Looking Back: Establishing Member Fees — 1981
July 12, 2021
The ceiling that had been placed on membership fees remained a point of contention among members.
Treasurer Dougherty said the ceiling should be raised to $220 million so that larger member companies would pay their share of increasing operating costs. Director Harry Johnson argued that the big three national companies would then be paying far more than their fair share, and this could prove counterproductive as smaller members could feel threatened by the perceived power that this financial support could give the big companies.
After a lengthy discussion, a two-tier formula for determining membership fees was worked out:
• the base membership fee remained unchanged at $500 per member
• a multiplier of .00012 was used for the first $200 million in sales
• a multiplier of .00003 for sales in excess of $200, not to exceed an additional $20 million
Recognizing that this formula was still not the long-term solution needed, the Board of Directors set up a task force to examine alternative fee structures and report their findings to the next annual general meeting.
At the February 1981 Directors meeting, President Nairn reported that he had assisted in reconstituting the Canadian Electrical Council. The council was made up of representatives from CEDA, CEA, EEMAC, CECA, and CAN, and was to represent the electrical industry in Canada. The council’s first mandate was to draw together information and statistics on Canada’s electrical industry and construct a brief to present to governments, media and various publics.
Mr. Nairn had pledged the participation and co-operation of CEDA in the restructured council, and his actions were unanimously endorsed by CEDA’s Board of Directors.
Source: CEDA: Fifty Years of Service – An Historical Review of the Canadian Electrical Distributors Association, 1934 to 1984, Kerrwil Publications. Please feel free to reach out to us any time if you have great photos, historical anecdotes or perspectives. We would love to hear from you.
