Our National ARPAS organization remains in a solid financial position. However, as I’ve been reporting during my tenure, we continue to gradually erode our strong financial foundation. To help address this situation, this fall we released funds from our savings investments to cover shortages in income, and therefore, helped return our organization closer to a balanced budget. Our total revenue and support positions continued to slide from a high in 2016, and fell $41,476 below 2018, due to slightly lower membership revenue ($2,973), reduced corporate sponsorships ($1,120), a realized loss in investment income ($30,640) and lower investment interest income ($1,934), yet had a slight increase in ARPAS Journal income ($518). We were fortunate again this year to incur lower administration and governance expenses $1,234, but these savings were nearly matched by an increase in ARPAS Journal expenses ($517).

Looking at year-over-year trends for the last three years, we continue to see a gradual decline in regular ARPAS memberships. Our corporate sponsorships have continued to erode (-$1,120), but the most recent campaign, led by Dr. Al Kertz, is showing great promise for a recovery in this program. Please reach out to your organization if they are not a current ARPAS sponsor, as support at any level is greatly appreciated. As reported, our Total Membership Services costs are up, but this is actually due to increased fees and expenses related to the ARPAS Journal and its administration. Similarly, we have experienced increased costs in production of our ARPAS Journal since 2016 and will incur an increase in FASS administrative expenses as well.

The 2020 budget has been prepared with the support of our Executive team. Costs have been projected from prior year trends and include specific inputs regarding service fees by Jeremy Holzner, the FASS Executive Director. All other expenses have been held constant or projected slightly higher than our 2019 budget. Unfortunately, given our projected income and expenses, the budget is projected to have a shortfall of $56,875.

Again, the Governing Council is challenged with the goal of finding ways to grow our membership, increase corporate sponsorships, page revenues by the journal, and possible reduction in journal expenses. We continue to be pleased with the changes in our ARPAS journal and hope it will continue to expand in authorship and increased revenue generation.