BSA Governance Information
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES
AND ACCOUNTING MANUAL
Revised May, 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. OVERVIEW OF ORGANIZATION
BOTANICAL SOCIETY
OF AMERICA (BSA)
AMERICAN JOURNAL
OF BOTANY (AJB)
II.QUICKBOOKS ONLINE ACCOUNTING
CHART OF ACCOUNTS
& CLASSES
DUES PROCESSING
INSTITUTIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
PAYROLL
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
PETTY CASH
BANK ACCOUNTS
BANK
RECONCILIATIONS
INSURANCE
POLICIES
ENDOWMENT
FUND & SALOMON SMITH BARNEY ACCOUNTING
ACCOUNTANT
RESPONSIBILITIES
ANNUAL BUDGETS
MONTHLY / ANNUAL CLOSE OF
BOOKS
DONATIONS TO THE
BSA
QUID PRO DONATIONS
TO THE BSA
RECORD RETENTION
MONTHLY / ANNUAL CHECKLIST
III. WEB SITE & DATABASE MANAGEMENT
WEBSITE MANAGEMENT
ONLINE
DUES PROCESSING
DATABASE
MANAGEMENT
IV. INTERNAL CONTROL
OPENING MAIL
& CASH RECEIPTS
SIGNING CHECKS
BANK
RECONCILIATIONS
V. GRANT MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION
VI. ANNUAL MEETING
VI. SECTION & SPECIAL FUNDS ACCOUNTS
SECTIONS
Allotment
Allocation
Use
of Allotments
SPECIAL ACCOUNTS
BSA
Unrestricted Funds
BSA
Endowment Fund
BSA
Educational Fund
BSA
Botanical Friends Fund
BSA
PlantingScience Fund
Vernon
I Cheadle Fund
Michael
Cichan Fund
Conant
Travel Fund
Isabel
Cookson Fund
Leasure
K. Darbaker Fund
Katherine
Esau Fund
Donald Kaplan Fund
John
S. Karling Fund
Margaret
Menzel Fund
Maynard
Moseley Fund
Winfried
and Reneta Remy Fund
James M. and Esther N. Schopf Fund
A. J. Sharp
Thorhaug Fund
Grady L. Webster Fund
Wilson Fund
Supporting Documents - BSA Bylaws, BSA Policies
I. OVERVIEW OF ORGANIZATION
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA (BSA)
The Botanical Society of America (BSA) is a "not-for-profit"
membership society that exists to promote botany, the field of
basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form,
function, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants
and their interactions within the biosphere.
For tax purposes, they are a 501©(3) organization that was
originally incorporated in Connecticut – TAX ID# 62-0671591.
Member Kent Holsinger is our agent for service in the state of
Connecticut and files the incorporation renewal with the CT Secretary
of State every 2 years. The administrative offices of the BSA
are located in St. Louis, Missouri adjacent to the Missouri Botanical
Gardens (MOBOT) and MOBOT provides the site and support services
to the BSA.
Sales tax – the BSA has no obligation to charge sales tax
for internet sales. All internet sales across state lines are
not subject to sales tax (as of now…).
As the BSA operates as a non-profit in Missouri, they have applied
for and received an exemption so they don’t have to charge
sales tax (which would normally apply to merchandise sales to
Missouri residents). Their Tax Exempt# 18473598.
The BSA is registered as a non-profit organization with the Missouri
Secretary of State.
The BSA has a fiscal year of October 1st to September 30th. Prior
to 1999, the organization had a June fiscal year end but it was
changed to encompass the Annual Meeting activity in July/August.
Missouri does not require a corporate or non-profit return filing
so the Association only files an annual federal non-profit tax
return, form 990. This form is available online at a national
non-profit website located at: www.guidestar.org. As a non-profit
, the Association is required to provide a current copy of their
tax return to any person or organization that requests it (and
the BSA can charge them a copy or mailing fee).
The BSA formerly had their administrative offices in Columbus,
Ohio and they still have one employee who works from her home
and administers the Annual Meeting for the BSA.
