Have you ever thought, I have a few minutes to spare how can I use them best? (Probably not, right?) You might be surprised how much time you spend waiting on meetings and other things in your day. It adds up. Or perhaps you have the good fortune of securing an intern or a new admin. If you’re looking for a list of those non-pressing, but oh-so-helpful tasks, then here it is–the ultimate list for you as a Chamber Pro. Whether you have a little time or a lot on your hands, these administrative tasks suggested by other chamber pros can help you feel a lot more productive. You can finally get done what you’ve been putting off.

Chamber Administrative Tasks for Slow Times

If you find you have extra time in your day or if you have an intern or admin who needs a project, you can give them any one of these things on the list. These tasks may not be pressing, they’re likely things you’ve been putting off, but if you have the help, you should use it.

1. End-of-year report. It’s never too early to start pulling things for the end-of-year report. After all, when it is the end of the year, it never feels like there’s enough time. Keep a file to make it easier for yourself and your team.
2. Update your filing system. Is there any way to become more organized?
3. Audition technology. Is there something out there to make you more productive?
4. Create a list of professional goals for yourself or your team.
5. Clean up emails.
6. Organize electronic files or create an organizational system. Now that most things are filed in the cloud, make sure you can find them. Create a chamber-wide file naming convention and file folders.
7. Create a flyer template for things like Lunch & Learns that occur frequently. This saves time from having to create them from scratch each time.
8. Create a drip campaign for new or existing members.
9. Send out a few emails checking in with members.
10. Go through the list of national celebrations and make sure you’re ready for upcoming ones that would appeal to your members.
11. Update your board and/or staff bios.
12. Watch a tutorial on your CMS. There might be a new feature you didn’t know about.
13. Organize your image folders. Make sure your images are organized so you can use them in social media and event marketing.
14. Go through your website to see if anything is out of date or needs a refresh.
15. Create member marketing personas or review your existing ones to see if they are still valid.
16. Schedule social media posts for things that are already on your calendar like special celebrations, event countdowns, and others.
17. Clean up your email list. Remove duplicates. Go through bounceback. Try to find typoes or update addresses.
18. Make calls to members with unpaid invoices.
19. Move outstanding members out of member status.
20. Collect stats. People love to see numbers. You can collect stats for end-of-year reports (as mentioned earlier) but also individual member stats showing them what they got out of membership.
21. Brainstorm about what stats you want to report on next year and start implementing a way to track or report on them.
22. Look through all member data in your CMS. Is it valid? Is there missing information? Charge someone with getting it cleaned up.
23. Make a list of what you and your staff need to learn. Knowing what you need to know is the first step to deciding how you will make that happen. If you have employees who haven’t worked in the chamber world before, give them resources to learn more about the industry when you have slow time.
24. Brainstorm ways you can connect with members and what that might look like such as a monthly video, or a tag-along series where you visit businesses in your town. Consider the medium, frequency, and length you can commit to.
25. Have lunch with your team or stakeholders.
26. Update your Join Now/sales page and/or your member application. Do you really need to ask 3-pages worth of questions?
27. Give your intern or admin a common request that someone might come to your site for such as “how to join.” Have them time themselves on how long it takes to find the answer. This can provide interesting insights into the user experience, especially if they’re relatively new to your site.
28. Rewrite your template letters.
29. Take COVID-19 info off of your website or update it, as applicable.
30. Look through old blog posts to see if they are still relevant. Decide whether you should update or archive them. Update them if the information is still valuable, just outdated. Archive them if they’re no longer applicable in any sense such as the blog topic being about an event you no longer host.
31. Identify possible future board recruits.
32. Rewrite your board packet.
33. Write a positive review for a small business.
34. Get rid of things you’re no longer using. Do you really need a magnet calendar from 2003?
35. Review your committees. Are they still relevant? Touch base with committee chairs.
36. Follow your members on social media.
37. Analyze what platforms your members are on.
38. Review your website analytics.
39. Review your blog post analytics to see what are the hottest posts. Create a wrap-up post highlighting them.
40. Check social media engagement to see what does the best and elicits the most comments and shares.
41. Tweak your marketing tone (or put it in writing as to what it is).
42. Create a brand style guide or revisit your existing one.
43. Compile a “chamber atta-you file” and a “professional atta-you file.” Go through emails and compile all of the compliments and thank yous that you received on behalf of the chamber and those directed toward your efforts. The chamber file can be used for testimonies and marketing. Your file is handy for reviews and those days where it all seems tougher than it should be.
44. Unfollow people on social media who you no longer want to see in your streams. Conversely, interact more with those whom you want to see more of.
45. Create a list of frequently asked questions and post them to your website.
46. Revisit your social media bios and about tabs. Do they still describe you accurately? Update photos as necessary.
47. Write a new welcome letter for your website.
48. Revisit your chamber story or write one.
49. Experiment with AI. Learn how you might best use it.
50. Start tracking referrals to member businesses or analyze them and share your findings with them.

Finally, if you’re still looking for something to do, read a good book.

By: Christina Metcalf