I dont want to downplay anyones suggestion as they ALL will be discussed.

However most people seem to have a suggestion that costs money.

Lots of people want free admission to the convention.
Lots of people want more advertising.
Lots of people want lower table fees.
Lots of people want lower membership dues.

While all of us would like to see these things happen, we cant just act like our Government and spend, spend, spend. Someone has got to pay for these things.

Revenue is down in all cases at the convention. Even our biggest fundraiser the auction brought in 1/2 of what it did the previous year.

Our membership is lower than it has been for quite some time. That means less revenue from membership, even though the costs per person to provide the magazine is the same.

So the big question is where does the money come from?

Short of having a member donating a small fortune to us, we need to manage with what we have.

Many forget how awful our finances looked just 2 years ago when it appeared we couldnt even pay for the magazine anymore.

Fortunately we are better off now after making some serious cuts, but a few wrong moves and we could be back in that same position.

I for one dont want to go down in history as the Treasurer who collapsed the club financially.

Do we raise membership fees? - No one wants to do that
Do we raise registration fees? - Most people already feel they are too high
Do we raise Table fees? - They are border line overpriced as they are now.

Contrary to popular belief we are not a cash rich organization.
Once you take out the $100k+ for the MOGH and the $60k+ for the Life Member fund that cant be used for other purposes, we have a relatively small operating budget.

So, do we want to look at more advertising?... Sure we do.

However we need to make sure we get the most bang for the buck and I personally am not sure $4,000 in advertisments in the ANA gets us that bang. I may be wrong, but thats why the BOD will discuss this suggestion as well as the others.

Thanks again to everyone who made suggestions.

Doug