Table of Contents (this product has been updated on 26 June, 2009)

* this study guide has an approximate content page count of 248, PLUS 232 practice questions and answers.

IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BUSINESS WORLD …
IF YOU ARE NEW TO ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT…
 

NATURE OF AN ASSOCIATION (GOVERNANCE, STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION)
LEGAL STRUCTURE OF AN ORGANIZATION
ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
BYLAW
CHARTER
MINUTES
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SEGREGATION OF DUTIES
DIRECTOR APPOINTMENT AND REMOVAL
DIRECTOR DUTIES AND LIABILITIES
LIABILITY INSURANCE COVERAGE
BOARD OF ADVISORS
DEFINING ASSOCIATION
INTERNAL CONTROLS
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, DECISION MODEL, AND CONTROLS
BASIC PRINCIPLES
CASH HANDLING
DISBURSEMENTS, PAYMENT AND ACQUISITION
ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS
IAS
GAAP, FASB AND SFAS
THE ACCRUAL PRINCIPLE
THE HISTORICAL COST PRINCIPLE
THE CONSISTENCY PRINCIPLE
THE PRUDENCE PRINCIPLE
THE MATERIALITY PRINCIPLE
THE MATCHING PRINCIPLE
THE SEPARATE LEGAL ENTITY CONCEPT
THE CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLE
THE GOING CONCERN CONCEPT
ACCOUNTING FOR NONPROFITS
DEPRECIATION
CASH FLOW
FUNDING VIA LOAN AND/OR OVERDRAFT
BUDGET DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
QUOTATIONS AND TENDERS
BUSINESS CONTRACTING
CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION
STAFFING PRACTICES
IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY
EMPLOYMENT BRANDING
STAFFING RELATED LAWS AND REGULATIONS
WORK HOURS AND PAY
WORKPLACE PRIVACY
OTHER WORKPLACE LEGAL ISSUES
DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
ISSUE MANAGEMENT
WORKPLACE CONFLICT STYLES AND BEHAVIORS 
PREMISES MANAGEMENT
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
 

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC PLANNING
VISION AND MISSION
STRATEGIC IMPROVISING
TEAM BASED STRUCTURE
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND STAFF MOTIVATION
ORGANIZATION SPAN OF MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT CONTROL
SWOT ANALYSIS
MBO AND MBE
BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE MANAGING RISK
RISK MANAGEMENT DEFINED
THE RISK MANAGEMENT STEPS

 

PLANNING AND RESEARCH
PLAN STRUCTURE
PLAN INITIALIZATION AND IMPLEMENTATION
STAKEHOLDER INTEREST
THE ROLE OF THE BOARD IN THE PLANNING EFFORT
QUANTITATIVE METHODS
THE CENTER
THE DISTRIBUTION
NORMAL DISTRIBUTION
CORRELATION ANALYSIS AND CONTINGENCY ANALYSIS
STATISTICAL INFERENCE
OTHER ANALYSIS METHODS
 

LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP STYLES
KNOWING HOW TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE – THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
DEVELOPING A HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY
 

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
SHARING KNOWLEDGE
DIFFERENT KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE
KM, TEAMWORK AND TECHNOLOGIES
 

COMMUNICATION & INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
THE ROLE AND APPROACHES OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
INTEGRATING INFORMATION AND BUSINESS STRATEGIES
COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT
VERTICAL COMMUNICATION
HORIZONTAL COMMUNICATION
DIAGONAL COMMUNICATION
CIRCULAR COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION BARRIERS
FORMAL NETWORK VS GRAPEVINE
FORMAL COMMUNICATION VS INFORMAL COMMUNICATION
VERBAL VS NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
NONVERBAL CLUES
THE NEGOTIATION PROCESS
STYLES OF NEGOTIATION
COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR DONORS
 

MANAGING RECORDS
OVERVIEW OF RECORDS MANAGEMENT
RECORD STORAGE
ALPHABETIC FILING
RECORD RETENTION
 

PUBLIC POLICY, EXTERNAL RELATIONS AND EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS (IN RELATION TO YOUR PROGRAMS AND SERVICES AS WELL AS YOUR MEMBERSHIP SYSTEM)
MARKET SEGMENTATION AND CUSTOMER ORIENTATION
MARKETING PLAN
TOOLS FOR MARKET RESEARCH
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM
MEMBER MOTIVATION
CRISIS COMMUNICATION
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
LAWS AND REGULATIONS ON LOBBYING
LEGAL COUNSEL & ANTI TRUST

232 Review Questions

APPENDIX 2: BUSINESS ECONOMICS & GLOBAL BUSINESS
APPENDIX 3: COST MANAGEMENT & PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
 

SAMPLE TEXT on Defining Association
 

Most associations originated to fulfill human needs. And It is reasonable to say that associations are a product of free society. There are many definitions to the term “association”. Our particular concern is on Professional Association and Trade Association, which are what the exam is mostly about.

