The AM Forum

From the ARRL Web Site:
"The ARRL Annual Report for 2008, now available online and in print, reviews the major events of the year and documents the renewed growth of both the ARRL and the activities of the Amateur Radio Service. In 2008, the ARRL experienced a growth in membership, ending the year with 154,627 members, an increase of a little more than 1 percent from 2007. The growth was the greatest among International members and in the League's Northwestern, Rocky Mountain and Delta Divisions."

To view the complete 2008 Annual Report, go here:
http://www.arrl.org/announce/annualreport/2008/2008-Annual-Report.pdf

Pete,

Well, looks like it's time to take a look again... ;D


I see a $3.1 million loss from their stock and bond speculations in 2008.  They also took an additional pension fund hit for their employees. (poor bastards)  I wonder if their real estate holdings have been reevaluated and devalued 20% this last year.... probably not.

I remember we'd talked about Credit Susse or some disco duck bank talking them into doing short term stock speculation to make up for losses last year. Looks like that didn't work out too well.

They said that they are in GOOD financial shape. What I can't figure out is the "total assets" - "total liabilities"  = a NEGATIVE net worth of   
-$409,378.  The "()" means negative on their statement.   What's "good" financially about that?

Could somebody recheck this? They had a net worth of about $2.4 million a few years ago - has this speculation and mkt drop put them negative?  I see they STILL call it "unrealized loss." 

My real question is: Did their 2007 net assets go from +$6.950 million  to   -$409K in 2008?  (see pages 27 and 28, Statement of Activities)

One thing to make note of is this is a snapshot of Dec 31st, 2008. Since then the mkt has gotten much worse, but then has come back and is now at about the same level as when this report was written.  So we're about where the report says we are now.

Sure hope the mkt rallies and puts them back in the black!


I'm not an accountant, so could be wrong about what I'm seeing.

T

Maybe they invested heavily with Bernie Madoff

Looks like for 2008, the League took the entire hit of roughly $3M on their investment losses and roughly $4M on the pension plan investment losses. So, as you said, all their assets minus all their liabilities does put them in the red for about $1/2 M as far as their 2008 financial picture.  Probably not a lot they could have done near term on the losses as many stocks tanked very quickly. But, in the long run, a $1/2 M bottom line loss, considering how bad some other organizations got hit to their bottom line, probably isn't all that bad. Of course, I would hope that they have made some changes to their investment strategy going forward.

FYI, this was on the Financial Summary page: "...the ARRL did experience a significant loss of value in its investment portfolio and, in addition, the assets held in the company’s pension plan. While the League’s own portfolio still totaled almost $12.5 million at the end of 2008, there had been unrealized losses of $3.1 million during the year. A similar impact in the portfolio of the ARRL’s pension plan also caused the organization to take a non-cash charge in the Statement of Activities."

Anybody want to buy some AIG stock  ;D