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The State Board approved increases to dues and simplified the membership categories at the quarterly meeting July 21 in Tyler.
The board found it necessary to increase membership revenues to match increasing costs for our state office operations and fix a recurring deficit in our state budget which has existed for the last two years.
Our organization operates on a fairly minimal budget with 80% of revenues resulting from membership dues, and significant opportunities to reduce spending are not readily available. It should also be noted that there has not been a dues increase since 2007, so we believe that we have done a good job at maintaining a stable dues structure.
We are pursuing grants from selected foundations and have met some recent success, but grants to meet general operating expenses are not generally accepted from most foundations and are not a reliable mechanism to consistently fund the bulk of our state office operations. The approved dues amounts were compared to similar organizations for parity and reasonableness and will plug our budget gap for the foreseeable future.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: lonnie
