06/22/2018

Board approves change in dues; creates executive director search committee

The ONMA Board of Trustees has given conceptual approval to a new method of calculating members’ annual dues investment and created a search committee to seek a successor to Executive Director Dennis Hetzel in 2019.

Hetzel, who has led the ONMA since late 2010, has told the board that he and his wife plan to retire in April 2019 to their home in North Carolina.

“It’s a ‘sort-of’ retirement in my mind,” Hetzel said. “I hope to continue to contribute in various ways to the industry that has been part of my life since age 16. The opportunity to lead the ONMA has been an incredible honor. My primary goals now are to build on our legislative priorities for the rest of the year and for my successor to inherit an organization that’s on a solid financial footing with great plans and energy moving forward.”

The search committee plans to initiate efforts this summer with a goal of introducing the new executive director at the annual convention in February. Hetzel and his successor would work side-by-side for a period between February and early April.

ONMA Board President Monica Nieporte of APG Media of Ohio will lead the search committee that will include Terry Bouquot of Cox Media Group Ohio, Scott Champion of The Clermont Sun/Champion Media and Ron Waite of the Sandusky Register.

Regarding dues, the trustees met in Dayton last week and voted to support a plan offered by the ad hoc dues committee to make the following changes effective with 2019 dues invoicing:

• Dues will be based on where total external revenue falls into a range. Just as an example, total revenue in a range of $3 million to $5 million might equate to annual dues of $1,200. (In Ohio, this will be a number identical in most cases to what already is calculated to pay the state’s Commercial Activity Tax.) The board felt that this captures all activities of ONMA members better than the current method, which is a calculation based on the cost of a full-page ad and average weekly print circulation.
• For members that do not wish to disclose this information, they will pay whatever they paid in 2018 plus any small percentage increase the board approves.
• Group discounts will continue but be greatly simplified. Members with multiple Ohio titles will get a straight percentage discount as long as all of their in-state titles are members.
• There will be a “hold harmless” factor approved by the board so that no member experiences an increase in dues beyond a certain percentage. Some members will see dues reductions.

The Board of Trustees will consider a final plan at their October meeting in Sandusky.