Hello Friends!

Fall has taken center stage bringing with it crisp evenings, changing leaves, and Friday night high school football, as well as preparations for the new year.   And suddenly it’s dark on the way to work, and dark on the way home too!

Since our last meeting, the ICBA board has been actively planning for the coming year, including succession planning, scheduling speakers for the Annual Conference, and putting the finishing touches on our education calendar for 2016.

Speaking of the Annual Conference – we have once again secured our event at the Little America on April 20, 2016.  If you have colleagues who are not yet members but could benefit from attending the Annual Conference, please encourage them to pursue membership – it will cost them less to join than to pay the difference for non-member registration for the Annual Conference and one additional program.  And I promise you – it will benefit them to attend.  We have what I think is the start of the best line-up of presenters ever.

Also a heads up that as you are preparing for your 2016 budgets, our ICBA Membership rates will be increasing by $10 to $200.  As you know, part of our revenue comes not only from the classes we sponsor locally, but also the webinars, classes and conferences you attend through WorldatWork.  We have seen a marked decline in class attendance the last couple of years.  This impacts our budget for future events.  Our board has made a focused effort to keep our expenses reasonable.  You may recall that we often send out reminders that for each WorldatWork class or event you register for you need to enter or mention the priority code LNPROMO2016.  By using that code WorldatWork then credits money back to our Association that is used to continue to provide classes, events, and other compensation and benefits programs for our members. 

We’ll be back at Little America for our upcoming meeting on November 18 where we will hear from Susan Grassli, ACA Compliance Director at GBS.  Susan will be providing a critical and timely presentation on ACA Reporting.  As many of you know, large employers (50 or more employees) who sponsor group health plans will be filing and furnishing new information to both their employees and the IRS.  Come learn about the new forms, the requirements, the reporting methods and more!

As always, if you have any suggestions, updates, or information on any subject that you feel might be of interest to others and you would like to share that information, or see it in the newsletter, website or our social media sites, please feel free to send an email.  We look forward to seeing you at our program in November!

Kathleen Lund

ICBA President

kmlund@afstores.com