BUDGET

Financial Structure of the Association
The Louisiana Library Association is a not for profit organization. The Association’s financial structure is composed of an Executive Board, Financial Officer, Finance Committee, and Endowment Trustees.

The Executive Board of the Association is composed of the elected officers of the Association, plus the immediate Past President, the ALA and SELA representatives, and the Association Section Chairs. The editor of Louisiana Libraries and the LLA Executive Director are non-voting ex-officio members of the Executive Board. The Executive Board formulates and administers Association policy respecting authorized expenditures and procedures for reimbursement.

The President of the Association signs any contracts authorized by the Executive Board of the Association and all orders drawn on the treasury other than those representing expenditures of Section funds, which shall be signed by Section Chairs. The President creates the budget for the fiscal year s/he serves as President with the assistance of the Financial Officer and Finance Committee.

The Finance Committee is composed of the Past President, the President, the First Vice-President, and three other persons who have accounting and finance expertise, the latter three appointed by the President for overlapping three-year terms. The Past President serves as the Chair of the Committee. The LLA Executive Director and the Association’s Financial Officer serve as non-voting ex-officio members of the Committee.

The Finance Committee reviews the annual budget for submission to the Executive Board, reviews monthly budgetary and financial statements supplied by the Financial Officer, advises the Board on long range financial and investment planning, maintains continuity of the budgeting process by monitoring the correlation between the annual budget and long range financial goals, and advises the Board on finances of the Association. The Committee also coordinates an external audit every three years, creates the contract for bid by the Financial Officer, and reviews and recommends action on all requests for funds. Proposals requiring the expenditure of funds may be acted on only after review by the Finance Committee.

The Financial Officer for the Association is a paid licensed and bonded accounting practitioner within the state of Louisiana. The Financial Officer keeps an accurate financial record of the Association funds and investments, reports to the Executive Board the financial condition of the Association, submits an annual report to the Association, disburses funds and issues checks per set procedures, serves as a non-voting ex-officio member of the Finance Committee, and advises and assists the President in preparing the budget.

The officers of the Association may authorize the establishment of independent endowment funds or “trusts” to serve the declared purposes of the Association. Such funds shall be in the legal custody of six (6) trustees appointed by the President. The Trustees shall have the authority to hold, invest, reinvest, disburse and otherwise deal with endowment funds in accordance with the purposes of the Association. Currently the Association has one endowment fund, the LLA Scholarship Fund — A Trust, which was established to provide funds for scholarships for students in the School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University.

The Association’s Finances
The Association operates on a fiscal year running from July 1 - June 30. This fiscal year tracks the revenues and expenses of the Association’s funds, which are divided into allocated and Designated Funds.

Budgeted Funds
All LLA units (Sections, Committees, Interest Groups, Executive Board, Association Staff, Financial Officer, etc.) receive funding from the LLA General Fund as budgeted for each fiscal year.

Budgeted Funds are those funds apportioned and distributed annually, composing the units that make up the Expense portion of the Association’s budget. These Expense units are: Office Administration, Journal, Executive Board Expense, Publications - White Castle, Sections, Committees, Interest Groups, and Conference. Any unused Allocated Funds revert back to the LLA General Fund at the end of each fiscal year.

The President works with the Financial Officer, Executive Director, and Finance Committee to create the Association’s budget for the fiscal year. Input for funding of the units labeled Sections, Committees, Interest Groups, and Conference are received from proposed budgets submitted by the Section Chairs, Committee Chair, Interest Group Coordinators, and conference Committee Chairs.

Allocated Funds
A funding formula is used in calculating funds for the Sections unit of the budget and distributing those funds to each of the Sections within the Association. The result is an operating budget for the Association for that fiscal year.

During the fiscal year, the operating budget of the Association may be altered by the Executive Committee or the Executive Board based on recommendations from the Finance Committee and Financial Officer. This can be the result of requests for funds later in the year by LLA units, changes in interest rates, etc.

