The fiscal and calendar year ending December 31, 2004 resulted in a strong positive bottom line for INS.
We are very pleased to report that net assets increased by $80,545 during the year 2004. The following are a few significant items that merit further explanation.
* Membership. The membership rolls of INS increased by 193 in 2004, bringing our total membership to 5,272. We continued to employ the Allegiance for Associations program, which surveys the membership to determine why they choose to be members of INS and what types of information they value. The results of our surveys have shown that 52% of our members choose to belong to INS because we provide them with specialized information that they could not get elsewhere.
* Publications. The sale of INS publications continued to increase and provided a significant source of revenue in 2004. Sales of Infusion Nursing Standards of Practice increased by 38% while sales of Policies and Procedures for Infusion Nursing increased by 10%. The addition of the Fundamentals of Infusion Therapy CD-ROM to our product inventory also helped contribute to a healthy bottom line. Overall, publications revenue increased by 28%.
* Meetings. Meeting registration was down in comparison to 2003; however, we were able to significantly reduce the expenses associated with our meetings, resulting in a positive bottom line. Despite the reduction in attendance, our educational meetings remain a significant source of ongoing revenue for INS representing 50% of our revenue.
* The INS Store located on the INS Web site continues to provide extremely positive results by enabling us to market our educational products to a wider audience in a quicker, more cost-effective manner. Over 38% of sales of educational products came through the INS Web site. This helped contribute to a 32% increase in educational products revenue over 2003. In addition, our Web site continues to be a significant source of information for our members as well as others in the infusion specialty.
* Career Center. 2004 brought about the development and launch of the INS Career Center to provide online career services for INS members. The Career Center has provided INS with non-dues-generating income, but more importantly, has helped connect job seekers with companies looking for specialized infusion help. Popularity with the Center grew in 2004 and we look for increasingly positive results in 2005.
* INS continues its support of infusion certification. INS believes strongly in the importance of infusion certification. As such, we continued our support of INCC's mission of patient protection by offering financial assistance through a $120,000 grant.
In conclusion, an independent accounting firm audited the INS financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2004, and issued a clean opinion.