(Colorado Springs, CO) Confronting the same tough choices faced by nonprofit organizations and commercial businesses across the country during the current economic downturn, the American Numismatic Association (www.money.org) today announced a staff reorganization which will allow it to expand its program services to its 31,000 members yet reduce administrative expenses.

This was a very difficult process, said ANA Executive Director Christopher Cipoletti. Our in-house management team needed to find ways to meet the demands for more numismatic programming while cutting costs, and do so in the best interests of the membership. We are here to serve the Associations members, and our current structure was not fully meeting memberships needs. 

Restructuring headquarters staff had to be done in a way that would improve the services we provide year-after-year to our members and reduce administrative costs.

A total of seven full and part time staff members have been laid off, most of them in back office positions, such as accounting and advertising. These positions will be reorganized to create three new jobs that are intended to be more responsive to membership requests for services. The ANA is providing outplacement services to help the employees who are laid off locate employment in the Colorado Springs area, site of ANA headquarters. The restructuring is expected to immediately save the association more than $200,000 a year.

All nine members of the ANA Board of Governors were informed ahead of time about the reorganization plans. No additional reorganization is anticipated in the foreseeable future, said Cipoletti. Prior to the reorganization, there were 35 full and part-time employees at ANA headquarters. Some of the work performed by departing staff may be performed in the future by volunteers who already assist the organization.

The restructuring includes the elimination of two part-time positions and consolidating the separate jobs of Public Relations Director and Membership Director into a combined position involving membership sales and ANA marketing. Some information technology work will be outsourced to save money and provide the ANA with the most up-to-date software applications.

Our membership has grown the past few years and is looking for expanded programming. The only way to meet those needs is to reduce our fixed costs or increase our revenue. But just like virtually every other nonprofit organization and business in the United States, weve been adversely affected by lower returns on our investments and significantly higher costs associated with doing business. While we are working to increase revenue, we had to make cost cutting changes as well, explained Cipoletti.

The ANA has a dedicated, professional staff. I met today with all of them to reassure everyone about our future as a strong, vibrant hobby organization. ANA members will see

increases in the outstanding services they currently receive, such as the library, the monthly Numismatist magazine, the two annual conventions, and educational seminars. We will also be dedicating resources to improve our web site to make it more user-friendly and to meet the ever increasing demand for online services, he emphasized.

For more information about the American Numismatic Associations programs and services, contact the ANA, 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3279; phone 719-632-2646; fax 719-634-4085; e-mail ana@money.org; or visit the ANA website www.money.org.

Originally Release Date: October 30, 2003

ANA Contacts: Phone: 719-482-9872

                            Email:  pr@money.org