Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 3
ABA Now and in Days to Come: News from the ABA Executive Council
By Dr. Thomas Critchfield, ABA President
Concluding Remarks
The preceding is not a complete accounting of all that will happen within ABA during the coming few years. Although the Council attempts to provide focus and leadership, much of the Association’s important business takes place through the boards and committees that are part of ABA’s organizational structure and through the affiliate chapters and special interest groups that members organize and maintain to address specialized interests. You can learn more about these groups HERE. News about their accomplishments appears regularly in the ABA Newsletter.
Note, too, that the initiatives described here are predicated on current understanding of the forces that affect the Association and our field. If circumstances change, ABA priorities will change as well. For example, recently ABA has enjoyed an increase in resources (e.g., through membership growth) during a time of relatively stable expenses, but this state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely. Recall that the annual convention is ABA’s main source of revenue. Under the current convention model, expenses are kept very low, meaning that a portion of registration revenue can be applied to year-round initiatives. Moving the annual meeting to a convention center, however, might substantially increase costs. Another practical hurdle is that, as a result of growth in membership and operations, the ABA office is starting to strain at its seams in terms of both space and staffing. Expanding the office to accommodate ABA’s growing operations also could increase expenses. These are only two ways in which meeting the growing needs of ABA members will require additional resources.
Presumably, no one is opposed to such noble goals as keeping convention presentation opportunities as widely available as possible; spreading positive messages about behavior analysis in the media and across scholarly communities; maintaining enough administrative infrastructure to serve members well; and so forth. A question that must be faced, however, is how ABA will support – in practical terms – diverse initiatives like those I have described. In coming years, the Council and the ABA office will keep a close eye on financial statements. Because the available evidence suggests that ABA already provides members with more for their money than most comparable organizations, increased efficiency can only take us so far. Instead, keeping abreast of member needs may require diversifying ABA’s revenue sources. This is something else that will receive a lot of the Council’s attention in coming years.
Without a doubt, the next few years in ABA will be interesting ones. Watch your ABA Newsletter for more information as the saga unfolds.