Updated August 2017
What is the ALCTS B&F Committee?
Who serves on the ALCTS B&F Committee?
What is the budget year for ALCTS?
What is the budget planning calendar for ALCTS?
How large is the ALCTS budget?
Where does the revenue come from?
What type of expenses does ALCTS have?
Which expenses are typically the largest from year to year?
Who is responsible for making sure that ALCTS stays within their budget?
Who is involved in the budget planning process?
How does the budget get finalized each year?
How do I put together a proposed budget for a program or preconference?
If I don’t have to do a budget for programs and preconferences, how are the expenses handled?
What is the relationship to ALA's budget and financial operations?
What is the reserve fund?
What financial obligations does ALCTS have to ALA?
Does ALCTS have an endowment?
How is the ALA budget created?
What is BARC?
What is the ALCTS B&F Committee?
It is the Budget and Finance Committee, a division-level committee of ALCTS. The Budget and Finance Committee provides a recommended budget and generally advises on all fiscal matters.
Who serves on the ALCTS B&F Committee?
The Committee consists of a chair and eight members at large, plus a liaison from the Fundraising Committee. Members are normally appointed for a two-year term that may be renewed once. The Committee may have an intern. The chair is an ex-officio voting member of the ALCTS Board of Directors. The ALCTS Executive Director serves as staff liaison to the Committee.
What is the budget year for ALCTS?
September 1- August 31
What is the budget planning calendar for ALCTS?
ALA’s fiscal year begins September 1. Each October the ALCTS Executive Director begins the process of building the new fiscal year’s budget. The Budget and Finance Committee reviews the preliminary budget prior to the Midwinter Meeting and the committee chair presents it to the ALCTS Board for approval. The final budget is created from the preliminary budget with revisions during the spring after the six-month performance reports are available. The final budget is presented to the ALCTS Board for approval by the Committee chair at the ALA Annual Conference.
How large is the ALCTS budget?
For Fiscal Year 2017 the total expense budget was just over $577,000.
Where does the revenue come from?
The three main revenue sources for ALCTS are membership dues, registration fees for the various educational sessions, and publications. As of Fiscal Year 2017 approximately 37% of revenues were derived from membership dues, 46% from continuing education registrations, approximately 8% from subscriptions, book sales and advertising, and approximately 9% from donations and sponsorships.
What type of expenses does ALCTS have?
The main expenses for ALCTS are personnel and operating, meetings and conferences, and publications. As of Fiscal Year 2017 approximately 53% of expenses were associated with payroll and related expenses for headquarters, 12% for meetings and conferences, 11% for publications and approximately 24% for other operating expenses.
Which expenses are typically the largest from year to year?
The largest expense is in maintaining the ALCTS staff and headquarters based in Chicago. This staff oversees the day to day needs of ALCTS including managing membership and working on the logistical side of the Association. The second largest expense is the cost of providing continuing education opportunities online and at conferences and meetings. The goal is to make the continuing education revenues category self-financing or to return an excess of revenues to subsidize other activities. Publications are another large expense, and this includes Library Resources & Technical Services.
Who is responsible for making sure that ALCTS stays within their budget?
In consultation with the Executive Director, the Budget and Finance Committee provides a recommended budget and generally advises on all fiscal matters. The ALCTS Board of Directors makes final decisions at ALA Annual to make sure that all financial objectives in the current financial plan are met. The Executive Director provides monthly status reports and monitors the budget at all times.
Who is involved in the budget planning process?
The Executive Director works with the ALCTS Budget and Finance Committee to finalize a preliminary budget to be approved at the Midwinter Meeting, and a final budget to be approved at the Annual Conference. Information is gathered from actuals of past years’ budgets and projections for the current fiscal year’s budget.
How does the budget get finalized each year?
The Budget and Finance Committee reviews the proposed budget with the Executive Director in advance of the Midwinter Meeting, and the chair brings a preliminary budget to the Board at that time. During the spring, the preliminary budget is revised after consulting current year projections and a final budget is created. This final budget is presented by the chair to the ALCTS Board of Directors for approval at the Annual Conference.
