Partners in Association Management is a professional services firm that serves as a strategic and operational partner for not-for-profit organizations. The company has forty-three full time equivalents. Partners mission is to empower passionate professionals to deliver strategic and innovative results for its clients.
The business model of Partners can be defined as staff leasing for associations. Instead of a not-for-profit organization owning or leasing their own building and directly employing staff, organizations can hire an association management company (AMC). AMC’s serve as a turnkey staffing solution whereby the company serves as the headquarters of their client organizations, and a team member
of the AMC serves as the Executive Director of the client organization. The Executive Director is supported by other staff in the functional areas of membership; meetings, accounting; marketing/communications and certification.
Bennett Napier a founder of the company serves as President/CEO. He is a Certified Association Executive. Bennett holds a Master of Science in Applied American Politics and Policy from Florida State University and has completed additional postgraduate work in Public Policy and National Security from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Institute of World Politics.
The company in its 26th year of business has grown to be the largest company of its kind in the state, in terms of number of employees and clients managed. When the company was founded it naturally focused on business development with Florida state trade associations and professional societies. Over the course of Partners history its client base has diversified. The target client are small national trade associations or industry/professional certification bodies. Today, 60% of Partners clients are national in scope. With that client mix, Partners staff plans and executes meetings across the U.S. and some foreign locales.
Although an AMC’s customer is the organization, the primary customer relationship is between the AMC and the client board of directors. The AMC and the client board of directors collaborate to assess the internal and external landscape impacting the organization, and based on those factors the board sets strategic direction and Partners staff executes the tactics and actions to meet strategic goals.
As a small business Partners focuses on company culture, professional development and community involvement.
The company has been privileged to be ranked as a Best Company to Work For, eleven times by Florida Trend Magazine.
Partners provides an annual professional development budget for each team member to enhance their skills and knowledge. Staff are provided opportunities to gain training through internal and external resources and achieve relevant certifications like the Certified Association Executive and Certified Meetings Professional designations.
The company covers time and expenses for staff to serve as volunteers with association management professional societies and charities. A number of Partners staff have served as Committee Chairs, Board
Members and Board Chairs of a variety of organizations including but not limited to the Florida Society of Association Executives, the AMC Institute, Big Bend Hospice, JP II High School, Boys and Girls Club of Florida, Humane Society and Chi Omega Alumni.
