That’s the best way to relate to the last time the Kentucky Press Association had a dues increase.

It was part of a three-year plan --1981-82-83 -- by the Board to increase KPA dues that hopefully hadn’t gone two previous decades without dues being increased.

I’d even bet that half of today’s newspapers employees were in school the last time KPA increased dues.

KPA dues are based solely on paid circulation. Take Line C, left-hand column of your statement of ownership and multiply by the dues formula.

For many newspapers, circulation hasn’t increased much in those 20 years and if your newspaper’s circulation has decreased, then your dues have decreased correspondingly.

Fortunately, KPA dues income has increased. But that’s only because in 1983, 29 newspapers were not members of KPA. Since 1993, though, all Kentucky newspapers have been members of KPA.

A second reason is because the Board established the Associate Member Newspaper division in 1988.

So what’s the point? Doing business has increased. You don’t need to be told that. You’ve increased subscription rates, you’ve increased advertising rates; you’ve raised rates for every income source associated with your newspaper sometime, perhaps several times, in the past 20 years.

For KPA, it’s more than just that the cost of doing business has increased in 20 years. Look at what you’re offered now -- as “free” Member Services -- that you didn’t have 20 years ago:

* the KPA Freedom of Information Hotline, access to the state’s top media attorneys and all it costs you is a long distance call to Louisville. Their service isn’t free; it costs KPA $3,500 per month for you to have access to Jon Fleischaker, Kim Greene, Lora Morris and Kenyon Meyer.

* the KPA News Bureau, the service that gives you a “free” reporter in Frankfort. If you need a story covered, a picture taken, a file retrieved from a state agency, your extra editorial employee is a (free) phone call away. That employee costs you nothing -- no salary, no taxes, no employee benefits. The cost to operate this is about $29,000 per year.

* the 800 number. We pay the bill when you need to call KPA if you use 800-264-5721. The cost? Another $4,200 a year.

* legislative lobbying. Possibly the most important part of KPA is protecting your interests when the General Assembly is in session. It’s certainly the reason KPA is headquartered in Frankfort. We’re here to watch legislation on public notice advertising, other advertising issues, newsprint recycling, open meetings, open records, employment issues. For January and February alone of this year, the cost exceeded $38,000. The 2002 session probably will end up costing KPA around $50,000.

And it didn’t cost you an extra penny.

Back in the 1970s and until 1984, KPA assessed newspapers a lobbying fee. Only a handful donated to the effort and it raised but a few thousand dollars. Back then, lobbying ran $12,000 to $15,000 per year. But issues we have to watch have changed. We didn’t worry about newsprint recycling, or telemarketing, or the internet 20 years ago.

From 1990 to 1992, KPA undertook a massive effort to rewrite the Open Meetings/Open Records Law. That effort took $75,000 from KPA reserves. It didn’t cost newspapers a penny.

Not only have the issues changed, but the structure has changed as well. Until 2000, KPA needed only to stockpile enough legislative funds to cover a 60-day session every two years. That gave us 20 months of stockpiling income to cover the next legislative session. Now with annual sessions, we can’t stockpile dollars. It’s an annual battle.

And until there’s a constitutional amendment to go back to every-other-year sessions, the situation won’t change. The funds won’t be available as they once were.

The FOI Hotline, the News Bureau, the 800 number and legislative lobbying. Those free services total more than $120,000 each year in expenses to KPA. Compare that to total dues income from newspapers of about $75,000.

You might think other resources could cover these costs. What about the conventions and seminars and contest income?

Convention registration costs have increased a grand total of $10 in the last 20 years. Until 2000, KPA charged a $25 registration fee for the Winter and Summer Conventions. If you didn’t eat at any of the convention meals, it cost you only $25 for the convention programs. In 2000, we made that $35 per person. That’s about $100 less than most associations charge.

Meal costs barely cover the charge to feed you. We’re given the price of each meal by the hotel, and we have to pay an 18 percent tip and 6 percent state sales tax. For most meals, we plus-plus the meal cost to cover tax and tip and then add a couple of bucks to each meal.

The contests are a good income source, at least the Ad Contest and Fall Newspaper Contest. Those do more than cover the costs for judging expenses, plaques, certificates and the video presentation. The Better Newspaper Contest is at best a break-even proposition. And since this year’s is the last one, at least we won’t have a contest that doesn’t help the bottom line.

So what’s the point? For the last couple of years, I’ve been dropping hints to the Board that we need to be thinking about this. Once upon a time, we held our own, used various income sources to offset KPA’s financial commitments and tried to keep our reserve fund at a respectable level.

I’m proud of the services KPA offers, especially the many services that are offered at no extra charge. If you pay dues, you get the service.

But I also have to be realistic. Don Towles was a board member and executive committee member back in the late ‘70s and early 80s. He can tell you about the days KPA “didn’t have two nickels to rub together.”

We need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

I don’t know that the board will do anything but I do hope they’ll keep the issue open for discussion. We need to be cognizant that costs increase and income remains the same.

What would I like to see? Yes, I’d like to see us take a serious look at the dues structure.

More than that, I’d like to see us look at a progressive dues structure. Basing dues on circulation is regressive.

I’m sure back in 1980 the board didn’t intend for that three-year dues increase plan to be the last in KPA’s history. But it’s lasted 20 years. If circulation had increased and if the number of newspapers increased, then dues would increase as well.

And there is a progressive dues structure available. If we don’t want to be looking at a new dues structure every few years, then we should look at tying dues to something that will increase steadily over the coming years.

Circulation isn’t that way.

Advertising is.

If you keep your ad rates the same year end, year out, your dues would stay the same. If you increase your ad rates, then your dues would increase as well. Not greatly, but some.

The vision? I’d like to see our dues structure be the equivalent of one half-page ad a year in each newspaper based on the newspaper’s local open/net rate. A 100-inch would be nice, a full-page would be great, but that’s probably not realistic from the industry as a whole.

And there’s a way to structure an advertising dues basis that means you never write a check. If it’s done like the KPA Legal Defense Fund, where the amount is deducted from the advertising check sent by the Kentucky Press Service, it won’t hurt a bit.

Surely, one-half page of advertising each year is worth a free attorney, a free employee, a cheap convention registration rate and a free group of lobbyists in Frankfort each year.