The National Fraternal Congress of America Announces Its Strategic Priorities for 2006

12/19/05

OAK BROOK, IL – The Board of Directors of the National Fraternal Congress of America (NFCA) approved four strategic priorities for 2006 during its November 10-11, 2005, meeting, at the NFCA Headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois.

The NFCA Board of Directors refocused and renewed its priorities for 2006, as follows:

1. Preserve, protect and defend the federal 501(c)(8) tax exemption through all appropriate means.

2. Minimize the impact of failing societies on the fraternal benefit system and ensure that all member-societies are viable business entities.

3. [Serve as] an important source of fraternal industry knowledge, education programs and materials, while actively engaging individuals, public policymakers, and communities to achieve our goals.

4. Establish and enforce reasonable minimum membership standards that include best practices in management and governance, ethics, and fraternal and financial performance.

“The NFCA Board of Directors determined that these four main strategic priorities are where we should concentrate our efforts and resources for 2006,” said NFCA Chair of the Board, Michael J. Wade. “In cooperation with the NFCA staff, committees and member-societies, the Board will work to further these goals in the upcoming year.”

At the November 9, 2003, Board meeting in Appleton, Wisconsin, then-NFCA Chair Fred Ohlde stated, “From this point forward, the November Board meeting should be used to designate the [top] priorities of the NFCA. In turn, those priorities would be factored into the budget process.” The Board concurred and, since that time, has utilized the November Board meeting as a strategic planning session for the year ahead.

The 119-year-old NFCA unites 76 not-for-profit fraternal benefit societies operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. The association represents almost 10 million people in 36,000 local chapters, making it one of the continent’s largest member networks. Fraternal benefit societies provide their members with leadership, social, educational, spiritual, patriotic, scholarship, financial and volunteer-service opportunities. Combined, NFCA’s member-societies maintain more than $315 billion of life insurance in force and, in 2004 alone, contributed almost $390 million to charitable and fraternal programs. In addition, fraternalists volunteered approximately 91.5 million hours toward community-service projects during that same period.