Year-End Review: Strong Membership, Healthy Bottom Line, Robust Meeting Attendance
While in Kansas City for our Fall Convention, I was pleased to report to our Board of Directors the positive results of the Association’s fiscal year, which ended August 31.
Financial Report: Since the Association began, its leadership has required an annual independent audit of financial statements. This, in addition to our conservative policies for managing the our funds and investments, continues to serve our membership well. The CPA firm of Wolff and Taylor again provided a clean audit opinion to our Board of Directors.
Total operating revenue for the fiscal year saw an increase of 7.4%, while the increase in total expenses was held to 3.5%. These strong numbers allowed the Association to strengthen our reserves for the fifth consecutive year.
As we build our reserves, we become better prepared to meet challenges that could require immediate expenses, such as responding to legislative or regulatory developments that affect members.
For more than a dozen years, Bob Atkinson with W&A Manufacturing in Pine Bluff, Ark., has been the driving force behind this strong financial position. He has given his time and talent to serve as the Association’s Treasurer and Chairman of our Investment Committee. In filling this important position, Bob has provided steady and wise leadership, incomparable commitment of time, and selfless dedication to this Association and its membership.
Bob’s term of service ended at the Fall Convention. Our Board of Directors, former Presidents and staff join in thanking him for his many dedicated years of service.
Membership Report: The strong balance sheet above is thanks in part to an aggressive campaign over the last three years to recruit new member companies.
Even in a slower ag economy, 71 new companies became members in the last year, bringing total membership to 724.
As of our Fall Convention, we had 323 Regular Member companies, 7 Foreign Members, 46 members of our Marketing Section, and 348 members of our Supplier Section. These numbers show significant growth from 2011 when total membership stood at 615. While mergers, acquisitions, and a slower ag economy could challenge our continued growth, our recent work provides us with a good number of prospective members, and we expect to continue to expand our base.
Meetings Report: We continue to see strong participation for both our Fall Convention and Spring Conference. Attendance in Kansas City last month was higher than in Las Vegas in 2014, which had traditionally been one of the best cities to draw attendance. Our work to overhaul our Spring Conference continues to show success both in attendance numbers and in attendee evaluations. Our 2016 Spring Conference will build on that growth and will add industry round tables designed for small groups of manufacturers to discuss topics relevant to them.
For those who were not able to join us in Kansas City, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on our success in the past year and to thank each of you for your continued support of our Association’s efforts. S