[AISdiscuss] Feb. PresMes

[PlankMail@aol.com]

Dear AISDiscuss Irisarians:
     We have one day left in the month of February.   In some parts of the 
country it has already begun to look like Spring. My daffodils and I. 
reticulatas are blooming and will soon be followed by other early spring bulbs and 
shrubs.   Convention time will soon be here.
     This is a "nag time #2"   to remind you that if you are someone who 
reports to the AIS Board by virtue of your position as Director or Committee Chair 
-- Special, Ad Hoc, Standing, or whatever -- you need to prepare a report in 
time to get it to the AIS Secretary, Patricia Randall, by or before the 1st of 
May.  Please send a report to Patricia electronically if you can -- even if 
it is to report that you have nothing to report.  If email is outside your 
capability, take delivery time into consideration and send a report to Patricia by 
regular mail.   
     If you have no action to recommend in your written report, you might 
consider simply listing what your duties are, and which of those have or have not 
come into play since the last Board meeting or your last report. Please send 
something so that the Board has a paper trail of activity (or no activity). It 
is my firm intention that reports will not be read at the Board meeting. We 
will discuss and address recommendations.   Voting members are urged to go over 
reports before attending the meeting and to be aware of and prepared for 
topics, problems, and recommendations that will be on the docket.
     Why this fuss over reports?   It is in our best interest to try to 
improve the process of getting through Board reports and on to issues that need to 
be discussed in a forum-like atmosphere.   I certainly don't want austere, 
formal proceedings, but I would like to see a little less of the 
catch-as-catch-can atmosphere that sometimes seems present. 
     Right off the top I know we have at least one very large issue to 
discuss, and this is without knowing what additional issues will be introduced by 
various committee reports.
     We must consider our unbalanced budget thoroughly, and try to correct 
the problem.   We must take whatever time is needed for addressing this dilemma 
because the future health of AIS absolutely depends upon it.   We must 
consider the problems of reducing costs, and try to examine and to reach possible 
solutions as objectively as possible.   
     There are three large draws on the AIS budget:
     1) The cost of Insurance (particularly liability insurance) 
     2) The cost of contract labor salaries. 
     3) The cost of producing the AIS Bulletin.

     1.      Insurance costs In 2004-2005 came to $21,500
     2.      In 2004-2005 contract service's costs amounted to more than 
$25,000 
     3.      Current budget 1 yr. allotment for producing the Bulletin was 
set at $85,000 ($7000 less           than the cost to produce it last year)
                    The cost allotted per Bulletin for 2005-2006 amounts to 
$21,250. 
                    The cost per Bulletin in the previous fiscal year was 
$23,000. 
                    This means that during the coming fiscal year we must 
save $1750 per Bulletin issue                     or we must cut expenses 
elsewhere.

     It would appear there are some hard choices to make, and the spring 
meeting looms large as the most likely place.

     1. We have in the past (Mid-1990s) not provided liability insurance.   
Although most people think liability insurance is a good thing to continue, 
rightly or wrongly many affiliates do not use the service (or feel they need it). 
 The cost of liability insurance has driven up the rates on all things AIS 
and still our budget remains unbalanced.   Some people think we should tax the 
affiliates for being AIS affiliates; others think we should ask affiliates, 
regions, and sections for donations (which we have received -- without formally 
"asking" -- and for which we are most grateful).   Since AIS is not a charity, 
I find that formally asking is very unappealing because it would amount -- as 
things now stand -- to returning annually to passing-the-hat for as long as 
AIS carries liability insurance. 

     2.   The amount paid for contract services would more than compensate 
for the amount paid for liability insurance.   We have in the not too distant 
past discontinued payment to these contract labor positions under circumstances 
no worse than what we are now facing (actually, not as bad).   I am not 
advocating discontinuing payment for these services, but I am trying to put into 
perspective that contract labor is an expense that figures importantly in the AIS 
budget, and it is an expense which should be included like the expense of the 
Bulletin and insurance, when figuring out what an AIS membership "buys," or 
-- looking at it another way --"pays for."
     
     3.   Many suggestions are offered on how to reduce Bulletin costs.   
These suggestions run from 
          (a) Printing only a Year Book once a year, with small supplements 
on business in between (like                the British Iris Society). 
          (b) Removing all business from the quarterly publications and 
printing supplements as needed                on thinner paper (at a far reduced 
cost per page). 
          (d) Having AIS business available on the internet only at an even 
further reduced cost.
          (c) Shopping for printer/publishers who could perform an acceptable 
job of printing a Bulletin                quarterly at a far lower cost, with 
the possibility of adverse lead time.
     There are almost as many ideas on how to reduce Bulletin costs as there 
are members of the Society but the fact of the matter is, we have to examine 
and come up with a feasible, workable, financially practical solution. No 
matter what difficulties we face in arriving at a solution, we have to do it soon.  
 We are living on our reserves -- we are living on the financial edge, and in 
just a few short years our reserves will be gone, at which point we will HAVE 
to make even more drastic cuts and compromises or we will be out of business.
     This is not a simple, quick-to-settle topic.   We must discuss these and 
several others important topics at the Board meeting in May.  So please get 
your reports done and in early enough to allow the Board the needed time to 
address those subjects that are most important to our life as an organization.
     I'll nag again in March -- you can count on it!
          Cheers!
               Jeanne

     
Jeanne Clay Plank, President
     The American Iris Society
     Plankmail@aol.com

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