The Chapter Treasurer
The Treasurer’s job is to manage the funds of the chapter. The Treasurer works as a team member with the Chapter Board and Finance Committee to develop an annual budget. Duties of the Treasurer may be divided with the Chapter Secretary.
Treasurer’s Position Description
- Maintain and monitor chapter’s budget.
- Pay the chapter bills and ensure all amounts paid are accompanied with the proper receipts.
- Collect money at chapter functions, make deposits and reconcile the chapter accounts.
- Provide a typed report of the chapter’s financial status at each board meeting.
- Develop an annual budget with the assistance of the Chapter Board and Finance Committee.
- Consult with a local CPA regarding filing for non-profit status, ensuring that the chapter tax identification number is valid.
Role of the Treasurer
The Treasurer is responsible for sending chapter dues statements, collecting chapter and state dues and mailing state dues to ASCCA Headquarters on a quarterly basis.
Maintain an accurate account of all members and their current dues standing.
Prepare monthly income/expense statements.
Chapter Budget
Budgets make things happen! They should be simple and allow for some flexibility. A budget will help you see if you can do everything planned, and/or let you plan other activities and goals. Chapter dues should be adequate but not a burden. The ASCCA Board of Directors determines the association dues that each member must pay. The local chapters have the option of levying an additional amount for local chapter use.
An excellent way to start this budget process is to poll the members on their interests. If one area (such as seminars) is their number one interest, work on this item first. Be sure you can fund their priorities first. Committee chairs should be able to tell the decision makers (Board of Directors, Finance Committee and Membership Committee) what it is they plan to do with the money. If the Finance Committee is the first to hear the committee’s needs and goals, they can usually prepare a draft for approval, to at least the Chapter Board of Directors. The Chapter Board should feel free to approve a budget.
Budget Guidelines
- Income: Budget figures should be projected on an estimate of 10% lower than expected income.
- Dues: Suggest you enter only chapter portion for planning.
- Miscellaneous: You can lump this together for planning; i.e., raffle
ticket sales, extra fees collected, interest, newsletter ads, unless any
category is over $1,000.
- Special Functions: Suggest you plan a special event where a lot of revenue ($2,000 or more) will change hands. It should have its own listing.
- Expenses: Divide into sections monthly--expenses and committee budgets.
- Member Meetings: This will usually be the largest expense for a chapter if a meal is provide to one person from each membership out of the chapter dues.
Points to Remember
Problems: Members who do not attend chapter meetings feel cheated.Solution: Promote meetings to be necessary for communication, not as a “meet-to-eat” affair. Part of the meal costs also include the meeting room fees. The chapter dues cover all costs of running the chapter. The monthly meeting cost is only part of the overall budget.
Benefits: In general, more members come and bring their spouses when their fee is prepaid.Information: Don’t expect more than an average of 25% of membership to attend any given monthly meeting, with 50% of those bringing a guest. A point of interest: Analyzing information from various chapters who include meeting fees in dues, collect almost the same in dues as if they bought a meal for 100% of their members each month for the year.
Chapter Secretary/Chapter Administrator
The key player in the chapter is the Chapter Secretary/Chapter Administrator. He/she, by all rights, should be given the funding to carry out the requirements of the chapter office. The gasoline, office supplies, telephone, postage and newsletter costs will vary by the number of members in each chapter.
The Secretary will spend 50 - 120 hours per month calling members, preparing minutes and getting newsletters printed. Many chapters pay someone to do this. See section on Chapter Executives in this manual.
Other monthly expenses may include snacks or meals at board meetings, subscriptions, etc.
Committee and/or Periodic Expenses
Every chapter needs committees. They may not need funds to perform duties. It is best, though, to get committees involved in the budget process. Each one should submit an estimated budget for office expenses. Special events committees should prepare a budget and cost of food, special entertainment, printing, door prizes, etc.
ASCCA Annual Meeting and Elections
Each chapter is required to send at least one member to cast the votes of the membership at the ASCCA Annual Meeting and Elections. A budget should be set up to offset all or part of the costs. Some chapters provide funds for the Secretary and President also. Other costs might be support for a board candidate, hospitality room, attendance raffle, special apparel for the chapter attendees, etc.
Contingency Fund
Don’t plan to spend all your income when first designing a budget. New ideas will come up throughout the year and you will need funds to cover costs. Anticipate the future.
Unencumbered Balance
Having or planning for a reserve is not wrong. Ten percent per year of income is a general rule of thumb for savings.
Protect and Cap Your Savings
Since most chapters have, or will soon have, extra money if they follow the plan, it is important to know the rules.
The following suggestions may help to base what you have in a checking account:
- Active accounts: Checking should maintain at least 30% more than average monthly expenses, not including state dues payments.
- Savings accounts: Remaining funds should be put in time deposits approved by the Chapter Board. Average total savings balance should not exceed one year of total expenses, unless you have written and had approved a plan for investment. (CPA or legal advice is recommended.)
Special Meetings
Special Meetings: In this section we show Income versus Expense and break out how funds are earned. For simplicity, we will use an average of all chapters per attendee.
- Picnic
- Fee $5
Raffle 1
Expenses (6)
Balance 0 - Christmas
- Fee $28
Raffle 3
Expense (30)
Balance 1 - Ladies Night
- Fee $12
Raffle 2
Expense (20)
Balance (6) - Ball Game
- Fee $8
Expense (8)
Balance 0 - Installation
- Fee $20
Raffle 3
Expense (23)
Balance 0
Savings
Some chapters who have been broke took the bull by the horns and saved $72 per member/year, while other chapters saved nothing. Reserve balances in our association are modest ranging from a high of $380 per member, to a low of $132 for those who have savings. Chapters who have been broke tend to gain new members with a high drop out rate. Financially secure chapters have grown slowly and retained their members.
