"Over the years, we've increased the number of hours of support that she's been providing to our organization. We don't consider her any different than we do any of our other staff members. She was just such a great fit, and the longevity [of our six-year partnership] speaks to that."
— Veronica Meadows, Chief Strategy Officer
The Challenge
CLARB is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade association whose members are the state and provincial licensure boards that regulate the practice of landscape architecture across the United States and Canada. With a mission centered on public protection through licensure and regulation, the organization operates with a lean, dedicated staff — and high expectations for every team member.
As Chief Strategy Officer, Veronica Meadows oversees a remarkably broad portfolio: strategy, governance, membership relations, advocacy, government relations, marketing and communications, and project management.
"It's a big portfolio, and we have a lean, mean staff to support,"she explains. The weight of that scope became a pressure point for CLARB's three-person C-suite.
Both staff and volunteer board members attend a significant number of meetings and conferences throughout the year, generating a constant need for travel coordination, hotel bookings, conference registrations, booth setup logistics, and branding support. With no dedicated administrative resource, these responsibilities were falling on senior leaders — pulling their focus away from higher-value strategic work.
About six years ago, Veronica and her C-suite colleagues recognized that the situation was unsustainable. They needed versatile administrative support that could flex across the team — not just serve one executive — and they turned to BELAY to find it.
The Solution
From the outset, Veronica knew her needs were more complex than a typical executive support arrangement.
"My support needs were a little different in that I really wanted someone who could not only support me but my team. There are times within our cycle of work where we get bogged down in the administrative, so I wanted someone who was very versatile and could pick up slack across the team."
BELAY matched Veronica with Virtual Assistant Rachael Luu, and the fit was immediately apparent. Rachael's onboarding was smooth — a testament, Veronica says, to the work BELAY invests upfront to understand both the client's environment and the contractor's strengths.
"She took control. She made decisions on her own. She just kind of hit the ground running. I think what enabled that to happen was the work BELAY does on the front end to make sure that there's a good match made."
Though Rachael's primary role was supporting Veronica, her scope quickly expanded to the broader team. Over six years, she tackled conference registration, travel logistics, itineraries, expense reporting, maps and graphics development, video editing, and research into accredited global degree programs — demonstrating the versatility Veronica had been looking for from day one.
As the partnership deepened and CLARB's needs grew, so did Rachael's hours. BELAY's model allowed the engagement to scale naturally alongside the organization, giving CLARB the flexibility to increase support without the administrative overhead of a traditional hire.
"She took control. She made decisions on her own. She just kind of hit the ground running. I think what enabled that to happen was the work BELAY does on the front end to make sure that there's a good match made."
— Veronica Meadows, Chief Strategy OfficerThe Impact
Six years into their partnership, the results speak clearly: CLARB still retains both of the original Virtual Assistants they brought on through BELAY — a rare testament to the quality of the matches made and the depth of integration those VAs achieved within the organization.
"There are just so many different projects that she's helped to support, and so many various things that we do in a cycle where she just is plugged in now. I couldn't be happier with how she's grown over the last six years."
The impact of the partnership ultimately reached its highest expression when CLARB decided to bring Rachael on as a full-time employee — a transition Veronica had wanted to make for years.
"I would have liked to make it 'Facebook official' years ago. We kind of explored that with BELAY, and it just either wasn't exactly the right time for her, or we didn't necessarily have a position. So the timing didn't quite work, and then it did work."BELAY facilitated the contract buyout and, critically, moved quickly to place a replacement VA so CLARB's operations never missed a beat.
For Veronica, the entire experience — from the initial match to the seamless transition — reflects what a long-term staffing partnership should look like. BELAY didn't just provide a resource; they provided a team member who became indispensable, and then helped CLARB make it permanent.