AMERICAN
JOURNAL OF BOTANY (AJB)
The Botanical Society of America publishes a magazine called
the American Journal of Botany; an online subscription is included
in each annual membership fee. Apart from members, institutional
subscribers (clients) also purchase the magazine.
The editorial office in New York (onsite at Cornell University)
handles the editing & publishing of the AJB magazine on a
monthly basis; Karl Niklas is the current editor.
Allen Press handles the publication of the monthly AJB and, as
part of their processing, creates the electronic files that are
then forwarded to Stanford High Wire Press who publishes the journal
electronically via the web site.
The Editorial office is provided gratis by Cornell University
and the BSA has an immaterial amount of money invested in equipment
there. The BSA does carry liability and workers compensation insurance
on the NY office with Traveler’s Insurance Co. $1,500 is
paid each quarter to Cornell to cover the out-of-pocket costs
of the magazine incurred by Cornell – office supplies, postage,
etc.
The Plant Science Bulletin is another publication of the BSA printed
quarterly & published by a volunteer committee who prepares
the info on MS Pagemaker and directly submits to Allen Press.
II. QUICKBOOKS ONLINE ACCOUNTING
The BSA’s accounting records are kept online with Quickbooks.
That site is located at https://login.quickbooks.com. Quickbooks/Intuit
is responsible for the daily backup of this information at an
off-site server.
Separate sign-ins are available for Wanda (St. Louis office),
Johanne (working from home in Ohio), and Mary (off-site accountant).
All financial reporting is done through the online Quickbooks
program.
CHART
OF ACCOUNTS & CLASSES
See the attached appendix for the full chart of accounts
As part of the accounting, each Income and Expense transaction
is also posted to a specific department, called Class, within
Quickbooks. This allows the reporting of BSA results by the following
classes:
1 – St. Louis
2 – AJB (American Journal of Botany)
3 – EC (Executive Committee)
4 – Annual Meeting Activity
5 – Sections and Special Interest Accounts
6 – Awards
7 – Investment activity
8 – PSB (Plant Science Bulletin)
DUES PROCESSING
Income is generated from these different areas:
- INSTITUTIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS – the BSA
does some direct billing but the majority of these renewals
come from Agents who submit the renewals. Fees are set each
year by the Board. These payments are mostly made by check payment,
some by credit cards & Wanda records on a separate deposit
ticket before being input into the Quickbooks accounting.
- MISCELLANEOUS INCOME – AJB editorial
charges, advertising, JAM royalties (from Stanford High Wire
Press web site viewing), etc; these come by check and are grouped
with other miscellaneous deposits on a deposit ticket.
- ANNUAL BSA MEMBERSHIPS – the memberships
are renewed on a calendar year basis & the majority of the
renewals are received during the winter months of November through
February. Renewing members pay a variety of fees based on the
type of membership (professional, student, emeritus, life).
As a benefit of membership, an online subscription to the AJB
(American Journal of Botany) magazine is included.
As part of the renewal process, members can pay an additional
$55 to receive a print copy of the AJB and may also purchase
merchandise, join sections and make contributions to the BSA.
- MAIL IN MEMBER RENEWALS – these
are mailed into the St. Louis office and processed by Wanda
who manually updates the membership database for the renewal
info and records the deposits in Quickbooks. Credit card
payments are processed thru Personal Ticket Capture.
- ONLINE MEMBER RENEWALS – this information
is processed online via the web site, an order is printed
up and then the order is imported into the member database.
1. To view the order, go to the botany.secure web site and
input the range of dates to process the current orders;
orders can be viewed and printed individually and then imported
into the database.
2. The accounting side of the member dues is recorded as
follows:
a) Go to Verisign web site and download the activity report
for the month’s work
Access the website at: Call BSA Office
Partner: Call BSA Office
Login: Call BSA Office
Password: Call BSA Office
REPORTS, SETTLEMENT & change dates
to month of report (Oct 1, 2003 to Oct 31, 2003)
b) From the Verisign report, add up the dollars associated
with each batch and match these up to the bank statement
deposits.
c) Go to the secure.botany web site and go to the bottom
section for ‘Online Dues’ reporting. Create
the report for the month and match up the monthly totals
on the VeriSign report (there will be timing differences
at the beginning & end of each month). This report is
setup to convert to a *.csv file (see bottom) which can
then be saved as an Excel file.
