Rex Gambrell named 2008-2009 President of AAMD
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Changing only when change is necessary
I want to begin by thanking everyone who came to June Awards and for welcoming me into the AAMD presidency with such a special evening. I spoke briefly about my goals as President of AAMD, and would like to share them for those of you who were not able to attend last month.
Today, the Association is enjoying enormous success as a result of great leadership by our past presidents and their respective Boards. Throughout those years, the financial strength of the association has shown significant improvement.
For example, in the year 2000, the overall expense budget was a little over $900,000 as opposed to $1.8 million today. Membership revenues during that same time period increased from $340,000 to $600,000, and event revenues increased from a little over $170,000 to $770,000.
Those financial changes are just the tip of the iceberg as to the amount of improvements that we have experienced over the past several years. Like many others, I am a supporter of change.
However, I only believe in making change when change is necessary.
My goal during the upcoming year is to evaluate the processes and practices that we have in place today and determine what we can do better, what we need to continue, and what we need to eliminate.
Of course, I don't want to do this in a vacuum and will be looking for your support, suggestions and recommendations.
I believe that the Association is serving its core purposes in providing quality education, advocating legislatively on behalf of the industry, and providing networking opportunites.
However, I don't think that we are in any way perfect in how we are operating today. And if we want to continue encouraging our members to stay active in the association and volunteer their time on a committee, council or the board, then we need to ensure that we have the proper practices in place to guarantee success.
Specifically, I want to focus on how we move forward on handling tough legislative battles at the Capitol. This past year, our association benefited from a number of successes at the capitol, two of which included the defeat of the rent control bill and a more reasonable Warrant of Habitability bill.
There was a lot of hard work put into the Warrant of Habitability bill by our lobbyists, staff, and volunteers from JLAC along with the AAMD and CAA Boards. There were times when we did not all agree, but ultimately we have a bill in place that is much more acceptable to all of us.
We have seen the education department's revenues ebb and flow over the past couple of years. However, what truly matters is the amount of quality programs and instructors that have been put into place.
I believe that the newly formed Education Advisory Council will continue to make recommendations for change and improvements which will only enhance what is already in place. I want to work cohesively with them to ensure that we maximize what we can offer our membership.
With your help, I want to take a close look at all of our events and determine whether or not we are providing the right number at the right price, but more importantly focus on the quality rather than the quantity.
I truly believe that we are accomplishing our primary focus of education, legislation and networking. However, as a result of our significant growth and the many changes that we have experienced, I want to be sure that we don't lose our focus as to what is important to our membership.
We all have a stake in this Association, so I want to suggest that we take stock in where we are today, take a look at our past successes, and then move forward in making changes and improvements in our processes when necessary, while continuing to make this Association the best it can be.
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