Thank you for your support of the American Society of Military Comptrollers and for your service to our nation. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve you and to support the advancement of the military comptrollership profession.

Over the past 68 years ASMC has provided resources and opportunities, enhancing the development and career progression of our membership. With over 35,000 financial managers achieving their DoD FM Certification, ASMC’s local chapter and national professional development opportunities provide added value to the Department and to our membership in providing opportunities to obtain Continuing Education and Training (CET) units, in meeting requirements to earn 40, 60, or 80 CETs every two years to maintain their DFMCP certification at Levels 1, 2, or 3. While maintaining a modest level of dues, we continue to focus on providing value to its members. In fact, while operating costs have increased year after year, ASMC has not increased its individual membership rates over the past 11 years.

Membership dues are a vital source of funding our operations toward achieving our strategic goals and initiatives. After careful consideration, the ASMC National Executive Committee (NEC) approved a recommendation from the Executive Director to increase membership dues as a means of maintaining our high-quality offerings, delivering important benefits, and supporting our strategic initiatives. This decision to ask for your additional support was carefully weighed and is a critical step in the growth of ASMC. Factors considered by the NEC included comparison of membership dues in other professional associations; the current costs of seminars, conferences, and individual college or university courses; and the timing and amount of past increases in membership dues.

To continue providing you with the level of quality service you expect and deserve, and to strengthen and expand the programs ASMC provides, effective 1 January 2017 annual membership dues will increase from $26 to $40 and three-year membership dues will increase from $75 to $114. If you recently joined ASMC or renewed your membership (for one or three years), your dues will not increase until your membership “paid thru” date. However, from now through the end of 31 December 2016, current members (as of 5 October 2016) may elect to purchase (at the current dues rate) a “one time” renewal of membership (for either one or three years), thus extending your membership paid thru date for 12 or 36 months. Prior to 1 January 2017, “non-members” of ASMC may join our Society for one or three years at current fees. Even with this increase in annual dues, ASMC will continue to have the lowest membership fees among professional associations that provide training, education, and certification programs.

Current Membership Value and Enhancements

We believe our members receive great value at the current dues rate and will continue to receive great value at the new rate. ASMC provides national, regional, and local chapter professional development and education offerings; CDFM (with Acquisition specialty) certification program; Defense News Highlights; quarterly Armed Forces Comptroller journal; and the National PDI (for those approved by their organizations to participate). We are currently working with a test developer to complete the CDFM and CDFM-A exam updates and we will also be revising the associated textbooks. We are redesigning and updating our ASMC National Website. As a member, you will continue to receive special registration rates for the National PDI and member rates for CDFM Program enrollment, textbooks, and recertification. To see the full list of member benefits, please visit www.asmconline.org/membership/benefits.

ASMC continues to further increase the value of membership. Members can look forward to the following enhancements that will provide additional value:

  • Engage.
    • ASMC member groups will be able to communicate, ask questions, and share best practices via a collaboration platform called “Engage.” We will establish groups (budgeteers, accountants, auditors, cost analysts, etc) wherein members of each group can share resources and collaborate on subjects of interest.
    • From an internal perspective, we will establish groups (including Chapter Presidents; Treasurers; and Chairs of Programs, Membership, and Certification to better enable chapters to communicate internally and to connect with other chapters. Engage will enable chapters to share best practices in areas such as conducting Regional or Mini-PDIs, programs, growth and development, and certification.
    • ASMC will have an Early Careerist group and we will fund some chapter-level early careerist engagement and outreach activities.
  • Chapter Websites. As part of our Website redesign project, we will provide a new website template, enabling chapters that do not have a website to develop one.
  • Association Management System (AMS). Originally installed in 2007, our AMS needs to be updated. Over the next few years, ASMC will conduct an analysis of alternatives, data cleansing, and upgrade or migration to a new AMS. The new system is essential to ASMC's future – not only from an operational standpoint in providing tools and functionality needed to more efficiently manage the organization, but most importantly, to support our ability to provide the best customer service possible for our members in the years ahead. With this major upgrade, members will have access to better membership renewal and recertification platforms, as well as an improved member profile function. The new system will also help us automate to serve members more effectively without sacrificing “personal” service.
  • We thank our current and past chapter presidents and officers for your dedication and service to the profession of defense financial management. Chapter rebates for membership joins and renewals after 1 January 2017 will increase to 20 percent from current 19% and 16% levels for annual and three-year memberships, thus providing increased funding to enable chapters to provide additional benefits to members.
  • ASMC will explore methods to expand its educational offerings and provide additional professional development opportunities and learning resources to our membership.

We greatly value your loyalty to ASMC and trust you appreciate the value of your membership. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reply. You may also visit www.asmconline.org/dues-increase-faq to view info regarding membership fees.

To renew your membership now, please visit www.asmconline.org/membership/renew.

I am confident you will find stronger value in the changes we are making and I look forward to your continuing loyalty and support of ASMC.

Sincerely,

Al Runnels, CDFM-A
Executive Director, ASMC