How do I put together a proposed budget for a program or preconference?
A proposed budget is created each year by ALCTS staff for an in-person Midwinter Symposium, in-person Annual preconferences, and virtual symposia and preconferences as part of the annual budget planning. Program planners for these events work within these budgets. ALCTS does not currently offer funding for individual conference programs.
If I don’t have to do a budget for programs and preconferences, how are the expenses handled?
ALCTS has multiple projects used to manage the revenue and expenses for the Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. All revenue and expenses for individual events are charged to the appropriate dedicated project. Events that require registration have a draft budget created by ALCTS staff to calculate speaker fees, AV expenses, catering, and other expenses. ALCTS rarely needs to cancel paid registration events, but ALCTS staff will monitor registration against expected expenses to calculate if there is a need for cancellation.
Speaker honoraria and travel expenses for the ALCTS President’s Program are included in the Annual Conference project budget. ALCTS generally does not pay for speaker travel expenses for Annual Conference programs. Such requests need to go to the Program Committee and then are sent to the Executive Director for review and approval.
For Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference meetings and programs, standard room and AV charges are paid by ALA. ALCTS is responsible for any costs beyond the standard setup and approval by the Executive Director is required for additional expenses.
What is the relationship to ALA's budget and financial operations?
The ALCTS budget is separate from the ALA budget. ALCTS receives no direct monetary support from ALA and must produce enough revenue to cover expenses.
Detailed information about the ALA budget process is available through a series of webcasts titled ALA Financial Learning Series on the ALA Treasurer’s page.
ALCTS does not have a separate bank account, does not employ accounting staff, and does not file separate tax statements.
What is the reserve fund?
The reserve fund, or net asset balance, is composed of surplus funds from previous budget years that roll over each year. Any annual operating budget deficit must use reserve funds, if there are any, to make up the difference. The ALCTS Board may decide how to spend the reserve funds. Interest on reserve funds goes to ALA.
What financial obligations does ALCTS have to ALA?
ALCTS pays overhead to ALA on revenues earned from non-dues revenue-generating activities (registration fees, sales of published materials, and journal subscriptions). Registration fees for online events, subscriptions, and book sales are assessed at a 50% rate. Grants have a separate overhead rate, and ALCTS has no active grants at this time. The composite overhead rate charged to sections and divisions is set annually by ALA, and equals a ratio of:
- Total overhead consumed by Publishing & Conferences over
- Total revenues generated by Publishing & Conferences
More detailed information on the overhead, or indirect cost rate, is on the ALA Treasurer’s page.
The performance reports include a figure for the Contribution Margin. The Contribution Margin is the Total Expenses Before Overhead and Taxes (Total Direct Expenses + Total Indirect Expenses) subtracted from the Total Revenue. The Contribution Margin is the ALCTS net revenue or loss before paying overhead to ALA.
Does ALCTS have an endowment?
ALCTS does have an endowment account with ALA. The interest from the endowment fund may be spent by ALCTS (i.e. added to the operating budget) according to the following formula:
5% rolling average of last 20 calendar quarters of the net asset balance of the Long-term Investment Fund
If ALCTS chooses not to take the interest, it stays in the endowment fund. If ALCTS chooses to take the interest, it goes into the operating budget, and rolls over to the reserve fund if it is not spent.
How is the ALA budget created?
See the diagram of ALA's Budget Process and other financial planning information.
The Chair of ALCTS Budget and Finance Committee attends the ALA Planning and Budget Assembly (PBA) as the division’s representative. PBA assists the ALA Executive Board and the Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC).
What is BARC?
The Budget Analysis and Review Committee, BARC, is an ALA committee charged with reviewing the proposed budget, as presented by the ALA Executive Board, reviewing the financial performance of the Association and the budget impact of potential actions of ALA Council, with making budget recommendations to the ALA Executive Board, and to report to ALA Council regarding the budget analysis and process.