[arrl-odv:35279] False Financial Information Being Sent to Members
I've received communication from a member questioning the validity of information about ARRL finances that is being sent to members. Based on the analysis below, I believe thismember's suspicion is valid. An email from Mr. Minster, contained the following - An Important Message about ARRL LifeMembership and Printed Magazines Dearxyz Thisletter is to explain a recent decision taken by the ARRL Board of Directorsabout the future of printed magazines (QST and On theAir specifically) and how this affects you, one of our loyal Life Members. LifeMembership was created in 1968 to raise money to help ARRL overcome a projecteddeficit in the budget. The introduction of Life Membership worked, however, theprogram has not sustained its ability to fund the full cost of annual dues forits members since 1973. In recent years, ARRL has only been able towithdraw $26 for each Life Member to fund $49 in dues. A program thatclearly demonstrates loyalty to ARRL to this very day lost its way financially,and we were loath to modify or eliminate this program. The sentence shown in bold is factually untrue. The Board, through the A&F Committee, settled on anumber that it felt represented a fair cost of carrying the Life Members, as itis required to do under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The numberswere also approved as being appropriate each year by the League's auditors,CohnReznick. The adequacy of the LifeMember reserve is further evaluated every few years by an independentactuary, as was done in 2022 by the actuarial and benefits consulting firm, Hooker and Holcombe. For many years the Board didallocate $26 a year, not because it couldn't allocate more, but because bothmanagement and the auditors felt $26 was the appropriate, fair, amount. Bear in mind that ARRL incurs lower cost to handle Life Members for reasons such as lack of need to solicit or process membership renewals or give anybooks or other incentives for renewing, . At the suggestion of Hooker and Holcombe, in 2022 the A&F Committee upped the $26 to $33 ayear. In the 2022 ARRL AnnualReport’s Statements of Financial Position, under current liabilities, thecurrent portion of deferred life membership dues was $626,706 for 2022 and $620,392 for 2021. With 18,801 (2022)and 18,883 (2021) Life Members this works out to roughly $33 per LifeMember. That’s a far cry from $26. The League’s financial accounts show a totalreserve of nearly $500 per Life Member. Even ignoring any earnings on these funds, that’s about fifteen years’ worthof services at the present rate, not exactly a precarious position given theaverage Life Member age of 69 years old and rising. It should be beneath ethical standards for an organizationconcerned with serving its members to resort to misleading our membership.The email sent to our Life Members mischaracterizes the nature of the Life Member withdrawal, misstates theactual amount, and falsely implies inadequacy of the life member funds. 73, Dick Norton, N6AA
Hey, Dick, Thanks for the history. As you know, this is a write down from funds that should be enough to service those members. It has been a long time since this was adjusted. $33 isn’t likely enough if we were to value inflation since it was changed. But these are budgetary numbers. Whatever it cost to meet the needs of life members for the year will be the actual cost. We simply chose the recommended number because we believe it is nearer to reality. Reading the historical documents, the hope of the AMS project was to provide more tracking of member interaction so that we can get more detail around and control. It has not turned out that way. Personify is something that we will, sooner or later, need to bite the bullet and replace. But before that, we need an inventory of services we offer and corresponding systems support. Then we can prioritize a plan for integrated systems for replacement. Thoughts? Mickey ________________________________ From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of Richard Norton via arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2023 8:03 PM To: arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org <arrl-odv@arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:35279] False Financial Information Being Sent to Members I've received communication from a member questioning the validity of information about ARRL finances that is being sent to members. Based on the analysis below, I believe this member's suspicion is valid. An email from Mr. Minster, contained the following - An Important Message about ARRL Life Membership and Printed Magazines Dear xyz This letter is to explain a recent decision taken by the ARRL Board of Directors about the future of printed magazines (QST and On the Air specifically) and how this affects you, one of our loyal Life Members. Life Membership was created in 1968 to raise money to help ARRL overcome a projected deficit in the budget. The introduction of Life Membership worked, however, the program has not sustained its ability to fund the full cost of annual dues for its members since 1973. In recent years, ARRL has only been able to withdraw $26 for each Life Member to fund $49 in dues. A program that clearly demonstrates loyalty to ARRL to this very day lost its way financially, and we were loath to modify or eliminate this program. The sentence shown in bold is factually untrue. The Board, through the A&F Committee, settled on a number that it felt represented a fair cost of carrying the Life Members, as it is required to do under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The numbers were also approved as being appropriate each year by the League's auditors, CohnReznick. The adequacy of the Life Member reserve is further evaluated every few years by an independent actuary, as was done in 2022 by the actuarial and benefits consulting firm, Hooker and Holcombe. For many years the Board did allocate $26 a year, not because it couldn't allocate more, but because both management and the auditors felt $26 was the appropriate, fair, amount. Bear in mind that ARRL incurs lower cost to handle Life Members for reasons such as lack of need to solicit or process membership renewals or give any books or other incentives for renewing, . At the suggestion of Hooker and Holcombe, in 2022 the A&F Committee upped the $26 to $33 a year. In the 2022 ARRL Annual Report’s Statements of Financial Position, under current liabilities, the current portion of deferred life membership dues was $626,706 for 2022 and $620,392 for 2021. With 18,801 (2022) and 18,883 (2021) Life Members this works out to roughly $33 per Life Member. That’s a far cry from $26. The League’s financial accounts show a total reserve of nearly $500 per Life Member. Even ignoring any earnings on these funds, that’s about fifteen years’ worth of services at the present rate, not exactly a precarious position given the average Life Member age of 69 years old and rising. It should be beneath ethical standards for an organization concerned with serving its members to resort to misleading our membership. The email sent to our Life Members mischaracterizes the nature of the Life Member withdrawal, misstates the actual amount, and falsely implies inadequacy of the life member funds. 73, Dick Norton, N6AA