Designated Funds
Sections and Interest Groups may generate funds through activities outside of the conference such as workshops. These generated funds remaining after the activity they were a part of (i.e. profit) may be retained indefinitely by that LLA unit. These funds are called Designated Funds. Designated Funds are tracked by the Association through the financial reports. It is advisable for Sections and Interest Groups having Designated Funds to take them into consideration when creating a proposed budget to submit to the Association President. However, Designated Funds are completely separate from the Association’s fiscal year budget, which is composed of Allocated Funds, and will not revert to the LLA General Fund at the end of the fiscal year unless that LLA unit ceases to exist. Unless spent by the LLA unit to whom they have been designated, Designated Funds are retained from fiscal year to fiscal year.

However, if a Section’s/Interest Group’s Designated Funds have had no activity (have not been used) for three years, the LLA unit will be reminded of the existence of these funds and the goal for them (as, for example, some Sections and Interest Groups may wish to build up their Designated Funds over several years in order to be able to afford an expensive speaker or program).

A Section/Interest Group may wish to use its Designated Funds, when there are not enough Allocated Funds remaining in the Section’s/Interest Group’s budget to process a bill. The LLA Executive Director will notify the Section/Interest Group when this occurs so that a decision can be made by the LLA unit.

Other Assets
The Association has other assets besides cash. These assets are furniture and fixtures of the Association Office, inventory of White Castle books and other publications, and deferred redemption certificates. Deferred redemption certificates are an Institutional Membership benefit. These are discounts to LLA dues and annual conference registration in the form of five dollar ($5.00) vouchers equal to twenty percent (20%) of the cost of the Institution’s paid membership rounded up to the nearest five dollar ($5.00) increment and are valid for eighteen (18) months from July 1 of the fiscal year they are issued. They may be applied to subsequent dues or annual conference registration.

Monetary Reports
The Financial Officer produces monthly finance reports covering all of the Association’s assets. These monthly reports are sent to the Finance Committee. A monthly statement of each Section’s budget is also produced by the Financial Officer and sent to the Section Chair. Quarterly financial reports detailing a LLA unit’s line item expenditures are also generated by the Financial Officer and sent to the LLA unit’s Chair or Coordinator. In this way, each LLA unit has a record of how it spent its budget, generated additional funds, and can plan future budgets based on expenses shown.

The Financial Officer also submits to the LLA Office by September 1, for inclusion in the LLA Membership Directory, all Year End Financial Statements for all LLA accounts.

Procedure for Disbursement of Funds
The Association has four authorized signatories, the Executive Director and three LLA members, on the LLA checking account. All checks issued by the Association are required to have two signatures on the checks. It is mandatory that one of those two signatures be that of the Executive Director. The three LLA members whom are also signatories may rotate in signing checks based on realities of the world. All payments are made twice each month by the Association, once in the middle and once at the end, a schedule that is worked out between the Financial Officer and the Association. All check signatories are bonded for their protection and that of the Association.

Any LLA unit wishing to spend its budgeted funds during the fiscal year, submits Payment Request Forms to the LLA Office. The Payment Request Form will be used for all payment requests. Bills must be itemized and receipts must be attached. The Section Chair must approve any bill for a Section expense for payment before the bill is sent to the LLA Office for payment.

For Committee and Interest Group expenses, each bill must be certified “approved for payment,” with the date and signature of the Committee Chair or Interest Group Coordinator responsible for the expenditure, before being sent to the Association President. The Association President must approve any bill for a Committee or an Interest Group expense for payment before the bill is sent to the LLA Office for payment. The LLA Office will not process any payment requests without the appropriate authorization.

If the bill is to be charged against a Section’s/Interest Group’s designated fund, the Chair/Coordinator of a Section/Interest Group must so indicate on the bill. Otherwise, the bill will be charged against the Allocated Funds of the Section/Interest Group.

Transfers of Funds
Any qualifying LLA unit may transfer funds from their Allocated or Designated Funds to another LLA unit. The Payment Request Form is still used in this case and must list the amounts being transferred (now income to the receiving unit) and for what that amount (income) will be spent on (expenses it is covering). A signed agreement between the LLA units must accompany the transfer request.

Audit
The Association has a full audit conducted every three years by a CPA firm that is not connected with the Financial Officer’s firm. Funding for the audit is accrued over the two preceding and third current year within those fiscal year’s operating budgets.

Budget
The Associations budget for 2003 – 2004 is listed below. This budget reflects the major categories in revenue and expenditures. For a more detailed listing of budget line items go to Detailed Budget.