We want to include each of you in an important discussion about the financial viability of our organization. Attendees at the Business Meeting at the 2018 AOSW 34th Annual Conference in Atlanta heard a summary of this information. We are repeating this discussion in several formats, including the official business meeting and AOSW Navigator in order to be fully transparent with all of our members.

Funding for AOSW’s business activities has historically included a substantial percentage of income from sources other than member dues. Your current Board follows in the commitment of our past leaders to keep membership financially accessible to social workers in a broad range of career steps. This means that your member dues, while a substantial and appreciated contribution to our organization, are not able to fully fund all of our membership benefits and organizational activities on behalf of the profession.

AOSW’s income, other than membership dues, comes mainly through conference revenue, especially sponsorships. Traditionally, the Board sought income primarily from pharmaceutical grants and donors. Conference profits formerly subsidized other AOSW activities, including member benefits and our ability to represent psychosocial care in industry meetings. Unfortunately, changes in the pharmaceutical industry have impacted the nonrestricted educational grants that were previously applied to conference sponsorship. Even with the decrease in sponsorship income, our recent conferences have had increasing attendance and maintained strong support from exhibitors. Our income from conference registrations and exhibitors remains steady or has increased. Our conferences continue to be positively evaluated by attendees and supporters. The Board appreciates the work of our Conference Committees in creating programs that provide high quality educational content and networking.

Our Board has carefully weighed how we prioritize activities and shift funds to manage decreasing revenue without either raising membership dues substantially or cutting activities that are essential to our mission. With the help of our management organization, Kellen, we have eliminated or reduced many business expenses that are not overt to most of our members. Some of these shifts, like moving from paper CEU sign-in sheets to our current door-greeter/badge swipe volunteers, have been noticeable as an improvement in conference experience. We eliminated the distraction of passing the sign-in sheets during presentations and focused our room monitors on the hospitality of welcoming attendees and assisting the speaker. Behind the scenes, it requires far fewer paid staff hours to run a report on the scanned attendance and email you your CEU certificate within a few days than it did to track and manually calculate the paper sign-ins. We hope you notice an environment that maintains warmth as we grow. Your all-volunteer Board has supported these lean measures and we feel it is important to apprise you of cost-saving efforts.

In addition to the publicly visible benefits, the efficiencies brought to us by the expertise and connections of our management company also keep AOSW’s expenditures focused on activities that maximize our mission. The CEU management system is one small example of the efficiencies the Board has adopted with Kellen’s input. Please ask a Board member if you are interested in more details. We recognize that many members are not interested in the day-to-day finances of the organization. However, it is the Board’s duty and privilege to be accountable for how we run AOSW and where your membership investment supports the organization.

As we cut expenses, the Board, with the strong aid of our Kellen team, is also seeking new revenue sources. We recognize that our historical dependence on conference sponsorships as our primary source of income is not sustainable given industry changes. We are actively seeking partnerships where AOSW is compensated for our expertise and connections in improving psychosocial care. Some of those partnerships are with traditional pharmaceutical manufacturers, but we are also connecting with other for-profit businesses, nonprofit patient support programs and philanthropic donors. Our Board evaluates potential conflicts of interest and our ethical responsibilities as a social work organization. However, our scope of attention is broadening to diversify the venues where oncology social work is recognized as creating value in the patient and family experience through all phases of cancer prevention, care and survivorship.

Our Management Company
As the Board has considered expenses, we have evaluated how we best utilize our management company and frankly, whether we can afford to have a management company. We are cognizant of the years that AOSW was entirely run by volunteers. AOSW currently has over 1,400 members. Assisting that number of members requires an available staff presence that is consistent throughout the working days of our volunteer Board and committees. One of the benefits of working with an organization like Kellen is that a smaller organization like AOSW has the ability to share expert staff with other membership organizations. We gain from Kellen’s expertise in their field without having the overhead of having full-time employees. We utilize a percentage of time from various experts on Kellen’s team, depending on the tasks at hand.

• Jordan Burghardt, our Member Services Manager, is the common thread for our various committees. Jordan’s broad view of overlapping goals and activities helps us keep our activities aligned with our strategic goals. She also has a keen ear for member interests and helps the committees identify potential volunteers.
• Kismet Saglam steered AOSW’s application to approve our own CEUs, which reduced conference costs and made ongoing webinars possible to expand our educational resources, as well as creating a new revenue source. We hope to provide CEUs for other organizations in the future, which will increase revenue further.
• Emily Kuhn is behind the scenes making sure that webinars run smoothly and that CEU certificates are available quickly.
• Christine Meehan, our Meetings Manager, vets conference locations and ensures that our hotels and host cities provide AOSW with good value and an enjoyable experience.
• Amy Metzgar, Conference Administrator, ties the thousand loose ends of conference preparation together so your conference committee and Board can focus on welcoming members and networking with supporters.
• All of our Communications platforms, including SWON, AOSW Navigator, OSW NewsBrief and our website, benefit from the oversight and expertise of Donald Rolfe. Donald puts the polish on AOSW’s outward communication, including the prospectus for potential supporters and paid eblasts that generate revenue.
• In addition to serving our members well, the Board has also determined that we are at a point of outward growth that is not sustainable without expertise and the coordination of a management company. Tracking progress toward our strategic priorities and facilitating the Board’s work is an important part of having our Executive Director, Emily Burch. Emily works closely with the Board to identify potential partners and follow up with proposals. Emily also serves as “Chief of Staff” for our Kellen team, ensuring that we use volunteer labor efficiently and focus our management team’s time on tasks that require specific expertise. She is our link to annual work such as the financial audit required of AOSW as a nonprofit organization.

Ongoing Outreach/Collaboration
AOSW has strengthened its connections with other advocacy organizations such as the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, the Patient Quality of Life Coalition and others. This has allowed us to participate in higher profile advocacy actions and to elevate the visibility of oncology social work in the cancer community.

The Strategic Development Partnership Director and our Executive Director continue to nurture strategic partnerships with other organizations. The former has reestablished and/or created new partnerships around goals common to all organizations looking to improve the lives of those affected by cancer.

Finally, we have established the Development and Strategic Partnerships Committee, which will collaborate with the Executive Director, Board and Executive Committee to generate funding for AOSW through sponsorships, donations, grants and individual donors by facilitating and maintaining relationships on behalf of AOSW. View the position description for additional details.

The Board appreciates your support as we steer AOSW through our growth spurt. We are proud of the hard work and success of the Board and our management company in these areas—making up for lost revenue and creating new revenue sources—and look to the future with much hope. There is more work to do. Some of this work will continue by your Board and a small group of volunteers committed to the intense time commitment of Board positions. However, we welcome member input on creative ways of broadening AOSW’s financial base. We welcome your thoughts, support and feedback at info@aosw.org.