Proposed Change:  11-01-09

ARTICLE VII.  MEMBERSHIP

Section 4.  Life Memberships in the National Reining Horse Association is considered an individual membership and will no longer be available subsequent to 12/31/08. is also available. Dues for a life membership shall be set by the Board of Directors. Life memberships sold and issued prior to 12/31/08 will be honored for the duration of the life of the life member.  

 

Intent of Proposal (include additional pages as necessary) 

Existing lifetime memberships will not be impacted by this proposal.  

Many associations and other entities are moving away from lifetime memberships due to the financial commitment of servicing such a membership over such a long period of time. NRHA lifetime memberships have an estimated useful life of 30 years currently, and this membership must be serviced for at least this estimated time frame, without any additional source of membership funding to cover the actual cost of supporting the lifetime membership for its entire life, in an economy that has consistent and unpredictable inflation and rate of return on investments. All of the factors that determine the proper valuation of a current lifetime membership, such as forecasted future costs (membership and Reiner portion), rate of return on investments, internal cost of capital, and inflation rate are very hard to predict decades in advance. 

For example, who could have accurately predicted 30 or 40 years ago the cost of a gallon of gas or milk?  

Elimination of lifetime memberships will insure annual members will not be asked to cover the cost of a funding deficit resulting from underfunded lifetime membership costs due to an under priced lifetime membership sold decades earlier that became under funded due to economic assumptions that changed from the date the original lifetime membership was sold.

 see the NRHA members only page at www.nrha.com to comment on this issue