Aarp Officials Are Spread Thin In Washington

The American Association of Retired Persons, with 33 million members, rakes in half a billion dollars a year.

Half a billion.

Part of this goes into a vast array of membership programs. Nobody seems to know exactly how many.

In Washington, a very large and geographically divided state, staff support for a plethora of programs is limited to just three persons.

Is this enough? Especially considering that all three are located in Seattle.

Spokane and Eastern Washington have none.

Is this fair?

Half a billion bucks.

Where does all the money go?

Such questions confound unpaid leaders responsible for AARP’s volunteer programs in Eastern Washington. They wonder if they and the community are getting shortchanged?

Are the big lobby’s top bureaucrats living too high? How much of the money goes for fat salaries?

“In this year’s $480 million budget, a huge amount must be spent on staff and publications,” says Frank Yuse, coordinator of AARP’s voter education program in Eastern Washington. “They are certainly not spending it on volunteers.”

Asks AARP volunteer Ross Boreson, who heads the Seniors Coalition of Eastern Washington, “Is there ever any attempt to measure the effectiveness of all this?”

Others complain that AARP doesn’t really do all that much actual communicating on issues. A huge proportion of the mailings are sales pitches for various products and services. Yuse persists, “I’d like to see a breakdown of the budget. I’ve never seen that.”

I asked Tom Otwell, national spokesman for AARP, to shed some light on these matters. He faxed me a report to the membership from Executive Director Horace B. Deets for 1995, the most recent period for which figures are publicly available. It shows income of $506 million and expenses of $449 million.

For what it’s worth, here’s a cost breakdown: Publications, $118 million; federal and other grant programs, $90 million; programs and other field services, $72 million; member services and acquisitions, $71 million; activities and facilities administration, $43 million; legislation, research and development (lobbying), $35 million; headquarters operations, $20 million.

Tom Nelson, national director of field services for AARP, told me AARP has a staff of about 1,600. Said Nelson, “I think the ratio of our staff to our membership (33 million) is really quite small.”

As concerns Spokane, he said, “We have three people in Seattle who contribute to Washington full time. Plus we have other people in the regional office over there who contribute a percentage of their time to Washington.”

Stan Cooper, regional communications director, told me AARP has a regional staff of 40 to serve eight states, California included, plus Guam.

“No, a staff of three in Seattle is not enough,” he said. “But it’s better than it was. And we are trying to get more.”

A recent restructuring of AARP’s field service network holds promise of improvement. “We are trying to get closer to members,” he said. “We feel we are doing that in most places.”

Three staffers to serve a membership of 633,000 in this state is a ratio of 211,000 to one, reports John Peterson, manager of AARP’s Washington office in Seattle.

Peterson says there is recognition that Spokane needs more support and guidance. “We certainly can do a better job,” he says.

But the frustration and confusion that many Spokane volunteer leaders feel “don’t reflect the entire state,” he says. Yes, some chapters are dying, he admits. But others, he says, “are growing like crazy.”

Successful chapters, the expert says, get involved. “They make a commitment to solve the problems of their members and their community,” says Peterson. “This plays out in the community in a hundred different way. And it is happening in parts of the state.

“But it is not happening in Spokane,” he said. “And I want it to happen in Spokane, very much.”

Next: What state and national AARP leaders have to offer in the way of help.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes on retirement issues each Sunday. He can be reached with ideas for future columns at 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review