Education, advocacy and leading the way in partnerships with other industry trade groups are among top goals in ACA’s three-year plan approved by the Board of Directors.
7/28/2021 8:00
Advocacy, member education, legal support, optimizing governance and partnerships represent the core goals in ACA International’s 2021-2023 Strategic Plan.
During its June meeting, ACA’s Board of Directors ratified the language of the five goals in the strategic plan as follows:
- Maintain our advocacy leadership for the industry at the state and federal levels.
- Proactively combat litigious attorneys and meritless legal claims.
- Strengthen ACA education, increasing the scope of educational offerings in both content and audience, modernizing delivery methods (including conference experiences), and improving speed to market.
- Optimize ACA’s governance and organizational structure.
- Pursue strategic partnerships with related organizations.
“The strategic plan work is over and above our regular day-to-day work,” said CEO Mark Neeb. “ACA’s members are the benefactors of all the strategies and plans to accomplish our goals.”
Advocacy
ACA’s goal is to remain a leader in advocacy going forward.
“We’re uniquely positioned to influence and work with regulators, members of Congress and everybody in between to help educate leaders both at the federal level and the state level on what the issues are related to debt collection and the unintended consequences of well-intentioned laws,” Neeb said. “Within the current administration and current climate, it’s more important than ever that we have strong relationships on both sides of the political aisle. Our job is to make sure people understand what the issues are related to our industry.”
ACA’s strategies to maintain its leadership in this area include:
- To continue to strengthen relationships with members of Congress and state lawmakers.
- To create a stronger grassroots effort and increase member involvement.
- To ensure members can connect with their legislators during events and throughout the legislative session.
- Grow ACA’s Political Action Committee.
Compliance and Legal Support
Efforts to proactively combat litigious attorneys and meritless legal claims have been a mainstay at ACA for many years and include adding matching funds to the Industry Advancement Fund (IAF).
The matching funds program under the IAF aims to provide members with financial support up to $10,000 for cases that do not rise to the level of “industry-wide significance,” but that nonetheless merit support.
Neeb said ACA is also in the early stages of developing resources on not just what needs to be done to combat litigation in the industry, but how it needs to be done, similar to the ACA How series on Reg F.
Education
ACA’s education team is continuing to add on-demand education for members, resources to expedite the process to earn credentials and add more courses available through the purchase of the All-Access Training Zone.
“Education needs to continue to change,” Neeb said. “Look for more and more change in ACA education that will be consistent with how you ingest the information you need to be successful.”
ACA is also evaluating conference experiences, especially based on the pivots in the last year due to COVID-19, to consider how best to host accessible events for members and ARM industry professionals.
Governance and Partnerships
Over the next year, ACA is going to take another deep dive on its governance strategies and how it can help manage state units, for example, as well as its partnerships with other industry trade groups.
“There are several different trade associations and several different groups within the collections industry [and] within the revenue cycle part of the economy,” Neeb said. “We think, as the leader in this industry, that it’s incumbent upon us to be reaching out to these other groups to see if there are ways we can work together that make sense.”
View ACA’s complete 2021-2023 strategic plan goals and vision here.