10/29/2019

President’s Letter

The current state of the Association of Financial Technology is as strong as ever. Attendance is high, membership is high, and AFT is in a terrific financial position with a healthy reserve fund. The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) benchmarking study suggests that healthy organizations keep 50% or more of one-year’s revenue in reserves in case of catastrophic economic events or disruption of a primary revenue driver (i.e., cancelation of a conference). AFT has 86% of one-year revenues in assets.

The association is highly dependent on summit revenues. Summit registration and sponsorship dollars represent two-thirds of total revenues – a good reason to carry solid reserves in case of interruption of any of these revenue lines

Our Membership and Marketing Committee has done an excellent job driving membership activity through the board and the industry. Our total membership is at nearly a 10 year high with 113 member companies. AFT is enjoying steady Summit attendance, as we are consistently near 200 total attendees and around 155-160 core attendees. This fall, we set a new record in attendance at 168 core attendees (attendees - guests).

Our Program Committee has been doing a great job to align appropriate speakers, panel discussions and interactive sessions to delight our members. Our summit satisfaction remains remarkably high averaging 4.5 out of 5 over the past 10 years.

Lastly, I am particularly proud of the work AFT does for member companies’ employees, and their children’s education. The organization continues to invest into the AFT Scholarship Fund, this year granting five $2,500 scholarships to winners from member companies’ families.

My key initiative during my tenure on the board, and as President, is to continue the tradition of AFT while leveraging our talented board’s strengths to find new ways to make AFT better. Examples of this include rebranding AFT, creating an Annual Report to send to members, and setting a new tradition by investing in the communities we visit for Summits by participating in a board charity event. AFT continues to focus on our core mission, “The Association for Financial Technology is the financial technology industry’s premier resource for networking and professional development, ensuring the success of all financial institutions.”

I am forever grateful to the board members for their incredibly active involvement on their committees to ensure AFT remains relevant. I am also grateful to the staff at ME (Karl, Leah and Robina) for their hard work to make AFT great.

Respectfully,

Steve DuPerrieu
Board of Directors, President