The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2024 - 4

FROM THE PRESIDENT
Finances, Programs, and Appointees:
Running ATA Responsibly
O
GEOFF KOBY
president@atanet.org
To remain a
strong voice
advocating for
professional
translators and
interpreters
and to offer a
wide variety
of continuing
education
opportunities,
ATA must
also remain
financially
sound.
ne of the primary
duties of ATA's
Board of Directors
and officers is to exercise
its " fiduciary duty " -that
is, when carrying out our
duties as volunteer leaders,
to always act in ATA's best
interests. This includes
ensuring that ATA's financial
" house " is in order, making
decisions about new
and ongoing programs,
and carefully reviewing
appointees to committees
and other positions.
The Board met, as has been
its practice, in November at
ATA's Annual Conference
in Portland, Oregon, giving
attendees the opportunity
to observe the Board doing
its work. After welcoming its
newly elected members-
Andy Benzo (president-elect)
and Board directors Jessie Liu,
Romina Marazzato Sparano,
and Jaime Russell (three-year
terms) and Isabel Asensio
(one-year term)-the Board
got straight to business.
Here, I'd like to highlight
some important actions that
occurred at the most recent
Board meeting.
Finances and Dues: As a
sound business practice,
ATA regularly reviews its
finances and adjusts its
prices as necessary. The
Board has a policy in place
that was implemented to
adjust dues based on normal
(pre-pandemic) inflation
and has kept dues as stable as
possible. But like many other
associations, businesses, and
individuals, including our
members, ATA's finances
4 The ATA Chronicle | November/December 2024
have been challenged by
rising costs due to unusual
levels of inflation. In
addition, the new association
management system at ATA
Headquarters, which was
necessary because ATA's IT
resources had become quite
outdated, incurred significant
startup costs. In response to
these unusual factors, the
Board reviewed and adopted
a supplemental budget
developed by Treasurer
Robin Bonthrone that will
both reduce expenditures
and increase revenue to keep
ATA's ongoing operations on
a solid financial footing.
Membership dues fund
many programs at ATA,
in addition to paying the
administrative expenses
of running the Association.
The Annual Conference is
intended to be fully selfsupporting
(and changes
are being made to move
closer to this goal), and our
professional development
program has become
profitable. However, other
areas-divisions, The ATA
Chronicle, certification, and
membership services-are
all subsidized to a greater
or lesser extent from dues
revenues. The Certification
Program is moving closer to
being self-supporting, and
we are scrutinizing expenses
in this area (and all others)
and will be cutting where we
can, but the Board decided it
was necessary to implement
a dues increase ($32 per year
for individuals), as follows:
y Active, Associate, and
Corresponding members,
from $249 to $281 per year.
y Life members, from $125 to
$146 per year.
y Institutional members,
from $306 to $339 per year.
The Board decided to
decrease dues for Student
members slightly, from $109
to $99 per year, and also
decided to implement a new
set of rates for our corporate
members, replacing the
previous $453 flat rate with
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The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2024

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