data system provides addiction and behavioral health data from every state in the northeast, delivering much-needed business information and demographic profiles of the entire northeast ABH community.
Data from the addiction and behavioral health community had formerly been collected throughout the northeast, but in a very fragmented manner. Each state, nonprofit, and for-profit organization has collected data that is specific to its needs, but no one organization has brought together all the data in order to paint a clear picture of the northeast addiction and behavioral health community.
Administrative Management
Continually developing and expanding member benefits can demonstrate increasing value to an association’s membership by helping meet the ever-changing needs of its members. College Benefits Group acts as a satellite administrative office for the association’s members. Establishing a collaborative payroll systems, human resources information systems, or staff employee benefits and insurance created many opportunities to save money, time, and effort for ASAP member organizations.
The CBG collaborative administrative office is not in competition or a replacement to the already-established administrative office at a member’s organization; it only acts as a supplement to the member’s business needs. For instance, the complexity of employee benefits is growing beyond any one person’s expertise, and having a dedicated and experienced benefits staff at an association would add great value for membership.
The CBG administrative platform acted as a benefits office for member organizations’ human resources departments, offering benefits information to employees, such as claim processing or benefits eligibility management.
Communications Management
It doesn’t matter how many member benefits an association offers its members or how good the benefits are, if the member audience doesn’t know about the benefits and their value to its organization. College Benefits Publishing created, built, and manages a communications platform that is necessary for ASAP to increase its membership participation in the collaborative member benefits. CBP’s communications platform includes a professional journal, eNewsletter, website, resource guide, and social networking site.
The CBP proactive communications approach is important when an association takes on the daily task of managing their member organizations’ group purchasing opportunities, group employee benefits, and other group benefits that the members can access.
The association needs direct contact with member organizations’ key staff, particularly the key decision makers who purchase the products and/or services the association is offering. Direct access helps to maintain clear communications regarding new benefits plans, changing benefits plans, benefits eligibility issues, and benefits compliance issues, to name only a few items.
Proper and proactive communication also has an important marketing effect on an association and its ability to maintain a successful presence with its member organizations. By continually delivering increased value to its members and communicating that value to the member’s staff, ASAP will have a much easier time advocating the value of joining the association or maintaining a membership.