The managing director of the Washington-based global association of financial institutions described the decision as "historic".

The results emerged from an analysis of more than 2,500 complaints received by the Washington-based association from a telephone hot line between Nov. 9 and Dec. 4.

From 1973 to 1981 he was the executive director of the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Washington-based national association of American orchestras.

The group, a Washington-based association of state regulators, added up the cash dividends plus capital gains from 1972 through 1987 for 103 leading electric and telephone utilities.

The European Commission formally protested, and in 1998, the National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington-based association, brought suit.

"We have not begun to feel it yet," Jeffrey R. Prince, senior director of the Washington-based association, said of the projected drop in sales.

The Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based association of more than 190 financial institutions, predicts a $40 billion decline this year, to around $ $130 billion.

The Washington-based association represents 24 major processors and producers of beet and cane sugar in this country.

New York has the highest percentage of deficient bridges in the country, according to the Road Information Program, a Washington-based association that monitors highway conditions.

The N.A.F. is a Washington-based association of abortion providers, but it does much more than any other typical guild of like-minded professionals.