NAHAD to extend board member terms for one year
By Rich Vurva
NAHAD members voted to extend the terms of current board members for an additional year at today’s annual membership meeting held online.
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| Sam Petillo, Singer Equities |
The virtual meeting became necessary when NAHAD’s Annual Convention scheduled to take place at the Atlantis in the Bahamas in April was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jeff Scheininger of Flexline, NAHAD’s first vice president, made the recommendation to freeze the existing slate of officers and board members for one year.
“In the absence of face-to-face board meetings, NAHAD loses out on the value of interactions between the board of directors,” Scheininger explained to members. “Additionally, it is difficult for new board members to gain traction, and new officers to move agenda items via more of the Zoom type meetings such as this. It is my feeling that the current president, who has served on the NAHAD board for 9 years, be given an opportunity to run a convention meeting.”
The motion overwhelmingly passed by a vote of members.
New board members whose terms would have begun in 2021 have agreed to postpone their start dates until 2022.
“Cancelling the NAHAD annual convention was an incredibly difficult decision but obviously one that we had to make,” said association president Sam Petillo of Singer Equities. “Part of the reason this was a difficult decision was because the convention has a tremendous impact on the association financially. However, we’re fortunate that NAHAD is in a sound financial position.”
Loss of convention revenues, and other financial impacts from COVID-19, will result in a projected 50 percent decline in revenues for 2020. According to Jason Westad of FORCE America, second vice president and treasurer, NAHAD’s originally budgeted revenues of $1.8 million are expected to decline to about $942,000 for the year. He added, however, that effective financial management will minimize the financial implications.
“Despite revenue being down 50 percent, NAHAD is only projecting a loss of a little over $111,000. There are a few variables still in play, but NAHAD’s staff did a remarkable job working with the Atlantis, our convention speakers and all of our vendors to mitigate charges for this year by negotiating for future conventions without penalty,” Westad said.
Future sites for the NAHAD convention include San Diego in 2021, Miami in 2022 and the Bahamas in 2023.
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