Last year we had the honour to be elected President and Vice-President respectively of ACBI and we accepted the challenges facing the association by building a very strong Executive Board, comprising members committed to the future of ACBI and the trade. We feel it has added a new strength to the direction of your association.
Undoubtedly, these are difficult times for us all. But we never needed a strong support and representative association more than now, as calls to our office confirm.
But we also appreciate that as you look at your costs in January you may say; do I need ACBI?
Well, first off ACBI needs you.
And we need to be in a position to support all members when they need us, as we do with the many members who benefit from our services and advice every week
We will play our part. The membership subscription will be reduced to €600 in 2010 (back to the 2007 level) and significant cutbacks in our overhead, including salaries have been implemented. Obviously we want to protect services to members at all costs.
But we are appealing to you to stick with your national association at this time. There are some issues outside our control arising from the recession in the economy and there are some limits to what we can do. And if there is any way we can improve our service to you we would be glad to hear from you direct.
But there is a lot we can do and we have lots of resources we can help your business. And if you are not availing of those services to the maximum, or maybe not at all, take advantage of them and see how they can help! Many members get their subscription back several times over by availing of our services.
We feel ACBI has done a good job in its first ten years and we hope to continue that service to the trade in whatever form it has to take in the next. But our strength lies in standing together now more than ever.
Our primary concern is the future of ACBI and the trade.
So finally, let's stand together in this crisis and protect both the traditions and future of our trade in our national organisation.
And of course if you are not a member of your national association we can help you through this crisis. Join Us.
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