JR

I read DB's notes. Both you and he missed the whole point of the original post.

AMA is not and has never been in defecit financing, at least not for any period of time. If AMA really was in defecit financing, the cash (And assets equivalent to cash) would go down. (That means lower, less posiitive). Instead they went up. (Higher, more positive) by $400K. Proof. Look at the AUDITED statements, cash flow. The balance went up about $400K, Dec 2001 to Dec 2002. Oh, it also happened in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998 more or less. That's where the $10M we spent on Muncie came from. It sure didn't come from running a defecit of $400K annually!!!! (Sure, I'll take my credit card bill to Wal-Mart and get some merchandise for it- try that sometime if you really think we got $10M for Muncie by running a defecit!)

The "defecit" is an accounting not a cash defecit. The insurance cost increase doesn't even come close to justifying the amount of dues increase.

There is a real and positive benefit of us socking away $400K a year toward future issues and there are some disadvantages. We currently have about $8M in cash or near-cash and $3M in debt, for net cash of $5M. Members need to understand the financials and understand them accurately, then decide for ourselves whether we need to continue to save $400-500K cash annually. Currently, my opinion is that this critical decision is being made by a few leaders at AMA and most members don't know (and perhaps don't care) or simply take the words of people like DB at face value. No, he's not lying- he's just being deliberately imprecise.

Bob