We, the undersigned, are leaders of local chapters of Financial Executives International (“FEI”). Many of us have been dues-paying members of FEI for decades, and have devoted countless hours and effort to developing our chapters and furthering the FEI mission. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

We wish to respectfully convey to the Board of Directors of FEI our frustration and bewilderment with the priorities being pursued by the FEI national organization (“National”). In our view, the role of National is to further the mission of FEI (1) by pursuing national initiatives that help financial executives and their organizations, such as advocacy, training, etc.; and (2) by supporting local chapters in their efforts to attract and retain members and provide opportunities for in-person networking and learning.

Instead, the national organization has chosen to spend its time implementing an Affiliation Agreement (the “Agreement”) to regulate the activities of the chapters. Our respective chapters have spent countless hours reviewing the Agreement, and in many cases have needed to hire counsel at great expense to our chapters. We will not rehearse our concerns about the Agreement here, but they are numerous. This is an enormous distraction in a time when many of our chapters are suffering from declining membership. In addition, this effort by National has fostered an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion between chapter leadership and National leadership. We simply cannot afford to waste time arguing about legal documents when the future of many of our chapters is at risk.

We, the undersigned, urge the Board and the National leadership team to terminate this distracting and damaging effort and to refocus its efforts on fulfilling the mission of FEI as stated on the web site.