Task
Force on Dues and Member Benefits
FINAL
REPORT TO SAA COUNCIL, JANUARY
1999
The SAA Task
Force on Dues and Member Benefits was appointed in August, 1997, and charged
with reviewing the Society's dues structure and the entire range of benefits
offered its members. The Task Force met at the 1997 SAA Annual Meeting in Chicago,
for two days in March, 1998 in Chicago, and at a day long session at the 1998
SAA Annual Meeting in Orlando. Members of the Task Force also participated in
the Member's Forum at the Orlando meeting. At that Forum the Task Force chair
reported on work to date; described survey results, and answered questions from
the floor. Between meetings Task Force members communicated regularly by e-mail,
fax, and telephone.
The scope of
the Task Force charge made it necessary to assemble a wide range of statistics
detailing dues and other income, costs, benefits, membership, and related items.
The statistics made it possible for Task Force members to review SAA operations
quite carefully, and to understand trends in membership, income, costs, and
benefits by category over a period of five years. The Task Force selected the
most recent five year period for review.
Two clear trends
emerged from this review:
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SAA membership declined slowly during the
period, with most of the decline coming in the two lowest dues levels of
regular membership
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The costs of providing membership services
steadily increased, largely offsetting the modest increase in dues revenue.
Statistics, however,
while useful in outlining trends, do not delineate causes. Provided with extensive
documentation of trends, Task Force members readily perceived that they lacked
information on causes - especially the causes of declining membership. In addition,
while reviewing the package of benefits offered to SAA members, it became quite
clear that there were no data that would distinguish which benefits were most
valued by members, and indeed whether additional SAA services beyond those listed
in the official membership packet were in fact considered benefits by members.
Lack of this
important information posed a considerable problem for the Task Force, since
workable recommendations on changes (or even maintenance of the status quo)
must be predicated on reliable data on member views of SAA and its costs and
services. During discussion at the March 1998 meeting in Chicago, the Task Force
recommended that SAA commission a membership survey to provide needed information
for its report. A survey would also provide the membership with a direct means
to participate in the work of the Task Force. The survey was approved by SAA
leadership, and bids were solicited from several survey firms. The Gary Siegel
Organization (GSO) was selected, and its staff worked with Task Force members
to construct a member survey.
The survey was
distributed to all current SAA members by mail, and the response rate was 33
percent, a gratifying rate, especially in light of the average 28 percent of
the membership voting in recent SAA elections. In addition, GSO conducted a
telephone survey of a random sample of former members to determine the reasons
why they had not renewed their SAA memberships. This sample was drawn from a
group of 1,250 whose memberships had lapsed between 1993 and 1998. Of those
contacted, 100 people agreed to be interviewed for the survey.
Assumptions
The Task Force
received two reports from GSO - the first a statistical summary of member responses,
and the second an extensive analysis of the responses to the surveys of both
current and former members. In reviewing the survey data, and discussing SAA
operations, services, and costs, the Task Force employed three assumptions first
articulated at its Spring meeting.
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SAA must
maintain at least its current level of dues income to support the service
level members clearly expect.
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SAA's income
level must increase to support any increase in services, and to keep pace
with inflation in the major costs it incurs in providing its services.
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While recognizing
that it is the largest professional archival organization in North America,
and that it is expected to provide a high level of continuing advanced education
for its members, SAA should continue to seek to attract and retain members
at all levels of professional development.
Recommendations
Based upon
review of both GSO reports and on the assumptions outlined above, the Task Force
makes the following recommendations:
1. Flat Dues:
In order to maintain the current level of SAA dues income, a flat dues structure
(that is, the same dues rate for all members) would involve raising the rates
for the lowest dues level by 92 percent, while decreasing dues for the highest
dues level by 27 percent. This result was viewed as untenable by the Task Force,
which does not recommend institution of a flat dues structure.
2. Cafeteria
style dues: Given membership evaluation of SAA benefits, the Task Force
found it would be difficult and unhelpful to try to assign specific costs to
basic SAA benefits such as the journal, the newsletter, advocacy, and other
information and services provided. Major cost centers such as those just listed
are judged important benefits by a clear majority of members, and incremental
reduction in support for them would compromise their quality while providing
little in the way of cost reduction. Cafeteria style payment was judged possible
only in the area of sections and round tables, and is addressed
below.
3. Student
Dues: Extend to three (3) years the term of eligibility for
student dues. Do not increase student dues at this time.
4. Bridge
Rate: Institute a "bridge rate" identical to the student dues
rate.
The bridge rate would be available upon request to current SAA members who
are seeking employment as archivists. This rate is intended to allow SAA members
who are between jobs or who are seeking their first full time employment as
archivists (such as students following graduation) to maintain their membership
at a time when the benefits of networking, employment bulletins, and related
information is especially important. The bridge rate would be available as a
one time benefit requested by a member from the SAA Office at the time of membership
renewal.
5. Dues Increase:
Given the persistent rise in the costs of providing SAA services, and the static
revenue generated by dues income (dues will have remained unchanged for five
years by the fall of 1999), and data generated by the membership survey, the
Task Force recommends that dues be raised for each category of membership (except
students) by 7 percent following the 1999 annual meeting, with
subsequent yearly adjustments at a level equal to the increase in the
CPI (Consumer Price Index) for the previous year. This will ensure that
small, annual increases will be spread over time, obviating the need for larger
increases every few years. The recommended 7 percent increase will not, for
instance, address the increase in the CPI during the period following the previous
dues increase.