The Life Member program will be discussed at length at the A&F meeting. I will ensure that Diane includes a schedule of what we have been permitted by the auditors to draw from the LM funds going back a descriptive number of years. Anyone with more than a couple of years' experience on A&F should very well know that the rate was $26 before recently moving to $33. The fact remains that it is greatly deficient, term members have had to make up the difference, this has been going on and getting worse for decades, and only now are we taking action to correct the problem. It is easy to get diagnostic about why this has continued to languish, but the results aren’t particularly constructive or useful. I note that the email was censored obscuring who if anyone has the concern. Please forward the original email on to me so that we can respond to our member. Thanks. David Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of Baker, Mickey, N4MB (Dir, SE) <mbaker@arrl.org> Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2023 10:27:20 PM To: Norton, Richard N6AA (Dir, SW) <richardjnorton@yahoo.com>; arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org <arrl-odv@arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:35280] Re: False Financial Information Being Sent to Members Hey, Dick, Thanks for the history. As you know, this is a write down from funds that should be enough to service those members. It has been a long time since this was adjusted. $33 isn’t likely enough if we were to value inflation since it was changed. But these are budgetary numbers. Whatever it cost to meet the needs of life members for the year will be the actual cost. We simply chose the recommended number because we believe it is nearer to reality. Reading the historical documents, the hope of the AMS project was to provide more tracking of member interaction so that we can get more detail around and control. It has not turned out that way. Personify is something that we will, sooner or later, need to bite the bullet and replace. But before that, we need an inventory of services we offer and corresponding systems support. Then we can prioritize a plan for integrated systems for replacement. Thoughts? Mickey ________________________________ From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of Richard Norton via arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2023 8:03 PM To: arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org <arrl-odv@arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:35279] False Financial Information Being Sent to Members I've received communication from a member questioning the validity of information about ARRL finances that is being sent to members. Based on the analysis below, I believe this member's suspicion is valid. An email from Mr. Minster, contained the following - An Important Message about ARRL Life Membership and Printed Magazines Dear xyz This letter is to explain a recent decision taken by the ARRL Board of Directors about the future of printed magazines (QST and On the Air specifically) and how this affects you, one of our loyal Life Members. Life Membership was created in 1968 to raise money to help ARRL overcome a projected deficit in the budget. The introduction of Life Membership worked, however, the program has not sustained its ability to fund the full cost of annual dues for its members since 1973. In recent years, ARRL has only been able to withdraw $26 for each Life Member to fund $49 in dues. A program that clearly demonstrates loyalty to ARRL to this very day lost its way financially, and we were loath to modify or eliminate this program. The sentence shown in bold is factually untrue. The Board, through the A&F Committee, settled on a number that it felt represented a fair cost of carrying the Life Members, as it is required to do under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The numbers were also approved as being appropriate each year by the League's auditors, CohnReznick. The adequacy of the Life Member reserve is further evaluated every few years by an independent actuary, as was done in 2022 by the actuarial and benefits consulting firm, Hooker and Holcombe. For many years the Board did allocate $26 a year, not because it couldn't allocate more, but because both management and the auditors felt $26 was the appropriate, fair, amount. Bear in mind that ARRL incurs lower cost to handle Life Members for reasons such as lack of need to solicit or process membership renewals or give any books or other incentives for renewing, . At the suggestion of Hooker and Holcombe, in 2022 the A&F Committee upped the $26 to $33 a year. In the 2022 ARRL Annual Report’s Statements of Financial Position, under current liabilities, the current portion of deferred life membership dues was $626,706 for 2022 and $620,392 for 2021. With 18,801 (2022) and 18,883 (2021) Life Members this works out to roughly $33 per Life Member. That’s a far cry from $26. The League’s financial accounts show a total reserve of nearly $500 per Life Member. Even ignoring any earnings on these funds, that’s about fifteen years’ worth of services at the present rate, not exactly a precarious position given the average Life Member age of 69 years old and rising. It should be beneath ethical standards for an organization concerned with serving its members to resort to misleading our membership. The email sent to our Life Members mischaracterizes the nature of the Life Member withdrawal, misstates the actual amount, and falsely implies inadequacy of the life member funds. 73, Dick Norton, N6AA
participants (3)
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Baker, Mickey, N4MB (Dir, SE) -
Minster, David NA2AA (CEO) -
Richard Norton