President’s Letter

Dear Fellow NABE Members:

It is an honor to serve you this year as President of NABE.  Thank you for giving me this exciting opportunity.  I would like to let you know that you have elected an energetic Board of Directors, each of whom brings a unique talent and perspective to the leadership of our professional organization.  Of course, all of us would be much worse for the wear without the energy and organizational skills embodied in our staff led by Susan Doolittle, our executive director.  For those of you who have attended our outstanding programs and other events, the most recent of which was our annual meeting in San Francisco, please do me a favor and pass along your appreciation, if you are so inclined, to this fine group at NABE:

Susan, Doolittle, executive director, doolittle@nabe.com; Colette Brissett, associate director of programs, cbrissett@nabe.com; Pam Scott, office manager, pscott@nabe.com; Robert Crow, Business Economics editor, rtcrow@comcast.net; Pam Ginsbach, NABE News editor, pamg@nabe.com; Melissa Golding, press officer, melissag@nabe.com; and Bruce Kratofil, NABE.com editor and webmaster, brucek@bjkresearch.com.

This first month of NABE activity has been especially vibrant since I signed a contract with outgoing President Carl Tannenbaum to serve as his agent for the plethora of contracts and endorsements that have tumbled in since September.  I can tell you he is planning to do a variety of offerings, from SNL to Oprah, all with good pay, I might add.

Just kidding.  Actually, Carl's shoes are very big to fill and his apron strings are longer than my arms can stretch.  I would only hope to replicate his understated, but outstanding effectiveness in leading NABE – with, of course, a great sense of humor. For those of you who attended our business meeting, you will have noted one of Carl's legacies.  Thanks to him, NABE has implemented good governance and a very well structured investment policy.  I will sleep soundly knowing that this is in place, monitored appropriately, and in shape to stand the test of time.  He has followed in a long line of NABE leaders who have provided a great sense of pride and value around NABE.  Both Carl and Stuart Hoffman, his immediate predecessor, served our organization with enthusiasm and diplomacy, which made me proud to be a member and a business economist in the trade.  

As I mentioned, there has been significant planning under way during the last month and efforts that you, I hope, will view as added value to your membership and prowess of the organization.  I am deeply grateful to have the opportunity to work with your vice president, Chris Varvares, who brings great experience to the organization both as an economist and business executive, a winning combination. 

Several efforts are planned this year.  I would like to outline just two of these in this letter.

Furthering The Education Mission of NABE

Our mission statement is "to provide leadership in the use and understanding of economics."  In that vein, we are going to host an economic debate among the economic advisers of the major presidential candidates.  This debate will be held on Friday, Nov. 9, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.  Please see the details in this issue of NABE News.  We believe this is a great way to provide more details to a wide audience about the candidates' economic policy proposals and to assist us in better understanding their positions as we go the polls for the primaries and then general election.

What more can we do to polish our professional standards?  I know many of you have commented that we as NABE members should have some sort of educational "checklist" (courtesy of Stuart Hoffman) where both entry level and seasoned business economists can obtain "(continuing) credit where credit is due."  In a recent speech given by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, he emphasized life-long learning and mid-career training as good investments with "…excellent returns, both for individuals and society."    Thanks to Kathleen Camilli, outgoing Board member, for bringing this speech to my attention and for her leadership on high school education programs allied with five Federal Reserve District Banks.

For NABE, our members have been "around the horn" a few times, and we are, in principle, on both the "buy" and "sell" side of an education endeavor.  Often in our respective workplaces, being a NABE member means you are using good quality data, statistics, and tools in the economics fields.  Indeed, the leadership that Maurine Haver, one of our past presidents, has provided in the field of statistics and economics is a true gift to all of us who, with high professional standards, thrive on these data for our analysis that we undertake for our own activities.

At the same time, you are taking the extra steps of communicating your assessments and recommendations in a concise way that make it accessible to business people, officials, policymakers or colleagues who hail from many different academic and professional backgrounds.  

With your help, we hope to design some additional programs to give you worthy recognition, loosely called credit, to keep our skills at the cutting edge.  It's too early to say how this will advance.  However, in looking at other professional organizations with continuing credit or certification programs, we became convinced (really since Frank Schott's thoughtful leadership) that it was worth the effort to make a proposal.  Please send me your thoughts as we welcome input.

You may be aware that we have established some good working relationships with the CFA Institute and the Risk Management Association (RMA).  We hope to further these alliances this year.  Already the CFA Institute is listing our flagship programs (annual meeting and policy conference) as events where their members can obtain continuing education credit.  We hope to see more of their members at our events and, in turn, add value to your networking and potential for new ideas coming out of these meetings.

Continuous Improvements in NABE Programs, Surveys and Value of Membership

Significant "brand value" of NABE is in the DNA of our chapters and roundtables.  With Rich Brown, Chris Swann, and the support of many others, the relationships established here will produce good content for you.  Already we are planning to continue content-rich teleconferences sponsored by roundtables, among other activities.

We have received consistent feedback from you on several fronts, including the importance of providing good value on our website, great conferences and seminars, and top quality publications such as Business Economics.  We are thankful to Bob Crow, BE editor-in-chief, and to Charles Steindel who is providing great input for enhancements.  As always, we will continue to offer high-quality programs and publications, and will continuously improve our website and other e-offerings.    The same is true for our surveys, which are well established – and with a good reputation – in the field of business economics.

In closing, our mission is solid, and I hope you remain confident that NABE will provide you with the value for the money that you deserve.  I am very excited about the opportunity to provide something in return to an organization of true professionals who have been a significant support to me over the many years of membership.  I look forward to keeping in touch with you on our progress.  Hope to see you at the debate!

Best regards,

Ellen Hughes-Cromwick
NABE President