Auntie ABATE / “Cuz” Report

Dear Cuz—

What’s all the buzz about a dues increase? There sure has been a lot of static within the organization lately over the possibility of this happening. I pay my dues on a regular basis and we seem to be doing just fine. Do the big boys have some ideas about a LARGE expansion project or something that I missed hearing about?

     Conservative, Saving Biker

Dear Saver,

Anyone who has been around this ABATE organization of ours for a while should realize that the cost of business is going up and ABATE is just that— a business. The powers that be are not out there spending our dollars wildly. As a matter of fact, it is not easy at all to get any kind of a purchase or expenditure approved by our Board of Directors. They scrutinize everything we are spending our money on and at the same time they are looking at the future of ABATE by preserving the kind of reserves we might need to hang on to in case we need to fight a big legislative fight. Saver, think about this…It seems that some of our members don’t realize the decrease in buying power that has been lost within the last 20 or so years. The consumer price index is a tool that lets us calculate the difference in buying power, or the value of a dollar, over a period of time due to inflation. To put it in better perspective, what cost you $25 dollars in 1996 to buy would now cost you $40.72 in 2019. In other words, if our membership dues cost us $25.00 in 1996 by figuring in the cost of inflation (the Consumer Price Index), our dues would cost us $40.72 today, which means a dues increase of $10.00 per year would not even cover the cost of inflation since we last raised our dues….we would still be operating with less buying power than we had in 1994. Looking at things this way, a ten dollar increase in dues if that is what the board decides, is not at all unreasonable. Freedom isn’t free.

So, to answer your question, no. There are NO LARGE expansion projects on the horizon. The Board merely wants to be financially responsible to the membership and to the organization by making sure we have enough money to continue to operate as we are and continue to work on Legislative, Education, and Safety issues as we do.

Carry On.

                “Cuz”