A: You bet!

The Portal is our online home. It’s full of great info, profiles of the community members, forums to post/answer questions, libraries of past calls and classes, a community calendar, and everything we all need to have in a private space. It’s also where 99% of the communication for our community happens.

Partner discounts refer to a variety of discount arrangements we have set up for you with different vendors. We have training vendors, phone vendors, tech and design vendors…all kinds of great vendors to help you build your business and save a few bucks! A cool thing is that most vendors also make the discounts they offer you available to your clients as well. Partners often offer UVA members a deeper discount.

Community calls are monthly calls for the community held on our telebridge. We have a monthly Town Meeting where we discuss AssistU-related community things as well as have a “social hour” where VAs on the call discuss things related to their businesses. We also have a variety of SIGs (Special Interest Groups), some of which have monthly calls.

Homecoming and the CRAs are our community’s yearly BIG in-person events. Happening at the same time, and moved each year around the country, Homecoming is a weekend of fun, learning, and networking, and CRAs (Community Recognition Awards) are announced at a wonderful luncheon during the Homecoming weekend. Think spirited family reunion meets Academy Awards and you’ll have a pretty good picture of Homecoming and the CRAs! UVA members receive discounts.

The Registry is our referral service. UVA members receive a discount.

The Alumni Verification System is something we created to give our community members a way to let their clients and anyone visiting their sites know that they are, indeed, graduates of our programs, and community members in good standing, bound contractually to run their businesses ethically and in accordance with our Standards of Excellence and Practices pledge, which is signed yearly.

Community Brief is a weekly ezine, delivered on Monday. Remember the Virtual Mentoring Brief you used to get on Mondays? CB is that, plus more—we add in community updates, and links to conversations in the community that may be of interest to you. Additionally, once a month, we send you an expanded edition–which includes all the goodness you’re sent each week, plus a deeper dive into our wonderful community and all it offers!

Our Internship Program is amazing. VAs with real-life projects they need to have done, who also have the interest in letting someone learn how to do the projects, create internships. VAs who are intrigued by an Internship opp can indicate interest, and possibly get the chance to learn in a practical setting.

The Interview With a VA Series is a program for UVA members where you are interviewed about your practice by Anastacia. You receive a copy of the edited audio interview to use in your own promos, and we add it to your V A Spotlight page, as well as feature it on Virtual Moxie, and in our social media feeds.

VA Spotlight is a way for us to “shine a light” on our community members, by sharing info about them on the AssistU site. Think.. free publicity backed by the implicit endorsement of AssistU. You can see this week’s VA Spotlight here: http://workwithava.com/va-spotlight/

We feature our UVA members’ Spotlights in our Social Media efforts.

It’s very difficult to put into words all the goodness of our community, or the fullness of what’s in our private space. It’s rich, diverse, and alive, which you need to really experience to believe.

A: In our experience, the VAs who are most committed to growing their businesses and to being in close community with others at AssistU tend to be UVA members.

If that sounds like you, we heartily suggest investing in the UVA membership.

A: Ask HQ (hq@assistu.com). We’ll be happy to help!