NBOA connects business officers and business operations staff with a national network of peers who understand the important role that business operations plays at schools. In our interconnected world, tapping the collective brain trust of colleagues at more than 1,200 independent schools from Connecticut to California is a resource few can do without.
The business officer's mantra is "I don't have time to re-invent the wheel!" From NBOA's inception, the association has served as the national repository of the forms, charts, financial statements and job descriptions that you need and use the most. These valuable best-practice resources and tools have been augmented with NBOA's original research, publications and online tools. Collectively, they support the expanding and increasingly complex professional portfolio of today's business officer and are customizable to meet the unique needs of your school.
NBOA's role is not simply to serve the operations of today's business office, but to prepare your school for the challenges of tomorrow. NBOA provides thought leadership by tapping the best in the field and the country's leading authorities on a variety of subjects including financial sustainability, enterprise risk management and technology integration in the classroom. NBOA delivers this to you in our award-winning publication Net Assets, and through our Annual Meeting with thought provoking speakers such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Daniel Pink and Peter Sheahan, who elevate and inform your role as a leader at your school.
From its inception in 1998 as a website and a listserv, NBOA has been a "digital native." Today NBOA's use of technology continues to set it above and apart as a primary resource for business operations. Outdated listservs have been replaced by first-in-class online communities, in addition to webinars sent straight to your desktop, publications delivered right to your tablet, and a variety of online courses. At NBOA, you directly experience 21 st century education through our professional development programming.
Finally, as with your school or other nonprofits, the greatest difference with NBOA is the staff. NBOA comprises staff expertise in association management, business operations, marketing and communications, information technology and more. Several members of the NBOA staff have earned the Certified Association Executive credential (CAE), which identifies them as individuals who have made a commitment to the association management profession and have mastered the many facets necessary to effectively lead a nonprofit association like NBOA. Others bring decades of service to independent schools as a business officer or an attorney, and have an acute understanding of schools and empathy for your role. The NBOA staff is committed to ensuring that association programs, products and services are valuable and relevant to your school.
So that's the unique and powerful NBOA difference for business officers, business operations staff, heads of schools and trustees within the independent school community. What would you say if someone asked you, "What is the NBOA difference?" Let me know on Twitter: @shieldsNBOA. And thanks for allowing us to make a difference, NBOA-style, at your school this year.
