10/23/2025

From Solo Executive Director to AMC

Here are lessons learned through one transition

For more than a decade, I had the privilege of serving as the executive director of the Rhode Island Partnership for Home Care ("The Partnership"), a state-based trade association for licensed home care, home health, and hospice provider companies. From the beginning of 2013 until the end of 2023, I was essentially the one and only staff member for the association. I wore all the hats — membership recruitment, event planning, finance, advocacy, communications, you name it. Like many single-staff leaders, I often joked that my job description could be summed up as "everything the board doesn't want to do."

In late 2023, that all changed when The Partnership's board decided to transition from being a self-managed association to working with an association management company (AMC). This is where I became — dare I say it — a "commodity." One day, I was the independent, long-standing executive director of The Partnership.

The next day, I was part of the transaction — formally employed by New England Association Services (NEAS), an AMC based in Warwick, Rhode Island, which now manages The Partnership. From the outside, nothing looked different. Members still saw the same branding, communications and advocacy efforts. Yet, behind the scenes, everything expanded. The Partnership suddenly had access to a team of professionals and a suite of services that I could never have provided alone. Advocacy reach widened, membership development gained new traction and the association could offer additional benefits that had once been beyond its bandwidth.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE’s Center for Association Leadership.