Grand Rapids - APS Treasurer's Report
Available in .pdf format

As your Treasurer, As you know, I work with the Executive Director and the Finance Committee to manage your money.

For those of you who are interested in more numbers than I will cover in this report, you can find the audit for last year on our APS web site.

And, of course, if any of you want more details about anything to do with our finances – you can contact either Bob Lamb or myself directly.

Now, let me begin with modest good news. The APS has an operating surplus from last year of about $7,000 – about what you might expect to pay for a superb $5 Columbian.

To sum up the year: Revenues increased while expenditures were up slightly more – most of the difference coming from the higher costs of our meeting in Sacramento as compared to Columbus the year before.

Looking ahead, you ask: What are we expecting this year?

We’re looking at 15 of those classic Columbians but they’ve turned RED.

Next year we were looking at 38 red Columbians! That was in June when your Finance Committee met to review the finances and address the proposed deficit. They recommended a number of cost savings and revenue increases and your Board is now working with the staff to have a balanced budget for 2006.

Now, experience in recent years has shown that projected deficits often turn out to be smaller when the dust settles. Some of this is normal budget behavior – department heads in any organization will project more activity and expenses than they end up accomplishing.

And unexpected revenues, including gifts and bequests, help to close the gap.

So why are we concerned?

It’s simple. With deficit spending there is the potential that we will drain our current cash reserves.

The Long Range Plan which your APS Board approved in February calls for us to achieve a balanced budget.

This is our mandate.

So where do we go from here?

Our membership peaked in 1997 at close to 57,000; at the end of May of this year it was 44,000. [Pause]

Those 13,000 lost members represent (after accounting for the costs of their magazines) in today’s dues dollars, close to $260,000 – which is exactly the funding we need if we want to have the resources to deliver the quality and breadth of programs you expect of your Society.

Every day on average we add nine members and we lose twelve.

Every day we lose a net three members - until that can be stemmed and reversed we have to take corrective action.

Restoring our membership is imperative.

I ask each of you here today to recruit at least one new member by STAMPSHOW next year.

Rebuilding our membership will take time and effort so we need to be proactive about balancing the budget.

What other measures are there which might help address the deficit?

We have raised dues 60 percent in the space of four years. As a result of the dues increase the APS has lost, perhaps, a couple of thousand members. It would seem to be counterproductive to raise dues again at this time. We also have to anticipate future inflation which would necessitate potentially dramatic increases in dues.

Dues do help to pay for the services we, as members, enjoy. Rather than raise dues your APS Board is considering increases in the prices of some of our services. The APRL Board has already acted in a similar fashion. These increases have the benefit of charging our users for the cost of the services provided to them.

Your Society has instituted many efficiencies in recent years. In particular, cost savings in the production of the American Philatelist have been very significant.

We continue to strive for additional efficiencies.

What about moneymaking activities?

Our Internet Sales Unit has been a success, and our new Quick ID promises to be a winner.

Our Executive Director is enthusiastically working on an enhanced relationship with EBay.

Additionally, our Executive Director has aligned us with a new affinity card provider. This will give you more options from your APS credit card (wave card) and also increase our revenue from this source.

Earlier this year your Finance Committee conducted a competitive bidding process for the selection of an investment manager.

Your Board approved the selection of M&T Bank.

This promises to be a more productive relationship and potentially could increase our returns from our investments.

It is an honor to serve as your Treasurer.

Thank you for re-electing me.

We have a challenge to carry forward with the work we’ve begun and we need to meet it head on.

We need to balance our budget. Make each of those red Columbians turn back to black!