After much debate, APA's Board of Trustees voted at a meeting in Washington, D.C., last month to freeze dues for Fiscal 1997 rather than institute a small, cost-of-living increase as it has done in recent years.

The actions were part of APA's annual budget process, which concludes when the Board takes a final vote on the budget in December.

Although the proposed cost-of-living increase would have amounted to an average of about only $15 per member, it was of more than symbolic importance for the Board to freeze dues, said Trustee-at-Large Carol Bernstein, M.D.

Opponents of the dues freeze, including APA President Harold Eist, M.D., argued that holding dues steady would have no real impact on individual members but would deprive the Association of the means to carry out projects potentially more valuable in the long run.

The measure forces the Board to exercise greater fiscal discipline in choosing among a host of competing priorities, Bernstein contended.

"I think it has been almost impossible for this Board to really take a good, hard look at the budget and ways that we can be cutting back in order to close the budget gap that [Budget Committee Chair Donald Scherl, M.D.] talked about. I don't think we've done that. I don't think the answer is to raise the dues for the membership."

APA's members "are hurting," said Treasurer Fred Gottlieb, M.D. Although the amount of the proposed dues increase was modest, members have told him they have a sense "of being nibbled away." Linking the dues freeze to little or no increase in expenditures sends a message to members that the Board is being fiscally responsible, Gottlieb said.

Several Trustees suggested imposing a one-time, mandatory assessment to offset the loss of revenue caused by the dues freeze, but they failed to win support.

Although the Board's action holds dues steady for 1997, some members will notice an increase in the amount owed on their 1997 dues statement, explained Office of Membership Director Kristine Bieg.

"Within the first eight years of general membership, dues increase on a graduated scale, with small increases each year," said Bieg. "For example, a member moving into the second year of general membership will see the rate increase from $165 to $215."

The graduated dues scale was implemented several years ago as a way to help members building new careers and paying off school loans to move gradually toward paying the full dues amount for general membership, she noted.

In a related matter, the Board voted to approve an executive action taken by Eist, Speaker of the Assembly Dale Walker, M.D., and Medical Director Melvin Sabshin, M.D., to establish a voluntary "Fund for Parity." APA dues statements for 1997 will include a "checkoff box" where members can indicate their willingness to make a contribution at the time they pay their 1997 dues. The suggested contribution is $10.

The Board also voted to increase APA's member and staff travel per diem to equal that allowed by the federal government for employees on travel in Washington, D.C.

(Psychiatric News, October 18, 1996)