The Oklahoma Bar Journal May 2024

The deferred maintenance costs were huge, the updates to technology were costly, and we needed to upgrade our salary schedule to ensure we could keep the talented staff who had stayed with us during the lean years. The OBA is now at a crossroads. The choice is either to stay with meeting the current needs or to let things decline and later play catch-up. I have worked for three different organizations, and my experience has been that playing catch-up costs significantly more in the end. For example, currently, the 20-year-old roof needs replacing. Defer that, and next, you will be pay ing repair costs for water damage, some of which has already occurred. The current association manage ment software that allows members to perform multiple tasks online has aged and will not support new functionalities that would enhance member online services. In the end, the OBA will spend more, and mem bers’ dollars will lose value if a dues increase does not occur now. You can pay now or later. Later costs more. I think I earned the reputation of being tight with a dollar. First, I always considered that the money belonged to the members, and I had a fiduciary duty to spend it wisely. Second, I paid dues just like everyone else. Third, the finances are ultimately controlled by the Supreme Court, and every

NOTICE OF HEARING ON PROPOSED DUES INCREASE

Monday, May 20, 2024 | 4 p.m. Oklahoma Bar Center 1901 N. Lincoln Blvd. Oklahoma City

Following careful analysis and consideration of the association’s long term financial outlook, the OBA Board of Governors has proposed that, effective Jan. 1, 2025, membership dues be increased from $275 to $400 for those who have been members more than three years and from $137.50 to $200 for those who have been members for three years or less. If approved by the OBA House of Delegates, this would be the first increase in OBA membership dues in 20 years. A public hearing has been set for Monday, May 20, 2024, from 4-5 p.m. In addition, members are invited to make written comments to OBA President Miles Pringle, P.O. Box 53036, Oklahoma City, OK 73152, or by email to president@okbar.org.

single penny of expenses has to be justified. It’s time to stay up. In today’s dol lars, it would take $451 to be equiv alent to the $275 dues in 2004. When taking inflation into consideration, OBA members have actually had a dues decrease every year for the last 20 years. It’s now time to catch up and stay up or eventually play catch-up at a significantly greater cost.

It is my association, too. My experience tells me we need to catch up with inflation and increase the dues to $400. We will still be paying less in real dollars than the last dues increase in 2004. It’s a bargain too good to pass up.

John Morris Williams served as OBA executive director from 2003 to 2022.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL