Creating an association - where to start?

The creation of an association begins at the moment when among members of the business community who are aware of the need to coordinate joint efforts, an initiator of a future alliance with a consolidating idea appears. It may also be negotiations on an agreed pricing policy, and the creation of common operating standards - the main thing is to find a really important issue for the industry. Otherwise, it will simply not be possible to gather colleagues to discuss it.

By communicating with each other and finding a solution that satisfies everyone, entrepreneurs will see all the benefits collaboration. Over time, this approach will become a permanent practice... Everything, the beginning of the association has been made, remains only to secure the fact of its creation legally.

The law provides for the following forms of non-profit organizations:
 public association,
 non-profit partnership,
 autonomous non-profit organization,
 fund,
 association (union),
 institution,
 consumer cooperative.
From this list, only three legal forms are suitable for creating a business association:
Public organization
It is created for joint activities to protect common interests and achieve the statutory goals of the organization's members.

The highest governing body is a congress (conference) or general meeting that elects the structure that carries out constant guidance.
Association (union)
Created by uniting commercial or non-profit organizations to coordinate their activities, representation and protection of common property interests.
The supreme governing body is the general meeting of members, which forms a permanent executive body.

Non-commercial partnership.
Established by citizens and legal entities. A non-profit partnership has the right to carry out entrepreneurial activity, if it serves to achieve the goals for which it was created. It could be production of goods and services, acquisition and sale of securities, property and non-property rights, participation in business companies and partnerships. When choosing a legal form for a future business association, the founders must clearly understand what they are plan to study. Will their organization conduct business activities? If yes, then the form "association (union)” most likely will not work. Are there plans to obtain the status of a self-regulatory organization in the future (about what is it, will be described below)? Then the only option is a non-profit partnership. Practice shows that sometimes the legal form is not specified in the charter; in this capacity it is simply indicated "non-profit organization". Nevertheless, all the main aspects (voluntariness of membership, property and other the rights and obligations of participants) are outlined in accordance with one of the legal forms described in the law. We still recommend making the legal form explicit. It is important to remember that the name of an organization does not necessarily correspond to its legal form. For example, with from a legal point of view, the Association of Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning Engineers (ABOK) - non-commercial partnership. A sign with the word “Association” may be worn by an organization that is not at all non-profit. Moreover, this organization may not exist at all, such as the mythical Association dentists, whose authority is referenced in numerous commercials.

Association structure (options)
Three main models
All the variety of forms and schemes for managing the activities of business associations can be reduced to three main types:

 Volunteer-run association
This model promotes active participation in the activities of the association by all its members. The management is great though is aware of their needs and strives to satisfy them as best as possible.
Disadvantages of the scheme: lengthy decision-making process, lack of organizational control, frequent policy changes, depending on the selection of new officials.
 Association managed by hired personnel
The main advantages of this model are better coordination, quick decision-making, and strict control over resources.
Disadvantages: members of the association lose interest in its activities, it is difficult to involve them in the work of committees and commissions.
There may be misunderstandings between hired personnel and association members.
 Balanced Leadership Model
This model has all the advantages of the previous two. It requires a clear delineation of responsibilities and
responsibilities of the chief elected and chief staff official. At the same time, for effective
The functioning of the association requires an effective leader.
There is no ideal structure that fits all associations.
In the book Principles of Association Leadership, in the chapter on organization, planning and control, Lee Van Bremen, an authoritative expert on the theory and practice of association management, writes: “One of the features that distinguishes an association from a commercial organization is a clearer separation of management and implementation of operating principles (policies). Many associations also have voluntary structures operating in parallel. These units, occupied by administrative activities and policy implementation are the main components of the management subsystem. The staff carries out administrative functions, volunteers make policy.”