Access the website at: Call BSA Office
Username: Call BSA Office
Password: Call BSA Office
ONLINE DUES (from date 10/1/03 to 10/31/03),
then VIEW REPORT
When report is on the screen, click on ‘Download Online
Dues in CSV format’
d) Once the batch totals have been tied to the bank statement,
add up the total ‘cleared’ deposits ONLY on
the bank statement and record a single deposit for that
month’s total dues.
INSTITUTIONAL
SUBSCRIPTIONS (CLIENTS)
In addition to individual members, the AJB magazine is also available
by subscription to businesses and institutions (academic and non-academic)
in either a print or online version.
These are based on a different pricing system than the individual
member subscription and are recorded separately in the accounting.
The majority of the institutional subscriptions are handled by
agents (Ebsco, Swets Information Services) who do the actual invoicing
to the institution. They then send a lump sum check to the BSA
with the various client payments attached.
Other than one agent, Swets/Blackford, these have not been converted
to an electronic system for easy download into the database. The
Administrative Coordinator inputs them manually into the database.
PAYROLL
St. Louis, Missouri
There are two employees of the BSA in the St. Louis, MO office:
Bill Dahl, the Executive Director, and Wanda Lovan, the Administrative
Coordinator.
They are ‘officially’ employed by the Missouri Botanic
Garden (MOBOT) and fall under the MOBOT umbrella for fringe benefits,
including retirement, workers compensation coverage, and sick
and vacation time. The BSA reimburses MOBOT for their out-of-pocket
costs on these employees.
The BSA has a personnel committee which oversees the performance
and employee reviews for both of these employees.
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
All operational and section cash disbursements are made from
the BSA’s primary bank account at Commerce Bank.
Within Quickbooks, checks are written through the menu option
Banking, Write Checks. The bank account is #1025, Commerce Bank.
Choose a payee from the vendor list (drop down arrow to the right
of Payee field), input the amount & memo, and then post to
a specific Account (drop down arrow to the right of the Account
field), and add a Class.
Leave the ‘to be printed’ box checked so the system
can automatically assign check numbers when printing checks.
Then go to Banking, Print Checks, change the bank account to
#1025 and add the starting check number. Put the computer checks
in the printer & then print. Align as needed to fit the check
form.
PETTY CASH
When a check is first written to fund the petty cash drawer, that
payment is posted to Account# 1020 – Petty Cash Missouri.
As cash is used up, the receipts are collected so that they may
be entered into the accounting system as expenses.
To re-fund the cash drawer, a check is written to cash for the
new amount to replenish the drawer. Simultaneously, a journal
entry is recorded in Quickbooks to record how the previous cash
was spent.
A sample journal entry is recorded as:
Debit: Office Expense (for receipts on hand) $35.
Debit: Meals Expense (for receipts on hand) $50
Credit: Petty Cash/MO $85.
As with any payment, a class designation needs to be input for
each expense entry.
At any time, the balance for Petty Cash in the financial statements
should match the combination of the cash on hand plus the receipts
in the drawer.
Example:
Starting cash to fund drawer $100
Receipts on hand ($85)
Net cash on hand $ 15
Add: new check to replenish funds $100
Equals: cash on hand in drawer $115
BANK ACCOUNTS
Commerce Bank, Missouri (2) – there are two accounts, a
general checking and a sweep (savings) account. Both are administered
by the St. Louis administrative office. Online access is available
for both accounts. Authorized signatures on the account are: __________
Bank One, Ohio – this is the Meeting account used solely
by Johanne Stogran to collect income and pay expenses for the
Annual Meeting. Authorized signatures on the account are: Johanne
Stogran and Joe Armstrong, Treasurer and Bill Dahl ??
