Renew your IAC Membership and Save $15
I'm sure I don't have to explain to our members about the high inflation we are all experiencing because we all notice it every time we fill up our car with gas, buy food, or enjoy an evening out on the town.
During our budget meeting for 2022 the IAC's finance committee considered our ever-shrinking buying power and decided to take a historical look at our membership dues. Based on constant dollars, the IAC's membership fee has dwindled. Here is a table showing every membership rate since our humble start in 1971.
As our members can readily see from the rightmost column of the table, the IAC's rate at its inception of $10 in 1971 money is equal to about $70/ year in 2022. And with each row you can see that for most of the IAC's existence we chose to increase the dues every 5 years to keep up with inflation. Since 2001 that 5 year reassessment cycle has not been maintained. In today's dollars the $45 membership rate established in 2001 would be $72.13 today.
At the Spring board meeting the finance committee urged the board to increase the rate to $60/member. While this may seem like a big jump it is the correct step to restore the IAC's buying power. It still doesn't get us back to where we were for most of our history, but it gives us the breathing room we need.
I know that dues increases can be controversial. Over the last 20 years we've had to trim employees (from 2 fulltime, 2 parttime and one contract person down to 2 full time) and recently we've trimmed the magazine as well. If we do not increase our dues regularly from here forward we will be forced to continue shrinking what we do for our members. That's not a good solution for anyone. The IAC's mission is very important and must continue. With this increase we will be able to finally revamp the website and hopefully we will be able to add an employee down the road so that the IAC can offer more to its members.
Personally, I'm excited that we've taken this step because I think it is long overdue, but if you have any comments or questions about this (or anything else) please send them to president@iac.org.
Jim Bourke, IAC 434151
