IABC, the International Association of Business Communicators, now has a surplus.
Excellent news.
If you aren't familiar with IABC, you may be scratching your head. A few years ago, the association's leadership discovered serious problems in the association's finances. The association was running at a loss and, believe it or not, the association's chairman and finance director just sort of stumbled over this salient fact by accident -- they asked questions no one had thought to ask before ("Uhm... how much money do we have in the bank?").
Since then, IABC has struggled to survive. 500 members injected $1000 each to keep IABC afloat*. International conference has been shortened. IABC staff have gone without raises and have had to cover work they didn't sign on for. IABC president Julie Freeman has had the thankless -- and one hopes she gets a lot of thanks now -- task of managing the demands of critical officers** while providing services to members and keeping her staff from abandoning the boat.
And, now, the deficit is retired.
IABC Chairman Warren Bickford, IABC Treasurer Scott Cytron, and IABC President Julie Freeman have done good work. Thank you.
*but we did get membership for life.
**I was IABC's first elected Treasurer.
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I'm surprised to learn that the 500 club actually got 500 members.
BAK
I think it's topped out at around 400. You won't find staff pushing it, but it's one of the best deals going.
Staff hates the 500 Club. One VP worked tirelessly to can it from the start, and managed to do so for about about six months.
Hmmm. Seems like IABC experienced the same kind of financial mismanagement as certain webagencies did in the start 2000s.
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