Armbruster believes that there will be membership increases in coming years due to new initiatives to market the Association to current and potential members and to provide products and services useful to a broad array of agricultural economists. That included dividends, interest and unrealized capital gains from our portfolios. Noticeable changes in income and expenses from 1996 were lower revenue from Choices due to the Best of Choices income being included in 1996 and expenses in 1997, and the addition of RAE as a new AAEA activity in 1997. He noted increases in revenue from increased ads on the web page, from larger attendance and higher registration fees for the annual meeting, and an increase in dividends and interest from the growing value of the portfolio. Executive and Foundation boards have established a new committee to work with a professional financial advisor to manage the portfolios.
Choices continues to operate smoothly and is widely recognized beyond our profession.
The board and the business office continue to look for opportunities to improve it as a principal AAEA outreach mechanism. Harry Ayer's seven-year term as editor ends in December 1999. A search for a new editor will be underway by early next year. The current RAE editors are completing their two-year term. The AJAE editorial team of Giancarlo Moschini, Kathleen Segerson, Richard Sexton and Spiro Stefanou has established a process to facilitate manuscript processing.