Vice Director Famiglio’s institutional memory appears much more rosy than I recall it, and I believe I was chair of A&F at that point. Marty’s calculations were approximations, as he readily admitted, and not a rigorous study. Just as a point of calibration, at the time this issue was last discussed, we were informed that many organizations, both amateur radio and other affiliation societies, were de-emphasizing or eliminating new Life Memberships because they were a loss to the organizations. Some were undoubtedly inappropriately priced, but others presumably priced their offerings appropriately, as they thought, but were forced to admit that they had underestimated the cost. I am sure that A&F Chair Ryan and the committee will take a balanced, dispassionate look at this issue. 73, Greg, K0GW On Monday, September 16, 2019, John Bellows <jbellows@skypoint.com> wrote:
Howard:
How many ARRL Life Members are there? Do you have an estimate as to how much time it would take to gather the information requested by Director Stratton?
Is this issue currently being reviewed by A&F?
73, Jay, K0QB
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 16, 2019, at 5:15 PM, Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) <wb2itx@arrl.org> wrote:
Hi John,
It's not quite that simple. In addition to the age of the members, we need to make assumptions on the future value of money, and the projected future cost of membership. I've attached the last "Adequacy review of life member reserve funds" that covers all of this in detail. As I stated in the May EC meeting, I believe that ARRL has taken conservative approaches in both those forecasts. Such an approach (the inherent risk) is considered by auditors when they conduct our audit.
As an aside, the ARRL Balance Sheet, which is provided monthly to A&F and periodically to the full Board, shows that we have a current liability of $7.8 million in deferred life member dues.
73, Howard, WB2ITX
On 09/16/2019 1:20 PM, N5AUS wrote:
Howard
Can you provide a breakdown of life members by the amount they paid for their life membership and the time period for when those life member rates were in effect?
It clarify the life member burden to the League.
73. John N5AUS
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 16, 2019, at 11:48 AM, "rjairam@gmail.com" <rjairam@gmail.com> wrote:
I agree with that. In fact this report should currently be in front of the executive committee for reconsideration.
73 Ria, N2RJ
On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 12:43 PM Bob Famiglio, K3RF < RBFamiglio@verizon.net> wrote:
Maintaining institutional memory is always a challenge in these situations. I believe the topic of special life memberships was studied by ex-vice-director Marty Woll, an expert in the field, who worked up a proposal to create a Life Membership with an actuarially based premium for older members with age brackets determining the dues multiple to be paid. It was viewed with favor by the board I understand, but not the CFO and then president for unknown reasons. It was back in 2013 or something like that. The bottom line was favorable to the League on both income and member retention. It may be time to review that information again if you are not aware of it Howard.
*Bob Famiglio, K3RF*
*Vice Director - ARRL Atlantic Division*
*610-359-7300*
<image001.png>
www.QRZ.com/db/K3RF
*From:* arrl-odv *On Behalf Of *Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) *Sent:* Saturday, September 14, 2019 3:39 PM *To:* Jairam, Ria, N2RJ, (Dir, HD) <rjairam@gmail.com>; k5ur@aol.com *Cc:* arrl-odv <arrl-odv@arrl.org> *Subject:* [arrl-odv:28764] Re: Membership Stats
Hi Ria, Rick,
Thanks for your thoughts. We would all like to find ways of reducing the cost of membership, but unfortunately this is not the time.
Staff has looked at several options. Ria is right, advertisers don't value digital media. If we reduce the number of print copies of QST, it will negatively impact adverting revenue. And a digital-only magazine might not let us reduce the dues by very much. Currently, dues do not cover the cost of member benefits provided. Member benefits are subsidized by books sales, awards, etc.
The facts are that we need to grow new and existing sources of revenue first. Part of that growth-plan is to provide more value in membership. As I mentioned in the Board meeting, we will roll out On the Air (OTA) magazine in January. This will be available as a member benefit, not as a paid subscription like QEX or NCJ. Every member will be able to get both QST and OTA in digital form as part of their membership dues. Members will have the option of receiving either QST or OTA in paper form. OTA, plus lifelong learning, new marketing capabilities with the Personify AMS, and other very-early initiatives we are pursuing that should help bring in more revenue. We will be heavily "selling" these benefits as part of an aggressive membership campaign.
