At its recent meeting on March 22, 2018, the CFSA Board of Directors voted to increase the association’s annual membership dues by a modest amount. Starting with the new association year beginning June 1, 2018, each membership dues tier will increase by $100 per year. For those companies that pay quarterly dues, this will be an increase of $25 per quarter.
“CFSA last increased its membership dues in 1992 and 2007,” said CFSA President Rodney Robinson of Southern Craft Manufacturing. “So we’ve had only one dues increase in 26 years,” he added. CFSA Treasurer Mike Mims of Cherokee Casket Company noted, “Like all of our companies have experienced, costs to operate a business or a nonprofit organization have increased over that long of a time span, and we have not kept pace with minor adjustments to our membership dues revenue.”
CFSA Executive Director George Buckley said, “We are working aggressively at the staff level to reduce operating expenses and maximize efficiency, and this nominal dues increase will help us to continue to deliver the high quality services and programs our members expect. I hope our members will understand and accept the $25 quarterly increase.” Although this will be the first comprehensive dues increase since 2007, a “dues restructuring” of the membership tiers occurred in 2011. Ninety percent of CFSA member companies were not affected by the restructuring, but about 10% fell into a new dues category. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact George Buckley at 847-295-6630 or gbuckley@cfsaa.org.