In May or June after the Summit each year, the National Executive Group gathers at the Connecticut AAAA National Office to review and assess our organization’s posture and status, and to discuss and chart the next couple of years activities and initiatives.
The NEG consists of four elected officers: me as president, MG (Ret.) Wally Golden as senior vice president, BG (Ret.) Tim Edens as treasurer and MG (Ret.) Todd Royar as secretary. It also includes our two appointed vice presidents – CW4 (Ret.) Becki Chambers, VP for membership, and LTC (Ret.) Jan Drabczuk, VP for chapters.
This year after Becki and Jan briefed membership and chapter programs and initiatives, the four elected officers focused on the review and assessment of the AAAA national business model. Specifically, we reviewed the membership dues structure (which has not changed since 1998, in either corporate or individual member dues), AAAA national event topics, and our event/forum registration policies and fees for both exhibitors and individuals.
The good news is that the AAAA is in the strongest position it has ever been in terms of membership (which is at an all-time high of over 21,000) and fiscal position (currently have net assets financially at a record level). That said, questioning what our future organizational vulnerabilities could be, and discussing what efforts and programs were required to ensure we ‘survive and thrive’ organizationally, help bound our focus and energy during the review.
First, although our Annual Summit has grown substantially over the years, the inflation in vendor costs, especially since COVID, has outpaced our increased exhibit sales. Our smaller events (Aviation Survivability, Luther Jones, and Cribbins) are losing money; the positive Annual Summit net revenue each year is what solely underwrites all the other shortfalls in membership dues and smaller-event net revenues.
The vulnerability here is that if we must cancel another Summit (or two… as occurred during COVID), we have to ensure our Emergency Fund is robust enough to sustain the organization for two straight years, without any Summit income/revenue. We are currently at $4.6M on the way to the ceiling of $7.01M in the Emergency Fund that will be required to meet the two-year self-sustaining goal. And yes, we do in fact still have event cancellation Insurance (those policies yielded over $6M in total to AAAA for the cancelled 2020 and 2021 Summits), but now those policies going forward specifically exclude any ‘pandemic’ coverage, which is no longer available to any organization.
In a comparative analysis, we assessed like/similar military organizations and associations to determine how AAAA fit and compared; it did not take much to figure out that even just considering inflation since 1998, we had some further work and analysis to do. We certainly don’t have all the answers yet but are working them… and we will propose a plan to the full National Executive Board at the November meeting in Huntsville. Likewise, we assessed where we stood regarding exhibitor fees and policies, and we will be recommending some changes there as well.
Although we are enjoying record-setting metrics now, our assessment is that we have to pivot from our financial dependance on one positive revenue event, the AAAA Annual Summit. We must ensure that our great organization is protected long into the future, and to continue to provide world class support to you all, our Army Aviation Soldiers and Families, no matter what.
MG Walt Davis, U.S. Army Retired
36th President, AAAA
