Conference update: State of the Association
The shrinking economy began hitting the association hard last year, and it continues to challenge AOTA's financial resources unrelentingly, according to Treasurer Saburi Imara, whose annual report at the national conference in Houston last week was sobering. Nevertheless, quick action in the past six months has helped to keep the wolf away from the doorstep.
"There is no doubt that we face one of the most difficult economic times in the history of AOTA," Imara told members attending the annual business meeting April 25 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. AOTA had lost $540,000 in investment income as of January, and revenue for FY 2008, which ended last June 30, showed a loss of almost $785,000 in net assets. The year before, the association had seen an increase of almost $200,000.
Higher taxes, a $345,000 payment to the defined-benefit pension plan to adjust the required minimum liability, and empty rental units in the national office building accounted for most of the expense-sheet woes. The pension fund has been frozen since 1998 and will be discontinued next year.
Meanwhile a slow but steady increase in membership has been keeping the ship afloat and continuing education revenue is also going up. According to executive director Fred Somers, membership is now over 39,000, up 15 percent in the past four years. AOTA continues to push for greater membership; there are some 140,000 certified practitioners in the United States, according to the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT).
The 2008 conference in Long Beach, CA, swelled the coffers by $2 million, with 5,665 people in attendance. This year in Houston, registration was 5,100. Those numbers include exhibitors.
In an effort to stem its rising tide of expenses, association leaders began last fall to reduce the fiscal '09 budget by $537,000 by cutting training and travel. In December, the national office laid off employees and reduced its senior staff salaries.
For the first time, the association held its spring Representative Assembly meeting online instead of face to face, saving up to $75,000 in travel expenses it would have had to pay for delegates from across the country. The jury is still out on whether the virtual meeting, which was considered very successful, will continue. Most leaders believe it is likely, at least in the short run.
Funding for key Vision projects has remained in the budget, Imara said, and new tenants may be moving into the headquarters building. AOTA had wanted to sell the space as condominiums, but scrapped the idea in such a down market.
Questions from members dealt with the association's formal and financial ties to for-profit industry and how far along AOTA has come in bringing the national office building into ADA compliance.
Somers said that as far as he knows now, AOTA's continuing alliance with General Motors, which has funded research regarding occupational therapy's involvement in driver re-education, is still intact despite GM's pending bankruptcy. The national association also has a longstanding partnership with Genesis Healthcare. One member questioned whether AOTA is willing to hold its for-profit partners up to the light when it comes to treatment and employment policies. Somers said that AOTA would take any such matters into consideration if they came up.
As to ADA compliance, the building is about one-third of the way there, he said, and the plan is to continue; but in light of the current financial crisis, it cannot happen right now.
Two new officers and one board member were sworn in at the meeting. Vice-president Florence Clark stepped into the post of president-elect, which she will hold for one year under President Penny Moyers Cleveland. Virginia Stoffel took the oath of office as AOTA's new vice-president, and Thomas Fisher will take a seat on the board of directors.