Determination of personnel needs

Publishing, continuing education. and conferences and meetings are activities which many associations find cannot be carried out adequately by volunteer efforts alone. For example, assuming that an association has reached the size that it has an executive director and one of its chief objectives is continuing education, the chief executive officer and the board of directors need to work together to plan for the smooth operation of that program. Once the continuing education goals can no longer be achieved effectively and efficiently through volunteers. then that association goal must be translated into a position in the association's organizational chart. A proposed position on an organizational chart does not mean that a new staff member must be hired immediately. For example, the association could secure the service from an outside agency (one that provides services on a contractual basis to a professional organization) a college or university with a continuing education department, a library school, or a consulting firm.

Once the association has decided that the activity should be handled by staff, a position must be created in order for a goal to be met or a program to be run and a job description is developed. Each job description should contain the following elements: title of position, reporting relationships, overview of basic functions, duties and responsibilities, education. training, and experience requirements, and salary range.