ASTA's Paul Ruden Gives More Details on Society's New Mission

Paul Ruden, vice president for the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), called Travel Agent Friday to further explain some details of Wednesday's unveiling of ASTA's new fee structures, mainly some of the staff upgrades and benefits that will be offered. Ruden says it's important to know that ASTA is beefing up staff, including a new attorney and four to five people who will work in the communications department. Also, a dozen people will be given the duty of relationship managers and will be assigned to one Premium member at a time. The main point or "the juice," as Ruden describes it, is that ASTA aims to keep track of what it has learned from working with members and then sharing that information with Premium members. Ruden says most trade associations deal with a member, provide support and then move along. Instead, ASTA will help a member and then share any information it learned from that exchange with its Premium members.