Salomon Smith Barney accounts (3) – these three accounts
are overseen by the Finance Committee and include the BSA endowment
and long-term savings of the Association. The bank statements
are directly sent to the Treasurer, Joe Armstrong, and the CPA,
Mary Widiner, who reconciles the statements online. The St. Louis
business office has online access to these accounts.
Huntington Bank, Ohio – pending closure; this is the old
account used by the old administrative offices in Columbus, Ohio
Santa Barbara Bank & Trust (2) – pending closure; these
are two accounts, checking and savings, used by the Treasurer,
Joe Armstrong. All future expenses will be paid through the main
administrative account in St. Louis
American Century, Ohio – pending closure; this is a savings
account used by the old administrative offices in Columbus, Ohio.
BANK RECONCILIATIONS
These are prepared monthly for all open bank accounts. Use Quickbooks
help for additional instruction.
When the bank reconciliation is complete, print a copy of that
month’s check register and save it with the bank reconciliation
summary/detail report.
INSURANCE POLICIES
The BSA keeps the following policies:
Traveler’s – Commercial, Liability and Worker’s
Comp for the NY Editorial Office
Traveler’s - $3 million Commercial Umbrella coverage for
the Annual Meeting
Insurance for the St. Louis, Missouri administrative offices
is paid for by the MOBOT (who owns the offices).
Worker’s compensation insurance is provided for by Ohio
State (for Johanne/Meeting Coordinator) and by MOBOT for the St.
Louis employees.
Old Republic - there is a fidelity bond for $100,000 that renews
every 3 years in August. The last premium paid was $814 for the
policy period 8/8/2001 thru 8/8/2004 – Premium# FLA0367382,
Agency 92-2857. HRH is the agent for renewal – phone# 352-378-2511.
ENDOWMENT FUND & SALOMON SMITH BARNEY ACCOUNTING
In 1993, the BSA created an endowment fund with the purpose of
increasing the monetary assets of the Society to provide income
for funding major initiatives, travel grants, scholarships, and
other activities within its Mission. The Financial Advisory Committee
(FAC) has been given the authority to manage this fund.
There are currently 3 accounts held at Salomon Smith Barney that
hold these endowment funds, and which are invested in a mixture
of stocks, corporate bonds, and cash. Each account is ‘actively
managed’ and incurs a quarterly investment fee.
Contributions are made to the endowment fund by a direct contribution
made through the business office or through the annual online
membership renewal process. Direct contributions to the BSA Endowment
fund, increased or decreased by investment performance, amount
to approximately $200,000 (as of May, 2004).
There was an increase to the endowment fund made by long-time
members of the BSA, Richard and Deana Klein, in 2001 and that
has been accounted for separately including an increase or decrease
due to the portfolio performance. This donation was unrestricted,
with the funds to be used for “___________________”.
(Mary to research further…)
Although the BSA Board of Directors refers to the entirety of
funds held in Salomon Smith Barney as the ‘Endowment Fund’,
for accounting and tax purposes, only specific donations made
to the Endowment Fund are separated on the financial statements.
Since the BSA has a specific plan (as approved in their bylaws)
for how Endowment funds are to be presented, and since they have
solicited for funds on this basis, the BSA must account for those
donations separately than other operational funds that have accumulated
in the course of time.
The FAC has voted that the BSA Endowment fund will be allocated
their pro-rata share of any investment increases or decreases
that occur during the year, including both realized and unrealized
gains.
ACCOUNTANT RESPONSIBILITIES
The Treasurer has a three year term of office within the BSA.
Each Treasurer chooses the accountant that they want to work with
(normally in their local area) who is responsible for the following:
? Preparation of the annual tax return (form 990)
? Preparation of quarterly financial statements
? Preparation of the NY payroll & the related payroll tax
returns & year end W-2’s
? Preparation of forms 1099 at year end (for non-employee compensation
exceeding $600)
? Accounting support for the Business Office as needed, including
assistance with the annual budget preparation
ANNUAL BUDGET
The Executive Director, Bill Dahl, handles the drafting of the
annual budget which the Treasurer presents to the Board for approval
at the annual meeting in July/August.