Development of the Association
Stages of development
Entrepreneurship theorists judge the degree of development of an association by the number and level of responsibility of employees workers. And this approach has its own logic. According to Walter Schaw, CAE, International Handbook on Association Management,” ASAE, 1998, pp. 6–8), the structural evolution of any association can be divided into the following steps:

 Creation of an association
A group of people gathers to discuss common problems and interests. Over time, these meetings become formalized, an association is formed. As the association grows and becomes more complex, its procedures, rules and legal status are legalized through the charter and regulations. Association management functions at this stage are carried out volunteers.
 The emergence of hired personnel
The first employee of an association is often called the Secretary (with a capital "S") and is responsible for maintaining registration of association members, drawing up minutes, carrying out financial accounting and providing other types of assistance governing body of the association. Then the Secretary is joined by an accountant and an employee involved in working with membership base of the association. Over time, the administrative functions of hired personnel expand significantly. So, for example, a position arises as a technical director monitoring research, tracking technological or trade developments in the relevant field of activity, organization of educational programs, etc.
 The appearance of the first functional specialist
The first functional specialist of the association is often the PR manager. As the association grows, the professional specialization of personnel who now perform functions from marketing and sales to research and collections management. The culmination of the development of an organizational structure is the emergence executive director positions. He is usually selected and appointed by the board to implement the policy which is primarily responsible

Projects that will help the association 

In fact, the main object and product of a business association’s activities is information. Its accumulation, processing anddistribution occurs through a variety of projects.
Participation in them is what people unite in associations for. The main thing is not to turn them exclusively into a source financing of the directorate. Projects are a very serious tool, which, in addition to purely practical benefits, serves as ideological “cement” holding the association together

Below are examples of successfully implemented projects.
Information network
One of the first tasks that an association must solve is to ensure information interaction among its members. The most effective way to do this is to use the power of the Internet to create an information network.

Network participants get access to a variety of resources, can participate in trainings and seminars, receive newsletters, reviews, guides and other documents. If necessary, via the network they can provide consulting assistance and conduct distance learning.

Magazine
Your own printed publication is an excellent tool for promoting your business. The magazine will also serve as a source industry news, and a conductor of the association's policies, and a platform for discussion and exchange of experience. But the mass media, as the classic wrote, “is not only a collective propagandist and agitator, but also collective organizer." The organizational potential of the journal can be fully used in the preparation other major projects.

Exhibition

The magazine can become the basis for information promotion of the exhibition, because its subscribers are potential participants new project.
When organizing an exhibition, the association performs the functions of a council of exhibitors, a collective body of co-management of the exhibition, and
takes on themself:
 organizing feedback, collecting and processing the opinions of participants and exhibition visitors, studies and analyzes statistics, develops proposals to improve the quality of the event;
 development of exhibition positioning, marketing planning campaigns and the promotion of the exhibition itself. This uses resources other projects of the association - the magazine’s subscriber base, the magazine itself, Internet sites;
 organization of the scientific program of the exhibition from the formation of topics to working with speakers and preparing speeches;
 defending the interests of the association and its members when participating in the exhibition:
increasing influence on the project, informing members of the association about exhibition, its preparation, opportunities, provision of preferences for
association members, conflict resolution;
 work with exhibitors who are not members of the association: informing about exhibition, attracting them to the association and its projects;
 prompt response to problems arising during the exhibition;
 information support for exhibition visitors (guides, website);
 development of the exhibition development concept.
The educational center
The lack of qualified personnel is a problem that is quite common in many industries. Therefore, training specialists is a project that any association thinks about implementing sooner or later. The main thing is them. The advantage over “loners” is the ability to rely on the resources of already running projects. When organizing training center (training programs for specialists) to collect information about the needs of the industry and promote training courses, you can use both the magazine and the exhibition. Excellent for implementing the distance learning phase information network resources are suitable.
Marketing agency
To provide members of the association with the necessary information, as well as to interact with the rest of the business community, a marketing agency can be organized. In its research it will rely on resources other projects: information network, exhibition, magazine, etc. Members of the association also act as sources the initial “raw” information, and the consumer of the results of its analysis.

Of course, we haven’t even talked about a tenth of the projects that a business association can implement. Besides listed, this could be a product certification project - if there is an urgent need in the industry to create standards, a project of interaction with the authorities in order to create more favorable conditions for business. The options are endless.