Maria Huntley

As the director of education and training at IntrinXec Management, Maria Huntley bring 15 years of association management experience, including event planning, membership management, budgeting and financial review, communication direction and board governance to associations. Huntley’s experience includes managing a staff of 26, and she has worked with more than 40 associations during her tenure.

Articles by Maria Huntley

• Why reputation and relationships are vital to your career

  Tuesday, June 24, 2014

  Last month, I took 12 minutes out of my busy day to listen to a speech by a former colleague. Andrea Mokros delivered the commencement address at the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, and her message about the important role that your reputation and relationships play in your life really resonated with me.

• Do you consider yourself an expert?

  Tuesday, April 29, 2014

  ​By definition, being an expert isn't something that happens overnight. It is a goal toward which individuals must work and gain overtime through experience, professional development and commitment. To me, being an expert is somewhat prestigious.

• 10 steps forward-thinking associations are taking

  Wednesday, April 16, 2014

  Associations have the opportunity to thrive in a changing environment — if they are willing to change. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a majority of the work force will be represented by Generation Y by 2015. That is just next year, folks. Here are the 10 steps I have seen forward-thinking associations take.

• Member recruitment: What’s your strategy?

  Thursday, January 30, 2014

  I am always keeping my eye open for opportunities to develop myself professionally and connect with smart people from whom I could learn something. So when I was checking out my LinkedIn page the other day and saw a posting promoting the National Association of Distinguished Professionals, my interest was piqued. As a person who has spent the last 15 years making association management my career, I wanted to learn more about this distinguished association.

• 5 tips for your volunteer management plan

  Wednesday, January 22, 2014

  You have a volunteer management plan, right? As you may have already found, volunteer management can feel like herding cats. If you want to be a master of volunteer management planning, be sure to keep reading this post.

• 4 nonprofit board responsibilities that may surprise you

  Monday, December 16, 2013

  Does your nonprofit board really understand what it means to be a board member? Having worked with more than 40 different association boards during my career, I have experienced some pretty interesting perceptions about what it means to be a board member, on each end of the spectrum.

• Planning for your association’s planning

  Monday, December 09, 2013

  I had a serious case of deja vu recently as I sat in and observed a board planning retreat for an association in which I had little background. I quickly realized that I had been in this meeting before, at least a hundred times. How can that be? This is a new association halfway across the country that I have never interacted with before. And at the end of the day, one of the volunteer leaders commented that they just spent the day talking about the exact same things they talked about the previous year. He questioned what they can do to make sure the discussion doesn't continue into next year's retreat. That is a great question.

• Should your executive director be an association or industry expert?

  Tuesday, October 15, 2013

  If you’re an association board member who is thinking about hiring a new executive director, this is probably the most important question you need to answer before you start the process of searching for your next staff leader. Should your executive director be an association or industry expert?

• How to streamline your association’s budget

  Wednesday, October 02, 2013

  I have a little secret I want to let you in on. Budgeting for your association isn't rocket science and it doesn't have to be an overwhelming task. Unless you have major initiatives planned (i.e., development of a new website or huge event), budgets usually don’t change too dramatically year after year. Here are some tips you can use to help streamline your process.