Southeast Shared-Services Forum

Any executive director or board leader whose association is too small to justify a full-time finance manager, events coordinator, or association-management-software license should register for this forum, which launches the Southeast chapter's shared-services model for national rollout. Dana Whitfield, chapter chair and president and CEO of the Southeastern Textile Manufacturers Council, built the arrangement in 2023 to keep small associations from paying for staff they needed only a fraction of the time.

The pilot now runs eleven associations sharing one finance manager, one events coordinator and one AMS license, hosted at Whitfield's council in a converted Charlotte mill. Hollis Greenleaf, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Outfitters and Guides Council, joined the pilot remotely in 2025 from Cheyenne, Wyoming, and will describe what a shared finance manager looks like for a two-person staff a thousand miles from the host organization.

Sessions will walk attendees through the Shared-Services Model Guide that documents how the pilot works: cost-sharing formulas, how staff time is allocated across member organizations, and what to negotiate before joining. Sponsor Quayside Payment Services will cover monthly-billing options for associations weighing a shared AMS license.

Registration runs $95 for members and $195 for non-members and includes lunch and a printed copy of the Shared-Services Model Guide. The forum carries up to 5 CAE credit hours.

Whitfield will close the day naming which chapters have already expressed interest in adopting a shared arrangement of their own, following the Rocky Mountain chapter's July quarterly discussion of the model. Attendees from a chapter not yet running a pilot can use the session to identify which member organizations nearby might be ready to share staff first.

The Charlotte Mill Event Space sits in the same converted textile mill that houses the pilot's host organization, a short drive from Charlotte Douglas International Airport.