I submit this report to the DPA membership
as my last act as Treasurer of the DPA. I'd like
to thank AAPG staff, specifically Norma Newby,
Bryan Haws and Jody Cox, for their assistance
through the last two years. Also, I'd like to thank
Debbie Osborne for her willingness to stand
for the position as she is your incoming DPA
Treasurer.
The DPA investment portfolio, which is part of the greater AAPG
investment portfolio, remains solid. As it is part of the National AAPG
portfolio, we just basically "ride along" and do not have direct control
of the types of investments, etc. As of February 2012 the fair market
value of the investment portfolio was approximately $630,000 … and
that is a good thing.
As for our yearly budget, we have a different story to tell. The last
five or so years the DPA yearly income versus expenses has been typically
$40,000 to $70,000 in the hole. Over this period, this has not been a
surprise and the yearly budget has typically been passed and accepted
as a deficit budget; fully aware that going into the coming year, income
would be significantly under expenses. There are a few reasons for that.
Membership (from a purely financial perspective, read: income) in DPA
has been lessening. Older members are retiring and in some cases
dropping membership and we are not finding the new members to take
their places. Expenses are on the rise. We all know that based on our own
personal lives and/or our companies' expenses. DPA is not immune from
rising prices. In 2006, the DPA began its program of partially funding the
GEO-DC office and the $60,000 (initially $50,000 and rose to $60,000 in
2009) is a substantial hit to the DPA bottom line.
This is not sustainable. As discussed above, we have a nest egg of
$630,000. And, again … that's a good thing. But, if we continue running
such yearly deficits we will erase that nest egg in roughly 12 years.
Given that the GEO-DC office was largely unstaffed (as David Curtis
is now the executive Director of AAPG), the DPA's portion of the office
expenses were prorated, and therefore, we were closer to balanced
budget this past fiscal year that we had been for some time.
So, what is the answer to DPA's budgetary issues? Good question.
If we are going to work on the issue from the income side, we need to
increase membership. Anyone reading this column can help to that end.
We all have colleagues that can and likely should join the DPA. We need
to get them into the DPA fold. From the expense side we've done a bit to
work on that, including assessing expenses related to DPA's meetings at
ACE each year.
Again, thanks for the opportunity to serve the DPA as Treasurer the
last two years.