Contracting with an AMC

Contracts are frequently one year management contracts with a 90 day notice period on either side. There is a tendency to contract for core services – which might be membership services, financial administration and secretarial but to introduce separate letters of agreement for events, marketing projects or PR work. It all depends on what activities are core, recurring and predictable for your association.

Ask to see the AMC’s proforma contract at an early stage. Although you will want to take legal advice on it’s implications remember to apply your own ‘sanity check’ to the terms you are being offered. Try to avoid contracts which are so tightly specific that they lead to adversarial situations – frequent reference to the contract by either party is not helpful for the overall spirit which is essential to the relationship.