Why is more revenue critical? In addition to dues not currently covering member benefits, as I stated in my reports to the Board, income from operations does not cover the cost of operations. We balance the budget with donations and investment return. This is not a healthy situation. This problem has grown over many years, and will take years to reverse. Some have suggested that we use a portion of our reserves to provide more member benefits. While I am not opposed to spending reserves as an investment to grow ARRL (and I will be using this philosophy when I present the 2020-2021 Plan to the Board), spending reserves to balance operations is a very bad idea. For every $1 million we take out of reserves (equivalent to a $6.00 member benefit or dues reduction) , we will have (on average) $50,000 less to spend to balance operations. This is the equivalent of one head count.
And speaking of reserves, yes we are looking at a reduced rate for life members. But I need to remind the Board, as our auditor reported, the single biggest liability ARRL has on our books is the reserves we need to maintain to provide services to life members. If I remember correctly, it is 20%-25% of our reserves. That is money we can not spend, and increasing the number of life members will only increase the amount we need to maintain. That is money we cannot use to invest in ARRL.
Instead of the Board entertaining ideas of reducing dues, the Board should debate the value of an annual dues increase. Since the Board made the last dues increase, the cost of living has reduced the cost of dues by almost 10%. This is also a 10% reduction in income vs expenses that we have to work with.
73, Howard, WB2ITX
On 9/14/2019 7:18 AM, rjairam@gmail.com wrote:
I see Hudson Division is the worst performing at -3.1%. Ouch! I do suspect that’s because of out-migration. We’ve been steadily losing population here, particularly among retirees. Our hamfests here have also been getting smaller and smaller as hams either move to warmer, more tax friendly locales or die off.
As far as dues go I am consistently told by members and ex members (as recently as last night at a club meeting) that they want some sort of tiered membership with an option for a digital magazine instead of print. While I do get that we have to balance this with advertisers, it may be a good time to look at this idea.
73
Ria, N2RJ
On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 1:46 AM Roderick, Rick, K5UR via arrl-odv < arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> wrote:
Hi all:
Here’s something to think about as you kick back for the weekend.
Listed below are the membership stats for August. Only 3 Divisions had a positive number compared to one year ago, and the overall total was -0.9%. Statistically, the percentages may be small in many instances, but they’re still negative. Congratulations to the Northwestern, Roanoke, and Rocky Mountain Divisions for having positive numbers!
Our numbers have been suffering since the dues increase in 2016 and the recovery has been similar to the dues increase 15 years before it, but that should be no excuse. We need to turn this around. Please, give this effort priority and let’s make these numbers positive in every Division.
You may recall that A&F is studying the feasibility of having a layered or tiered-style Life Membership. Also, I’ve asked A&F to consider having a general membership drive in conjunction with any changes we make to the Life Membership. Seems like that would be an opportune time to launch an aggressive membership campaign. If you have any ideas that might work for such a campaign, please let A&F know.
73,
Rick – K5UR
.............................
*August 2019 vs 2018*
Atlantic -0.7%
Central -0.6
Dakota -0.8
Delta -0.9
Foreign -5.0
Great Lakes -0.9
Hudson -3.1
Midwest -1.5
New England -1.7
*Northwestern* 0.5 *
Pacific -1.1
*Roanoke* 0.2 *
*Rocky Mountain *0.4 *
Southeastern -0.2
Southwestern -0.2
West Gulf -0.4
*Total* -0.9%
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--
Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX
Chief Executive Officer
ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio®
225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 <https://www.google.com/maps/search/225+Main+Street,+Newington,+CT+06111?entry=gmail&source=g>-1494 USA
Telephone: +1 860-594-0404
email: hmichel@arrl.org
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-- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 <https://www.google.com/maps/search/225+Main+Street,+Newington,+CT+06111?entry=gmail&source=g>-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: hmichel@arrl.org
<H&H Life Member Reserve.pdf>
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