NOTE: An association is a form of not-for-profit organization (NFP). Source of revenue is the major difference between a NFP and a regular for profit company.


A professional association (a.k.a professional body or professional society) is a nonprofit organization which exists to further a specific profession and to protect the interests of both the member professionals and the general public.

NOTE: Professionalism describes conduct that is consistent with the tenets of a profession as demonstrated by a member's civility, honesty, integrity, character, fairness, competence, ethical conduct, public service, and respect for the rule of law, the courts, clients, persons who work within ...etc.


Professional associations usually protect the public through maintaining and enforcing professional and ethical standards in their profession. To promote and maintain professional standards, many professional associations perform professional certification to certify that a person possesses qualifications in the concerned subject area. Many professional associations also act as learning societies for the academic disciplines underlying their professions.
 

In contrast, a Trade Association consists of individuals and/or groups / corporate in a specific business or industry organized to promote specific common interests. The common interests that bind the members may include and may not be limited to credit, public relations, professional growth, marketing development and the like.
 

EXAM ALERT: According to the book Principles of Association Management, (1975, by the ASAE and the US Chamber of Commerce), Professional group members often take a personal interest in association operation. Trade association members, on the other hand, are relatively more impersonal. In the context of the CAE exam, nonprofit association may be thought of as a mutual benefit organization which has the goal of providing services for its members, raise awareness, promote education and professional standards, and even influence government policies through campaigns of different kinds and lobbying.
 

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Volunteers appear as part of the organization's staff, therefore it is appropriate to say that they represent the organization to the public and have to bear legal consequences in ways similar to the paid employees (especially regarding tort liabilities - liability on act of volunteers as well as injuries to volunteers). In fact, many volunteers may have entered into service agreements akin to employment agreements. The relevant laws vary from state to state (some states even have volunteer protection statutes in place) so you need to check with your lawyer on this.

Paid staff members (a reasonably large association can't be run with pure volunteers) typically have lower pay than in the commercial private sector. But since these staff members are highly committed to the aims and principles of the association, slightly lower pay should not be a problem. They expect to gain skills and experience after all.
 

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SAMPLE TEXT on Management and Control

Generally speaking, decision theory may be normative or descriptive. It is primarily concerned with the identification of the best decision to take, assuming there is an ideal decision maker who is fully informed, capable of computing with perfect accuracy, and is fully rational. The practical application of the descriptive approach is decision analysis.

Decision Analysis (DA) describes the discipline which comprises the philosophy, theory, methodology, and professional practice necessary for addressing important business decisions in a formal manner. Decision analysis may include procedures, methods, and tools for identifying, clearly representing, and formally assessing the important aspects of a decision situation, as well as for prescribing the recommended course of action by applying the maximum expected utility action axiom to a well-formed representation of the decision and for translating the formal representation of a decision and its corresponding recommendation into useful insight for the decision maker to act accordingly.

Important: Game theory attempts to capture behavior in strategic situations mathematically, in which an individual's success in making choices would depend on the choices of others.


You may define management control as a systematic effort by management to compare performance to predetermined standards, plans, or objectives in order to determine whether performance is in line with these standards and presumably in order to take any remedial action required to see that human and other corporate resources are being used in the most effective and efficient way possible in achieving corporate objectives. You may also perceive it as the function of the business management system that can adjust operations as needed to achieve the plan, or to maintain variations from system objectives within all allowable limits.

The basic elements in a control system include as a minimum the following: (1) the characteristic or condition to be controlled, (2) the sensor, (3) the comparator , and (4) the activator occur in the same sequence and maintain a consistent relationship to each other in every system. The first element is the characteristic or condition of the operating system which is to be measured. The second element is a means for measuring the characteristic or condition. The third element is for determining the need for correction by comparing what is occurring with what has been planned. The fourth element refers to the corrective action taken to return the system to the expected output.