Since our “Golden” Era, NCRA’s membership has decreased tens of thousands, and this current board’s great idea is to do away with the Retired Lifetime Membership category to build up the bank account?

The current bylaws say that if you’ve been a member for 30 consecutive years and you are no longer engaged in verbatim reporting, that you’re eligible to become a Retired Lifetime Member.  The proposed amendment is now getting hyper-technical about what it takes to qualify for retired status, and, oh, by the way, if you manage to thread the needle and qualify, you get to pay half-price until you die. 

So let’s translate this for a second.  What leadership appears to be saying is that they’ve thrown in the towel on growing membership or winning back the tens of thousands who’ve quit because leadership hasn’t met their needs.  And so now the BIG IDEA is to make more money by punishing the members who have been loyal for at least 30 years!!!