Soooo…while New Year’s is the time to make those resolutions (like the 20 pounds I always intend to lose)..I’m busy trying to prioritize the issues and projects that are going to be on our plate in the new year so that we can allocate our resources.
The most immediate project is going to be calculating our membership renewals and then estimating the resulting effect on our budget. We started the dues billing process in November with a membership around 580. Our high was about 620 two years ago. Everyone asks me how we are doing. It’s really hard to tell because you all pay at the last minute. Maybe we should start a betting pool with half the proceeds going to RPAC? (Ha!) The dues being due right after Christmas is a hard time for everyone. It’s a slow closing period which makes it worse. In Miami, we billed in the summer for the following calendar year’s dues and MLS fees. Everyone hated that too because they didn’t want the association to hold their money that long. My guess is that no payment date would be any better than the next.
New Year’s Eve will bring about a third of our membership in to the office to pay. It’s really kind of fun to see everyone! You can also drop off the payment at any First National (as long as it has the post office box number on it) or mail your payments. If they are postmarked by 12/31, we don’t count them as late. Increasingly in the last several years, more members have paid in January in spite of the late payment fees. All of this means that we won’t really know the final count until January 31st.
We’re taking a hard look at all of the services offered at the Board. However, if we truly want to be strategic partners to help your success, then really we need to be offering you more, not less. The challenge, like in your own personal budgets, is how to do more with less…or figure out a way to make more income.
One of the things that we plan on doing is to broadcast more and use our www.cbormls.tv. We want to have more free Lunch & Learn’s and have them and important meetings like the Tour broadcast to your desk. This process will save you commuting time and maybe engage those who would like to “lurk”. The service we use is free so there is no incremental cost. Making use of the free broadcasts will help with transparency as well. Transparency is the big buzz word these days – That’s part of the reason I started this blog. I want you to know what’s on my mind. Maybe you’ll have better ideas or can help me with plans!
I’ll share some Board income ideas in my next blog. I’m trying to think of some ways to generate Board income but not have it come out of your pockets!
CVG
