LRA Membership Dues Increase
For those of you who were unable to attend the LRA’s Labor Day weekend general membership meeting, you may not have had the opportunity to learn about the increase in our annual membership dues for 2025. Here is a summary of the comments made at the meeting regarding this decision:
In accordance with Section X of our by-laws, LRA dues are recommended by the Executive Committee and set by a vote of the Trustees. Dues have been at the current level of $250 for ten (10) years since 2015. In 2015 the dues were increased from $200 to $250 or 25%. As we are all aware, costs have increased for virtually all items, and that includes costs borne by the LRA to fund our programmatic activities. As you heard or read from Anita as part of our finance report, we expect 2024 will end in a net zero cash flow – which is a good thing. Yet a net zero cash flow provides us no additional financial cushion. Headed into 2025 we expect to maintain a funded $100,000 reserve for unanticipated expenses or revenue shortfalls.
However, due to cost increases we anticipate that without a dues increase for 2025, it is likely we would be forced to use some of our $100,000 reserve for program costs. While we did not incur substantial extraordinary expenses associated with our successful objection to the Narrows rezoning, nor for the wake surf legislation, those black swan events are always a possibility, and we need to maintain our reserve for that type of expenditure.
Accordingly, the Trustees voted to approve a dues increase of 30% from $250 to $325 effective for 2025. As President, I both recommended and concurred with that decision. It satisfies our fiduciary responsibility, and through solid fiscal management the LRA has been a good steward of your funds, with no dues increases for a period of 10 years.
~ Pat Hickey