The Task Force
recognizes that the dues increase will not provide significant new resources
for SAA, but, combined with future annual CPI-based adjustments, will allow
the organization to maintain its services and to make modest changes and expansion
in some of those services where the survey indicates that is needed. The Task
Force also recognizes that members do not (and never have) advocated higher
dues, but that increases in the basic costs of providing SAA's basic products
and services makes periodic increases necessary. The increase recommended is
the smallest that can reasonably provide stable resources.
6. Establish
a membership category for major archival employers that would allow payment
of a single lump sum membership each year on behalf of the employer and its
employees. The actual rate will be negotiated by the Executive Director on an
institution-by-institution basis.
7. Review
of SAA Office Service and Functions: Any review of the SAA budget produces
the clear message that the majority of dues and other income is spent maintaining
member services. This is to be expected for a national professional organization,
and the Office clearly is the critical link in providing services, products,
information, and representation for the membership. A membership organization
exists to serve its members, and provided with the excellent data provided by
the member survey, a thorough assessment of SAA Office functions should be conducted
to ensure that resources are indeed used primarily to provide critical, rather
than merely useful, services. The review should be commissioned by SAA Council
working with the Executive Director, using the services of a small group of
people with the ability to competently evaluate professional organization services
and management. The review team should include no more than two SAA members.
The review should be completed prior to the 1999 SAA Annual Meeting.
8. Sections
and Round Tables: Merge sections and round tables into a single category
of units (the Task Force declines to name the new category, given the
checkered history of such attempts). The survey indicates that members belong
to twice as many sections as round tables, and that the distinction between
them is both blurred and frequently viewed as inequitable. Under the new plan,
all units would receive support from the SAA office in printing and mailing
newsletters, and would be allocated meeting space at the annual meeting.
The Task Force
further recommends that each SAA membership carry membership in two units of
the member's choice at no charge, with membership in additional units available
at a cost of $10.00 per unit. Each unit would be required to maintain a membership
of at least 50 SAA members. Units with fewer than 50 members would cease to
be official SAA entities. All current SAA sections and round tables would be
offered for selection by members, with determination of a final roster of units
made after a full year of membership renewals. Additional units could be authorized
by Council after receipt of a petition of fifty or more members. Members could
elect to join additional new or old units by making additional payments or by
resigning from the unit(s) they previously chose. Council, the Executive Office,
and the Treasurer should conduct an analysis of the finances of this arrangement
after one year to determine what amount of the revenue from units can be allocated
back to the units for their budgeted expenditures.
It should be
noted that each SAA annual meeting provides many opportunities for members to
meet and discuss issues of common interest without creation of an official unit.
That opportunity will remain.
Additional Recommendations
In addition to
these recommendations, the Task Force makes the following suggestions in response
to issues raised by members that pertain to its charge:
1. The Executive
Office and Treasurer should investigate costs and administration of allowing
members to pay dues on a monthly apportionment through automatic credit card
deductions. It is assumed that the administration of an installment
payment system might entail minor additional credit card charges to the SAA
which could be charged back to members electing this option. This investigation
shall be completed no later than summer 1999 with the Executive Director and
Treasurer submitting a report on the matter to the Pittsburgh Council meeting.
2. Make no
changes in the current rights and privileges of associate members. Based
on 1997 revisions of the Constitution and Bylaws that emerged from the Task
Force on Organizational Effectiveness' final report, associate members may serve
on committees formed by SAA units, but may not serve on committees and task
forces created by Council or vote on SAA business. Task Force members agree
that the inclusion of associate members is important, but note that the election
of the lower associate dues rate, as opposed to full membership is an individual
decision by which members indicate the importance of the organization within
their professional lives.
3. Consider the
designation of an emeritus membership category.
Fund Raising
for SAA
Beyond those
recommendations and suggestions outlined above, the Task Force strongly supports
the following recommendation to Council:
Appoint a Task
Force to investigate fund raising opportunities for SAA, and to recommend specific
actions to create endowment, designated fund, and planned giving functions within
the Society. These opportunities should be directed primarily to the SAA membership.
In support of
this recommendation, the Task Force members note that SAA must look for additional
ways in which to add to its funding sources beyond dues increases and increasing
the prices for its services. Given SAA's loyal membership and the opportunities
that offers, it is imperative that this avenue for revenue generation be investigated
as soon as possible. While possibilities for raising funds outside the Society's
membership have been reviewed in the past, the Task Force noted that such fundraising
is seldom successful for organizations like SAA until they have demonstrated
the ability to raise funds from their own members.
The Task Force
should consider the feasibility of gift-giving and fund-raising campaigns as
well as to establish mechanisms for creation of endowments and designated funds
based on the spontaneous generosity of SAA members. Further, in establishing
this Task Force, Council will need to consider whether the group should also
be charged with investigating the feasibility of establishing a grants/development
officer as an SAA staff position whose responsibility it would be to conduct
fund-raising from non-member sources.
Submitted by
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SAA Task Force
on Dues and Member Benefits
James E.
Fogerty, Chair
Dennis
Harrison
Kathryn
M. Neal
Robert
E. Sink
Lee J.
Stout
Ann Westerlin
Susan E. Fox,
ex officio
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