Needs Not Wants

by Chubby

individual within the organization wields the power to direct the organization’s mission or finances without oversight and input from others. Although we have a solid mission statement, in the last forty-five years we have never taken the time to put together a solid strategic plan to guide the organization into the future. Many things have changed since 1974 and to date ABATE of WI has been able to stay at the forefront of motorcyclist’s rights, safety, and education in the country. Because of several letters to the editor, personal emails, and questions I have received in person, this month I’d like to better clarify for our membership the proposal to raise our annual dues.

  Although dull and boring at first glance, Board of Directors and committee meetings hold the first key to the direction of the organization. The second key is held by our members. Without their support, we would lose the incredible effectiveness of the organization as a whole. At our Officers Training event in February a motion was brought forth by our Finance Committee Chair to raise our yearly dues a minimum of five and possibly ten dollars annually. The motion was postponed until August so that the membership could be alerted and be allowed to give input to their District Directors before a vote. I made the decision to allow the motion to be on the agenda and proceed so that the leadership of the organization would be present during the discussion and be able to convey the reasoning and needs of doing so to their regional members. It was never the intent to proceed with a vote until membership was allowed to give input and my only intent was to get the motion to the floor for discussion by proceeding. All that being said, it seems we should have been better prepared to show what went into such a decision and we have yet to clearly convey that.

                First of all, ABATE of WI., Inc. is not in any kind of financial trouble. At the time of this printing we have seven months of operating expenses in reserve and a fund for legislative battles. We also hold the title to our property, ABATE Acres, free and clear and that is an incredible asset. Unfortunately, none of this means that we are immune to financial struggles and unless we can increase fundraising and donations or membership dues, those struggles may come sooner than later. We have been trimming committee budgets while still spending out of our savings for at least the last eight years and at some point, we will need to raise membership dues to offset the reality that the cost of doing business is rising.

                If you’ve ever attended a board meeting of our organization, you would have heard our Finance Committee Chair speak of retained earnings and deficit spending. I could write an entire article on what I have learned about corporate finances over the last seven years, but I will try to summarize to keep from boring anyone. ABATE was audited by the IRS about a year after I became Executive Director because we had a large amount of retained earnings. Retained earnings is an account that reports the net income/loss of a corporation from its inception to the date of the current balance sheet. After a comprehensive IRS audit we received no penalties because we had a plan in place in accordance with our mission statement. In order to keep from repeatedly being scrutinized by audits we needed to start reducing our retained earnings within the boundaries of our mission statement. Unfortunately, retained earnings does not equate to money in the bank due to acquisitions of fixed assets (land, buildings and equipment). To reduce retained earnings funds must be spent on specific things (education, safety, conference, operating expenses) and not everything we disburse funds on qualifies to reduce retained earnings but those items do reduce funds in our funds in the bank accounts.

                For the lasts six years fundraising has decreased. There are many reasons for this. Events that added greatly to our coffers may have lost their venue or lost the numbers of volunteers a region may need to run such an event. People tightened their belts during a nationwide recession and haven’t felt the need to loosen them much too soon. Regional volunteers have burnt out or moved on. While putting together an annual budget for the organization it has become harder and harder to predict how much will be raised by donations and the only other source of income, we have is our membership fees. Membership has been going down slightly over the last several years but is a much more controllable number as our efforts focus more on membership for reasons that are not solely financial.

                As our income has been reduced, we have made sound decisions to reduce our budget accordingly. Keep in mind our membership has not reduced equally to our income, so we still work to fill the needs of our members. Every year committees such as Highway Safety which produces all the regional giveaways like signs, banners, placemats and coasters along with arranging billboards with our awareness messages; Share the Road which teaches awareness in drivers ed classrooms; Marketing and Public Relations which raises public awareness and membership for our organization; and Legislative, which is the core mission of our organization, have seen reductions in their budgets. While budgets are being cut, we are fighting to maintain the value that being a member of our organization brings to each of us. Some budgets can’t be reduced, our office and membership have expenses that would not allow us to operate if reduced, and many of them we don’t control or have limited control over such as postage, rent, and staffing. Our Finance Committee Chair would not have recommended a membership fee increase unless we had already cut our spending to a bare minimum.

                We have looked into and utilized many ways to cut small costs regarding operation of the organization. Whether it be insurance, conference attendance, printing, postage, or staffing; every way to cut costs without reducing or eliminating services to members has been looked at, and not just recently, but for the last eight years or more.

                There have been several suggestions about further reducing expenses some of which you have seen or will see in this newsletter. In my opinion and the opinion of our Board of Directors cutting our annual lobby day would severely reduce the effectiveness of our organization. Our members are a valuable asset at the Capitol and even a biannual lobby day would be a disservice to them. In addition, making our officers training biannual was suggested. I have personally found, and it is also the belief of our board, that even regional officers that have attended multiple times still learn something to make their regions become more effective or run more smoothly. This is also a very energizing training, and because we rely on volunteers for everything, that sense of brotherhood is very important to running a successful organization. We have made and will continue to make cost reductions to these events based on the needs of our members but eliminating them or making them biannual would be a disservice to our membership as a whole.

                I have heard it mentioned several times that we need to better utilize our land. I agree, it is our land and every member should utilize it at their leisure and their pleasure. Regions should organize rides there, members should camp there, and we should all enjoy our lifestyle there. But, although it was the intent of the Board of Directors when originally purchasing the land, there are not many practical uses for such a remote location. To put our offices there would undoubtedly save us money we currently spend on rent, but upon review of such a proposal we would lose our current staff and the ability to hire qualified staff to that location would be severely limited although I wouldn’t say impossible. Gary Klinker gives a clear explanation as to why Safe Rider Inc. does not want a course at our land in his article, so I won’t go there. But I will share other avenues that were looked at during the purchase but at this time aren’t feasible. A racetrack was on the future land development map however when looking into it, sanctioning and insuring races at such a remote location made such a venture too risky of an investment. A large band shell and parking area were on the original plans with the idea, I believe, of attracting promoters and other organizations to rent our land for large events but after exploring the costs and liabilities for such events it was found to be cost prohibitive. We will always continue to look for alternate uses for our land, and quite possibly, as the population of our state grows and moves toward that area some of these ideas may become a very real possibility. Currently the best use of our land is for our Rally and for camping where the remoteness of the land makes it a great place where bikers can just be left to be bikers.

                An increase to our annual membership fees is a very real need, not just a want. The cost of membership hasn’t seen an increase in over twenty years and in that same time the expenses associated with a membership have increased substantially. As our organization has grown, our needs have grown along with our value proposition of membership. ABATE of Wisconsin’s goal is to give the motorcyclists of WI. a strong united voice regarding their future, their way of life, their safety, and their legal rights as motorcyclists and citizens. We have been highly successful at doing this for the last forty-five years. Our current Board of Directors has done their best at being fiscally responsible while maintaining the effectiveness of the organization and that will continue. But if we are going to continue our success into the future and grow as an organization, we should trust that our board has been responsible and prudent when they say there is an immediate need to raise our income. Unless we see an incredible increase in fundraising and donations, a membership increase may be the only way to fill that need. Until next month….Ride Free