February 2000

Board Adopts New Budget

No Dues Increase

By Alan Schmelkin

The NYSSCPA board of directors approved the budget for fiscal year 2000­2001 at its February 4 meeting. The budget reflects a $642,303 surplus, which keeps the Society on target in the three-year plan developed last year to reduce the $1.2 million deficit that had been growing since the 1993­1994 fiscal year. The budget does not include a dues increase.

In addition, the board, as part of the discussion on the forecast for the current fiscal year, approved a $767,000 write-off of uncollected receivables and expenses incurred with the liquidation of Dollar for Dollar Productions Inc.

Finance Committee Chair Sharon Sabba Fierstein presented the budget, which had already received approval from both her committee and the Society's Executive Committee.

Highlights of the budget include:

* A new staff position to support the Society's intensified efforts to reach out to members in industry;
* Elimination of a database management position made possible through the implementation of a new information management system that enables staff to execute system inquiries, reports, and other data processing requests on their own;
* An allocation system based on actual time recorded by staff on an allocation software program. This is the first time that the Society prepared the budget using a full year of computerized staff time data and with complete allocation of four overhead categories including data processing, staff compensation, facility expenses, and general/administrative expenses; and
* Streamlined chapter expenses, which have continued to increase over past years. Vice President for Chapters Nancy Newman-Limata, who also serves on the Finance Committee, worked with chapter representatives and Society staff to reduce expenses by 10 percent.

In addition to the Finance Committee, the Executive Committee, and the board, other leadership groups participated in the budget process. Major input came from the presidents-elect of the 11 chapters, which collectively represent more than 18,000 members. *