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From the President, February 2002
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the goodThe Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter offers its members a variety of services and benefits in addition to those offered by CSI to all members. In response to requests from the members, we have made many improvements over the past few years. Our monthly programs are second to none. We have brought in experts from across the country, and taken on serious issues. In just the past year we have toured the Cold Spring Granite and Navy Island Plywood facilities. In November we saw presentations about specifications from four of the most influential people in our business: presidents from ARCOM, BSD SpecLink, and 4Spec.com, and a vice president from RTKL. Our Construction Showcase next month will feature guest speakers Paul Doherty, presenting “Brave New World: The Impact of Globalization, Security and Technology”; Robert Murray, chief economist for McGraw-Hill Corporation, with his presentation “2002 Construction Outlook in the Upper Midwest”; and Ron Bratlie of the Elk River School District, with "High Performance Schools for High Performing Students: Components and Financial Implications Building Sustainable, High Performance Schools”. A few years ago, after careful analysis of the potential benefits and risks, we included the cost of meals in chapter dues. We have experimented with different meeting locations, visiting the Science Museum in St. Paul and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. We have also tried a variety of meeting times - some at lunch, some after dinner, and some that began in the afternoon and ended late in the evening. The result of these changes has been a significant increase in meeting attendance. So, whatever the reason - or combination of reasons - we now see about twenty more people at each meeting, and attendance at some meetings has reached 150! And we don't always see the same faces, so our meetings now reach many more people than ever before. Our newsletter carries more technical articles than before. The roster is better organized and easier to use, and the "Desktop Reference" is a useful supplement to our publications, putting faces to the names of those in office. The web site continues to carry the most current information about chapter activities. We offer several educational programs for those who want to learn about construction documents or study for CSI’s certification examinations. We have discussion forums for specifiers and for suppliers. And Dunwoody’s students have increased our numbers by almost one hundred members. One of the most significant changes made this year was the addition of Synergy Resource Group, giving us a professional administrative assistant. Synergy takes care of the day-to-day operation of the chapter, helping the Board of Directors and the committees, taking reservations, directing people to the right committee or person for answers, and taking orders for study materials for our certification classes. And because that is what they do, they do it well, and they do it now! This service comes at a cost, but it will pay for itself. Synergy has already negotiated better prices for some meetings than we had before, reservations and attendance records are better, and the member database that they now maintain will eventually become a useful source of information for those who need continuing education records for professional licenses. the BadEach of these services comes at a cost, and costs are rising. When we bring speakers in we often pay at least transportation costs, and some of them require a substantial speaker’s fee. The cost for a meeting facility is more than just the cost of the meal, and most facilities charge premium prices for audio visual equipment and telephone lines, now necessary at most meetings. When we put the “meals included” plan into effect, it was based on a basic meal cost of less than twenty dollars; we now pay about twenty-five dollars per meal. The plan was also based on then-current meeting attendance. But, as noted above, attendance is increasing. The increased attendance is great - but the result is an increase in the cost of each meeting. We also have more no-shows now than before, which means that we pay for too many meals that are thrown away. The addition of Synergy Resource Group is a definite plus, but it does increase monetary expenses. the UglyWhen I took office we had about $120,000 in reserve. The accepted rule of thumb is that an organization like ours should have about 1.5 times its annual budget in reserve, and we were a bit short of that amount. Due to the increased costs explained above, we have been using our reserves this year, and the last treasurer’s report showed that we now have about $106,000 in reserve. We have a number of choices. We can increase dues, cut expenses, increase income or continue to cut into our reserves. None of these is popular. the Bottom LineThe Board of Directors is working on plans to address all of these needs, combining all of the options. The first question we had to answer was, “Do we want to reduce the quality of our services?” The answer was an unequivocal “No!” We are committed to providing programs with real value, as requested by our members. We will also reduce costs. To reduce the cost of unused meals, we will begin invoicing those people who sign up for meetings but do not attend. Synergy is looking for new meeting locations, facilities that will provide satisfactory meals at a lower price. This may mean that the meetings won’t be centrally located, but they will still be easily accessible. We have already found a location for this year’s awards banquet that will be much less expensive than last year’s event, yet just as enjoyable. Increasing income will be difficult. The product fair, our traditional cash cow, faces an uncertain future. Beginning next year, CSI’s annual convention will move to March - the same month as our product fair. The conflict can be resolved only by moving the product fair to another time, which may affect its success. We looked at what other organizations charge for their golf outings, and found that ours has been a really good deal - but not for the chapter. A number of other ways to generate more income have been considered, including auctions, casino nights, and various sponsorships. We are asking what other chapters are doing, and suggestions are always welcome. In the end, we decided that an increase in chapter dues is necessary. Dues for professional, industry, associate, and intermediate members will be increased by $20 next June, and student dues will go up five dollars. This looks like a big jump in one year, and it is. But since we have not had an increase for a while, it averages out to only a few dollars per year. We are considering an automatic annual increase to cover inflation, thereby avoiding large single year increases in the future. Sheldon Wolfe, President |
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