A. Graphs- Ms. Chambers took the committee through a series of graphs that illustrated the proposed budget revenue, expense, and net contribution per department.

B. Budget initiatives - Ms. Chambers spoke on the initiatives that were included in this budget: the addition of four new staff positions, the expansion of The Trusted Professional to a twice-monthly publication for six months of the coming year, expansion of the COAP program with an additional two universities, growth in the advertising budget for further member recruitment and reach-out to college students, the creation of a member Resource Center, and the formation of a President’s Fund.

C. Projected May 2004 outcome - Ms. Chambers explained that the total effect of the office move could not be calculated for the current year due to timing uncertainties. When the primary lease has been signed, the ledger will reflect a credit of $131,808 per month until the move is complete.

D. Budget Revenue Components- Ms. Chambers discussed some specific areas within revenue, such as advertising revenue which will increase due to an improvement in the advertising climate, meetings revenue which is more than the current year because the line comes from the chapters’ budget, and investment income which is budgeted to exceed the current projection due to unrealized gains.

E. Strategic Plan Goals Budgets- the three goal expense budgets were discussed.

1. Advocacy - meeting expense is budgeted to increase again reflecting the chapters’ budgets, printing and postage will decrease because the actual current year expense included the bylaws amendment mailing to all members, a new line for recruitment advertising has been created, and a President’s Fund has been created for the coming year. Allan Fetterman asked how much of the allocated expenses were administrative and how much were directly program-related, discussing the fact that he considered this breakdown important in evaluating the actual direct cost of each goal. He also questioned whether rent should be allocated using only timesheet data
2. Professional Competency- a new line item titled conference space has been created to reflect the direct FAE portion of the new lease that relates to seminars and conferences, meals and facilities has decreased from the current year projection because the new lease will allow FAE to hold more conferences in-house, meeting expenses has decreased because the annual golf tournament has been moved from the committees department to the Manhattan/Bronx chapter, printing and postage has increased due to anticipated raises on the CPA Journal for both printing and paper, professional fees is higher because an outside firm is selling the CPA Journal advertising, a new resource center has been created, and the travel-committee line has increased due to heavy use of the teleconferencing offered to members.
3. Recognition and Visibility - advertising has increased over the May 2004 projection due to the Communications department increasing it’s media outreach, and printing and postage is higher due to The Trusted Professional expansion noted earlier.

F. Organization Budgets- the last review consisted of a brief discussion of the total budget page for each of the organizations - NYSSCPA, FAE Unrestricted, and FAE Temporarily Restricted. It was noted that the FAE budget had been approved by the FAE Trustees. There were a few questions on this budget that could not be answered due to the absence of Mr. Alan Schmelkin. This issue was tabled until the next Finance Committee Meeting on January 28, 2004.