NASRA was founded in 1955, which is when it held its first conference in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1956, W. Frank DeLamar was elected the first president, and the now annual summer meeting was in his home state of Georgia. (Mr. DeLamar was also the inaugural director of the Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia, which was created by an act of the state’s 1949 General Assembly.)
In the first 61 years, NASRA adopted three different logos, each of which included a polygon. The original logo used an equilateral triangle with the words “for the members, for the systems, for the taxpayers.” In the late 1980s, NASRA added a Celtic knot to symbolize shared community and strength. In 2015, the current logo was introduced, simplifying the design by using the polygon shapes to convey movement and connectivity.