Janis,

By now, you should have received a private email message from the chairperson of our Public Relations Committee seeking to address your concerns.  Since you have chosen to air your grievances publicly, I find it fitting to respond in kind.

I will be the first to congratulate you if you can find another national conference with a lower cost to members.  $100.00 for a two-day conference (lunch, snacks and welcome reception included) does not seem like a bad deal to me at all.  NALTEA will not be making any money on the conference.  NALTEA will be subsidizing the conference in recognition of the flagging market abstractors have endured for the past few years.

For the price of $89.00 per day, you can enjoy lodging with a hot buffet breakfast included in the hotel's dining room.  Not bad.  If you take a look at our conference agenda, you will find topics that might open some doors to new business that might lead to additional revenue - far more in opportunity than you can expect to lay out to attend the conference.

As far as your never haveing heard a word from us, I have this to say:  At minimum, we were in contact with you each month with our newsletter.  We sent you an invitation to our webinar.  We sent you a member referendum seeking your vote on whether we should move the annual conference from January to October (you actually answered that one).  There have been numerous other communications during the period of your membership.  Perhaps some of them went to your spam folder, but you did reply to one. 

I remember hearing (though the grapevine, I believe) of your discontent with NALTEA.  I also remember, as chairperson of the Membership Committee at the time, personally trying to contact you by phone on at least two different occasions.  You did not return the messages I left seeking to address your concerns.

We have a few people working extremely hard to provide value to our members.  Those who are making the effort are also running their own successful businesses at the same time.  Having our efforts called a TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY does nobody any good.  I hope those reading this will take the time to judge the value of NALTEA for themselves, and those with new ideas and energy will contribute to making NALTEA the best it can be.

Sincerely,

Pat Scott, NALTEA President