The Board of Directors meetings held at the Ranger Rendezvous in Coeur d’Alene last November resulted in some of the biggest changes ANPR has experienced, perhaps in the last 15 years.

Satisfaction with the business office had decreased over several years and forced the board to decide to end our relationship with the office in Kansas. ANPR treasurer Liz Roberts and Ranger editor Teresa Ford have taken on many of the business functions. Teresa’s contract to perform these functions will run over the next year at which time the board will make a decision on the next step to make. The goal of these changes is to increase service to the membership while reducing the operating costs of the operation.

Another major decision the board needed to make was a restructuring of the dues system. For years, the association had offered membership to seasonals and some permanent employees at rates below what is necessary to service that membership. The board had to face the reality that ANPR can no longer continue that practice. The old structure was also very confusing because it had multiple categories depending on an employee’s grade and status. These have now been simplified. Unfortunately, this means a dues increase for many of our members, but the board could not find another avenue that would allow the association to function properly.

A major topic of the dues restructuring concerned what to do about new life memberships. For many years ANPR has offered life memberships at rates that have been as low as $200 years ago, to $750 most recently. When the board explored the possibility of hiring an association management company last year, many of the prospective companies advised ANPR that having life memberships for organizations like ours was not sound fiscal sense. At the same time many members feel that having the option of life membership is important to reward dedicated, longtime members and gives them a special status and recognition for their loyalty.

The board decided to take up the discussion about life memberships later this year while temporarily suspending new life memberships. All current life memberships will be honored. If it is eventually decided to no longer offer new life memberships, all those who already have that status will continue uninterrupted.

I would like to use this opportunity to ask members who want to help the organization to think about taking on some very important duties. Dan Moses has served as Rendezvous coordinator for years and would like to hand those duties to a new generation. If anyone is interested in taking on these duties, contact Dan or me.

In addition, the association is also looking for individuals to take on the job of handling ANPR logo merchandising. If interested please let me know.