The Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA) is a membership association built around practice management: it describes itself as serving over 5,000 members, and anyone with practice management responsibilities can join.
National meetings with posted 2027 dates include VMX, WVC Vegas and AVMA Convention —VMX's program includes a practice management track and WVC says its meeting brings together practice managers — alongside VHMA's spring Management Exchange and fall conference.
Continuing education runs from free member webinars to a 12-week Rising Manager program to hours aimed at the CVPM's CE requirement.
What is VHMA, and who can join?
VHMA — the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association — is a membership organization aimed at the management side of the hospital rather than the clinical side — a professional home for the veterinary practice manager role this guide belongs to.
VHMA describes itself as providing training, education and resources to over 5,000 members.
The bar to join is low.
VHMA says membership is open to anyone with practice management responsibilities, including aspiring managers, and no credentials are required to join.
The membership year runs January 1 through December 31 — worth checking against the meetings and cohorts you want to catch.
What membership includes, per VHMA's own benefits pages:
- Webinars — typically held monthly, and free for VHMA members.
- Two meetings a year — a fall conference and annual business meeting, with nationally prominent speakers presenting current practice management theory, plus a smaller spring Management Exchange.
- Benchmarking data — a Survey of Compensation and Benefits covering non-DVM staff, associate DVMs and veterinary managers in North America, and an Insider's Insight report drawn from over 600 member companion-animal practices. The figures are member content, not public data.
- Credentials — VHMA sponsors both the CVPM and the Certified Veterinary Office Manager (CVOM), independent programs with separate requirements.
Beyond VHMA: what else is worth a manager's time?
Two other sources of manager education are worth knowing, and they do different jobs.
The credential body behind VMX.
NAVC — the organization that runs VMX — also offers a Certified Veterinary Business Leader (CVBL) program.
VHMA states its own CVOM and CVPM credentials are not affiliated with the CVBL in any way.
Treat that as the credential alphabet's fine print: these are separate programs from separate organizations, so compare any credential on its own requirements rather than assuming one feeds the other.
Role-agnostic certification.
Fear Free offers membership with certification programs designed for everyone employed at a practice, practice managers included — a complement to business-focused education rather than a substitute for it.
For anything else you come across, three checks separate durable value from a badge: whether the education is management-specific (HR, finance, operations) or clinical; whether membership includes benchmarking data you can actually use in decisions; and whether the community is managers, or a mix of roles where management is a side track.
And before paying out of pocket, ask whether your practice has a budget for manager development — the answer varies practice by practice, so ask yours.
Which conferences matter for practice managers in 2027?
Two kinds of meeting matter to a manager: VHMA's own conferences, which are built around the job, and the large national conventions, where the management programming differs from meeting to meeting.
VHMA's 2027 Management Exchange runs Thursday, February 18 to Saturday, February 20, 2027, at the Hilton Austin in Austin, Texas — the smaller of the association's two meetings.
The fall conference and annual business meeting lands each fall; as of October 22, 2026, we found no fall 2027 date or location on VHMA's site, so check the association's upcoming-events page before you build travel plans around it.
The 2027 meetings on the organizers' posted calendars:
| Event | Dates | Location | Notes for managers |
|---|---|---|---|
| VMX 2027 (NAVC) | January 16–20, 2027; VMX Virtual January 16–19, 2027 | Orlando | Program includes a practice management track |
| VHMA 2027 Management Exchange | February 18–20, 2027 | Hilton Austin, Austin, Texas | VHMA's smaller, manager-focused spring meeting |
| WVC Vegas 2027 | February 28 – March 3, 2027 | Las Vegas | Brings together veterinarians, technicians, practice managers and others, per WVC |
| AVMA Convention 2027 | July 16–20, 2027 | Minneapolis | The AVMA's national convention |
| VHMA fall conference & annual meeting | Each fall — no 2027 dates on VHMA's site as of October 22, 2026 | Not found on VHMA's site as of October 22, 2026 | VHMA's annual meeting, with nationally prominent speakers |
Among the national meetings, VMX's posted program includes a practice management track, and WVC describes its meeting as bringing together veterinarians, technicians, practice managers and others.
Whatever you attend, build the schedule around the business sessions rather than drifting into the clinical tracks you already live with at work.
Dates move — confirm before you book
What are your CE options?
Continuing education divides into four practical buckets.
The right mix depends on where you are in the role.
- Member webinars. VHMA's webinars are typically held monthly and free for members — the lowest-friction way to keep current without travel or a budget ask.
- A structured on-ramp. VHMA's Rising Manager Training Program is a 12-week educational series designed for professionals new to veterinary practice management, including team members moving into a manager role.
- Conference sessions. The management programming at the meetings above — VMX's program includes a practice management track, and VHMA's own conferences are built around practice management.
- Hours that build a credential. One of the CVPM's eligibility requirements is 48 hours of management-focused continuing education — so CE you are already doing can double as credential groundwork, if it is the right kind of CE.
That last phrase is the operative one: the CVPM's bar is management-focused CE, so a clinical lecture is a different bucket.
VHMA gives approved candidates two years to sit the electronic exam at local test centers, which argues for sequencing the hours deliberately — line up the CE before you apply rather than accumulating it at random.
Which specific sessions VHMA will accept toward the 48 hours is VHMA's determination; confirm before you count a course.
The CVPM page covers eligibility, exam format, fees and an honest look at whether the credential pays off.
If your duties sit closer to the front office than to the whole hospital, VHMA's CVOM covers leadership, daily operations, HR, communication, law and ethics, marketing and financial management as a separate program with its own requirements — the office manager vs practice manager comparison helps you pick the right target.
How do you turn membership into a better role?
Join before you have the title.
Membership is open to aspiring managers with no credential required, so the education can come before the title: the 12-week Rising Manager Training Program and the member webinars give you named coursework to point to when a practice manager job opens up.
Second, argue from the benchmarking, not the anecdotes.
VHMA's Survey of Compensation and Benefits covers non-DVM staff, associate DVMs and veterinary managers, and the Insider's Insight report draws on over 600 member companion-animal practices.
It is member content — the point is not the figures themselves but the method: when you make the case for a raise or a bigger title, arguing from a documented industry survey beats arguing from a number someone posted in a forum.
Third, use the calendar.
Practice Manager Recognition Week runs November 15–21, 2026 — VHMA celebrates the week and credits Thrive Pet Healthcare with championing it.
Whatever your practice does that week, it is a natural opening to make your scope visible: what you own now, what you want to own next year, and which parts of the job have quietly grown.
And treat the conferences as the networking they are.
The Management Exchange puts you in a room of people carrying the same problems you are, and WVC says its meeting brings together veterinarians, technicians, practice managers and others.
Ask enough of them what their role looks like and you come home with a sharper version of what yours could be.
Reading this from the other side of the desk?
The employer-side guide to hiring a veterinary practice manager covers what practices look for when they fill the role.