How to Join the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce

NOTE: Be prepared to read carefully and follow instructions.

The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce is a new resource for qualified Virtual Assistant professionals to reach new heights of success and profitability. We are revolutionizing the industry, making great strides in advancing awareness and creating opportunities for our members that you won't find anywhere else.

There is more to running a business than simply providing services. With our tools, resources and education, we are empowering Virtual Assistants to run smarter businesses that in turn brings them greater personal happiness, business success and client satisfaction.

But we don't represent everyone. To best serve our members and the business community overall, quality and qualification are our utmost priorities.

There are three basic parts involved in our membership process:

1. Forum Registration
2. Short Essay (500 word minimum)
3. Adding Membership Link

I. Initial Qualifying Criteria

To become a member of the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce you must first meet the following initial qualifying crieria:

1. You must have at least 5 years upper level administrative experience in the real (non-virtual) business world. This is the foremost professional qualification that is expected of those entering the Virtual Assistant profession. Examples of upper level experience includes positions such as secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, office manager, legal assistant, paralegal, real estate assistant, etc. Receptionist and clerical positions are NOT considered upper level administrative experience.
   
   
2. You must be highly skilled before entering the profession. Virtual Assistance is the profession of independent administrative professionals who are competent, qualified and masterfully skilled.
   
   
3. Your primary service offerings must be administrative in nature. Virtual Assistance is the profession of administrative experts. While you might offer additional services that are creative or technical, you must understand that those are different and separate from administration. If you do not understand these distinctions and the business you are in is not primarily administrative in nature, you will not be eligible for membership.
   
4. You must be operating a true, legitimate, committed business. Freelancing on the side, telecommuting, or working for a virtual staffing agency does not qualify.
   
   
5. You must operate a solo practice. We do not represent secretarial services, virtual staffing agencies, virtual teams or telecommuters.
   
   
6. You must believe in ethics, honesty and integrity in business. If you have engaged in slander or libel (which is essentially the telling of lies about a person in an effort to defame or discredit them), intellectual property theft, or tradename or copyright infringement against another Virtual Assistant, you will not be eligible for membership.
   
   
7. You are serious about the profession and committed to growing in your business knowledge and success. The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce is not a social club (although we do have lots of fun and comaraderie!). Our membership forum is primarily an educational platform. Your interest in joining should be to learn more about business, how to run your business more profitably and successfully, and how serve clients better while elevating the profession to the benefit of all. Our ideal applicants approach their participation with the curiosity of a student and a mind open to learning.
   
   
8. Make sure we are a fit. We are looking to align ourselves only with qualified, like-minded Virtual Assistant professionals who want to elevate the profession—and create real opportunities in the process. We have a very specific focus and mission at the VACOC—namely helping Virtual Assistants grow smarter, more successful businesses, and better educating our marketplace and promoting the profession. It is therefore imperative that members share the same values and goals, and fit our ideal Virtual Assistant member profile so that we are all communicating from the same place.
   
   
9. Required reading. You must read the Home, History, Glossary and Ethics pages before doing anything else as these are key to our core tenets and understandings.
   
   
10. Lurking is not permitted. The only cost to belong to the VACOC is your active participation. Anyone who does not fulfill this membership requirement will have their account deactivated.
    
    
11. Professional business website is required. It must be in a completed state (no "coming soon" or "under construction" or splash pages). Your web site content will be reviewed to determine if your business is a Virtual Assistant practice. Denial is automatic if this is not found to be the case.
    
    
12. Membership button must be displayed on your website. This will be provided to you once you have been approved for membership.

II. Forum Registration

If you determine that you meet the qualifying criteria above, the next step is to complete the forum account registration. Make sure you read the rules and terms of use carefully before you certify that you meet our membership criteria and agree to the terms and conditions. On the next page after that, be sure to answer every question and fill out form fields completely.

Once your account registration is received, it is reviewed by a membership administrator (reviews are performed once per week). Keep in mind that not only are we looking to make sure you have met the qualifying criteria, but also demonstrated the ability to pay attention to detail and follow instructions. These are critical characteristics of professional competence; if there is any failure, the account will be automatically denied.

If you pass the initial review, you will receive a message inviting you to complete the essay portion. If you do not receive the essay invitation, you have not passed the initial registration.

Once we receive your essay, it will be reviewed by our membership committee. If your essay is approved, you will receive instructions for adding an approved membership button to your site. Once you notifiy us that this step has been completed, the administrator will place your account into the Pending Introduction group (give this a day or two), and you will then be able to log into the forum.

After logging in, you will initially see only two categories--READ FIRST!!! and Introduce Yourself. Yes, we expect you to actually read the READ FIRST!!! post which contains the forum/membership guidelines and gives you the last steps to fully activating your membership. Once the final step has been completed, your account will automatically advance to full membership status and you will be able to view the entire forum.

A few caveats...

New registrations are reviewed by a membership administrator once per week. If initial registration is approved, you will be invited to participate in the essay portion of the membership process. The entire membership process can take up to 14 days. NOTE: We will NOT notify you if membership is denied. Our limited volunteer time and resources are expended only on those registrants who are invited to proceed to the next step.

Applicants are expected to demonstrate that their knowledge and abilities match the calibre of Virtual Assistant professionals that the VACOC represents. Denial is usually based on failure to demonstrate a professional level of competence. This includes not following directions, poor written communication skills, misspelling, sloppy presentation, and lack of proper formatting, grammar and punctuation knowledge.

Another reason for membership denial is that the applicant is not a Virtual Assistant. Virtual Assistants are not telecommuters, they are not virtual staffing agencies or "virtual teams," and they are not secretarial services. Virtual Assistance is a brand of administrative support completely different from those things. This organization does not represent those categories of businesses. Also, if your business is web design, you are a web designer. If your business is bookkeeping, you are a bookkeeper. These are not the same thing as Virtual Assistance. If you do not understand these distinctions, you will not meet our membership criteria. Your website will be reviewed to ensure it reflects your understanding.

If at any time it comes to our attention that the questions you answered, or any information you present is not truthful or a misrepresentation in any way, we reserve the right to deny or deactivate accounts without notice.

III. Proceed to Membership Application

Submit your forum account registration here.