Association For Investment Managment and Research (AIMR)

Association for Investment Management & Research (AIMR)
560 Ray C. Hunt Drive
PO Box 3668
Charlottesville, VA 22903-0668
800-247-8132
[www.aimr.org]
Contact: Charles W Deale, CAE, Vice President-Member & Candidate Services

CEO: Thomas A Bowman
Budget: $76 Million ($12 Million from Membership Dues)
Staff Size: 200

Plexus Consulting Group, LLC
1620 Eye Street, NW
Suite 210
Washington, DC 20006
Phone:  202-785-8940
Fax:      202-785-8949
Email:   info@plexusconsulting.com

Vital Stats:

The Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR) is a global, nonprofit organization of more than 51,000 investment practitioners and educators in over 100 countries.

The Challenge | The Solution | The Processs | Unintended Consequences | Measurements & Results | Lessons Learned

The Challenge

How to streamline a highly successful member recruitment and retention program that resulted in explosive growth?

Founded in January 1990, AIMR was created from the merger of the Financial Analysts Federation (FAF) and the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts (ICFA). Since the merger, AIMR grew at a compound annual rate of eight percent from 20,000 members in 1990 to over 50,000 in 2001. From 1999-2000 alone, AIMR experienced a 15 percent growth in membership.

The success and reputation of AIMR's certification program is largely responsible for this double-digit growth. Qualified Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA's) earn significantly better salaries than their non-chartered counterparts and are highly favored by employers in the industry. The CFA certification exam is the world's largest simultaneously administered certification program, requiring at least 250 hours of study for each examination. The CFA program is divided into three levels (I, II and III), each culminating in an examination. Although not all members are required to hold the CFA charter, all individuals who pass the Level III exam and meet the other requirements to earn the CFA charter are required to join AIMR.

Currently, 75 percent of AIMR's members have earned the CFA designation, although this is not a membership requirement. Overall, AIMR's greatest challenge is to cope with its success and manage an exploding volume of membership and certification applications received from candidates worldwide.

This four-fold challenge involves:

1. Integrating 103 member societies (mostly in the US and 26 outside of North America) into the process effectively
   
2. Streamlining local approval processes in a timely manner -- local societies must approve all applications
   
3. Each chapter or society has its own unique sponsorship requirements -- often causing delays in application processing
   
4. Coping with the challenge of global expansion: could effectively serve the ever-growing population of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) candidates and members outside the United States

The Solution

AIMR is leveraging technology and streamlining its application processes to attract qualified candidates and to process their applications in a timely manner.

Given the dramatic growth that AIMR has experienced in recent years, mail is no longer an effective tool for distributing and collecting membership application materials. AIMR has begun to leverage the Internet to more effectively distribute application materials. Also, it is beginning to work with affiliates in the United States and worldwide to streamline its application processes. As part of a comprehensive information technology reengineering process undertaken in partnership with an international e-business technology company, AIMR has moved its membership application process online and will integrate it within a new database system that will allow the association to better track the status of applications.

The Process

To streamline the membership process, AIMR considered and addressed the following issues:

• Automation
• Work experience reviews
• Society involvement
• Sponsorship requirements

Automation
In 2001, during a comprehensive re-engineering of the entire organization, AIMR decided to automate the membership application process, and moved to an online application and sponsorship submission format. AIMR is integrating all applications submitted online within a new database system that is being developed, to create an effective tracking mechanism. As a result of the change, applicants can communicate more easily with sponsors and AIMR can track the application process to expedite collection of sponsorship forms and application materials. AIMR also files members' annual professional conduct statements online. The new database system will significantly enhance process efficiencies (i.e. membership or status changes) as well as AIMR's ability to reach a global network of candidates.

Work Experience Reviews
Over the years, AIMR realized that membership applicants with a good working knowledge of industry buzzwords can "spin" work experience narratives to their advantage, increasing the likelihood of their approval even though appropriate work experience may be lacking. To address this problem, AIMR has carefully crafted a series of yes/no questions to identify whether candidates possess the required work experience.

This step will significantly reduce the amount of staff time required to process applications. In 2001, AIMR processed 13,247 new member applications and spent approximately 5 minutes per application, or 1,100 hours, on work experience review alone. The new process eliminates consistency and interpretation issues that frequently arose in addressing individual narratives.

Society Involvement
AIMR has also offered to leverage its individual societies by assuming the administrative responsibilities of the membership application process. This initiative remains a work in progress. Some larger societies will likely want to retain control over all aspects of their involvement in the application process. However, AIMR has piloted a successful collaboration with the Singapore society, which agreed to cede these administrative responsibilities to the Charlottesville, Virginia based organization.

By allowing AIMR to administer this process, local societies can free themselves to focus on engaging new members. This approach is particularly valuable for smaller societies with limited resources and volunteer time.

Sponsorship Requirements
AIMR's network of member societies previously had 68 different variations on sponsorship requirements. AIMR succeeded in convincing member societies of the value of streamlining their requirements in the interest of prospective members. As a result, the previous 68 variations have been narrowed to just six.

Unintended Consequences

One of the greatest challenges that AIMR has encountered involves preparing CFA charterholders for a rewarding membership experience. According to AIMR's Chip Deale, "after a grueling examination period of 3-7 years, new CFA charterholders are often unprepared for the rewards that await them as AIMR members."

To help new members make the transition, AIMR's communications committee has worked hard to deliver consistent value and benefit messages via a variety of vehicles to members and individual societies. Also, the association has begun to offer some leading-edge services to pave the way for potential and new members to benefit from their participation in AIMR:

• Online job services (now open to CFA candidates)
• Portfolio of insurance products (professional liability, health, term life)

Of AIMR's total members, 36 percent are age 35 or younger and 41 percent are age 40 or older. Since 81 percent of CFA candidates re age 35 or younger, the association intends to pioneer a variety of new membership benefits targeted to this demographic group.

Measurments and Results

"Gateway to the best jobs in the industry."

By reengineering its membership process to expand the association's global reach and to make more efficient use of in-house and affiliate resources, AIMR has begun to successfully address its rapid growth challenges and to improve its financial efficiency by leveraging online registration.

Of the nearly 45,000 CFA charterholders worldwide, a significant proportion have received their charters in the last few years:

• 53 percent received charters from 1963 (program's inception) to 1996
  
• 47 percent received charters in the five most recent years from 1996-2000
  
• 35 percent received their charters from 1998 to 2001

AIMR continues to experience a huge inflow of applications for the CFA program, which is driving the organization's membership growth. In recent years, the program's global acceptance and popularity had exploded.

While AIMR would still experience enormous growth without implementing targeted recruitment programs, the association has achieved an excellent response rate from its direct mail solicitations, which are sent to about 30,000 Level II candidates worldwide, along with an AIMR membership application form. Eminently, nearly 60 percent of the applications are received from Level II candidates.

Lessons Learned

"Leveraging technology to help road warriors do their jobs."

New technology has helped AIMR to ensure that recruitment materials are sent to candidates well in advance of deadlines to preclude processing delays. As part of an organization-wide reengineering, the membership services group has incorporated processes to ensure effective anticipation of customer needs.

Also, by becoming more of an "e-based" organization, AIMR will better deliver services effectively to members around the world. Technology-based customer service will help AIMR to save money and boost customer satisfaction dramatically. AIMR's members are heavy users of technology, and the association has begun delivering technology-based services to help them do their jobs at any hour of the day, anywhere in the world.