December 4, 1998

The APA Assembly has voted to recommend a one-time amnesty for members who have been dropped for nonpayment of dues.

If the Board of Trustees approves the proposal at its December meeting, it would take effect in January 1999 and would last for one year only. The measure specifies that any member who takes advantage of this amnesty would not be eligible for any other dues amnesty program in the future, should it be offered.

APA tightened its dues grace period at the beginning of the year by decreasing it from 18 months to 12 months during which a member can retain membership benefits without having paid dues. Members who have not paid their dues are notified by the APA Office of Membership every other month that they are in arrears.

In addition to disagreement over whether a dues amnesty is a good idea, there was debate on the floor of the Assembly as to how the policy would work if district branches (DBs) do not also agree to provide an amnesty. The APA central office, which implements policies set by the Board of Trustees, can urge the district branches to provide the amnesty but cannot make them do so, members of the Assembly observed. The APA Operations Manual, which lays out the policies enacted by the Board of Trustees, notes that all members must belong to both the APA national organization and their district branch. But barring a change in policy, the dues amnesty would be voluntary on the part of the district branches.

Mary Marrocco, M.D., the Assembly liaison to the APA Membership Committee and Area 2 representative to the Committee of Early Career Psychiatrists, urged support for the measure and expressed optimism that it would be approved by the Board of Trustees. Although compliance is voluntary, Marrocco added, "we are hoping [the DBs] will go along with it and understand that this is a way to welcome back members who would not otherwise rejoin."

The rejoining members will be required to pay for the year up front.

Some members argued against the measure on grounds that it would mean APA was foregoing potential revenue. But Marrocco pointed out that absent the amnesty, most of the members in arrears would be lost to APA completely, a far worse outcome than having the Association swallow the loss of one year's dues.

"I want to point out that this is not a loss of revenue," said Marrocco. "This is money we don't have. The other thing that is important to get across is that the majority of people this would affect are not people who have maliciously tried to bilk APA out of benefits without paying. Rather, they are people who assumed that if they did not pay the bill, they were not members of APA any more. But their bills accrued for two years."

One concern of members opposed to the measure was that people who had paid their dues would feel this was unfair to them, that the measure was rewarding fiscal irresponsibility, Marrocco noted. Some see it as "a moral issue," but others stress that "we are not here to decide on the morality of our colleagues," she observed.

"I think the Board will be able to see that it's not a loss at all," Marrocco told Psychiatric News. "You can only win. If you get five people back, you've won."

But not everyone agreed. Robert Denney, M.D., of Fort Worth, Tex., who represents the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians, spoke out strongly against the measure.

"We are losing membership," he told Psychiatric News, and taking steps to retain members is a positive goal. Creating an amnesty program, however, implies that APA should retain those members who have failed to pay their dues. Members who are dropped may be deadbeats, he added.

Denney was particularly troubled by the fact that in order for the measure to work, the district branches must agree to provide an amnesty in accord with amnesty granted for national APA dues.

"A lot of people don't really understand what the arrangement is between the DB and APA," he noted. "If you don't pay your dues to either organization, you cannot be a member of either organization."

The district branches have long been concerned about the disconnect between them and the national policies enacted by the Board of Trustees, said Denney. "It is a source of irritation in the DBs that [APA] acts independently of its constituency."

The consequences of a lack of consensus could result in further frustration for members who erroneously believe they are once again in good standing because the Board of Trustees has approved a dues amnesty.

Denney noted that the district branches, unlike the national APA, rely almost entirely on dues. "The dues are practically the only way that DBs support themselves," he said. "So anything that makes an impact on that has a very direct fiscal impact on most DBs."

The district branches already have an effective procedure for requesting dues reduction and dues forgiveness on a case-by-case basis, Denney noted. That process allows the district branches to "weed out the real deadbeats" and provide amnesty to those who deserve it, he contended.