MONTHLY / ANNUAL CLOSE OF BOOKS
The Quickbooks online accounting software does not require a
monthly or annual closing of the books. At the fiscal year end,
Quickbooks automatically reclassifies net income to Retained Earnings
as of October 1st. The accountant then creates a journal entry
to reclassify the Retained Earnings to the various BSA fund accounts.
DONATIONS TO THE BSA
When donations are made to the BSA (including through the web
site), the donation is classified as either “unrestricted”
or “restricted”. Unrestricted donations are made with
‘no strings attached’ and can be spent freely by the
BSA on anything they choose. Restricted donations are made to
be spent for a ‘specific purpose’ or item and need
to be tracked separately in the financially statements and internally
so that our record keeping can support that we actually spent
the item how we were supposed to. We need to save all correspondence
that comes in with these ‘restricted’ donations for
tax support.
QUID PRO QUO DONATIONS TO THE BSA
Even though the BSA is a non-profit organization, donations to
the BSA to pay membership dues are not a tax deductible charitable
donation UNLESS a specific donation is made to the BSA endowment
or one of the special funds, and in that case, only the donation
part of the cost is tax-deductible.
Membership dues are not considered a ‘charitable donation’
as you receive something back in return (in the form of member
services, including the AJB subscription).
For businesses, the BSA membership cost is a business deduction
(fully deductible) and for individuals, it is a personal non-deductible
cost. On an individual return, it might be considered a ‘Union
& Professional Dues’ cost deductible as an itemized
deduction on Schedule A.
This explanation covers regular dues as well as section dues
paid in.
RECORD RETENTION
All membership, check disbursement and banking records should
be maintained for a minimum of 7 years.
The exception to that is any records pertaining to assets that
are still held by the BSA, including the Salamon Smith Barney
accounts and all correspondence related to the Endowment account.
MONTHLY / ANNUAL CHECKLIST
See the appendix for a calendar of key dates
III. WEB SITES & DATABASE MANAGEMENT
WEB SITE MANAGEMENT
The BSA maintains a web site called www.botany.org
The AJB magazine maintains a web site called the www.amjbot.org
Both web sites and database support are maintained by Lanspeed,
a computer support company in Santa Barbara, California.
ONLINE DUES PROCESSING
The majority of the BSA membership renewals are now processed
online via the www.botany.org web site.
These are reviewed by the Administrative Coordinator before importing
them into the member database.
DATABASE MANAGEMENT
Lanspeed created the current Access database being used and incorporated
a prior database being kept by the Columbus, Ohio office. The
current database runs off of the BSA web site at www.botany.org
and is maintained by both the Executive Director, Bill Dahl, and
the Administrative Coordinator, Wanda Lovan.
The database contains all current individual membership information
for 2004, including section alliances, donations made to the BSA,
papers written, and _________________. Prior membership information
is available but no supplemental information on donations, etc.
is available for past years.
To keep the database current, all outside deposit info (for Special
interest accounts too) will be manually input into the Database
so that those reports can be used as the Master control of all
financial deposits to the BSA. For the Special interest accounts,
this includes the Remy & Remy royalty payments, Karling &
Darbacker accounts, etc. What is not input into the database are
miscellaneous receipts non-specific to a member, such as advertising
revenue, editorial charges, etc.
The goal of the BSA is to have the majority of their individual
memberships apply and renew their annual subscription online.
Lanspeed has created the form for this on the www.botany.org web
site and this has been available for the 2004 membership year
(beginning with October, 2003, the first month of our fiscal year).
IV. INTERNAL CONTROL
Opening Mail & Cash Receipts
Signing Checks
Bank Reconciliations
COMMERCE BANK - Wanda opens mail, makes deposits, reconciles
bank statement; Bill has online access and reviews frequently,
makes cash transfers and reviews financial statements frequently.
MEETING ACCOUNT: Johanne makes all deposits and writes all checks;
bank statements and cancelled checks are sent to Wanda who reviews
the cancelled checks and reconciles the account.
ONLINE DUES PAYMENT – cash is directly deposited into Commerce
Bank account.
V. GRANT MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION
The Botanical Society of America will comply with all grant requirements, in specific we note the following for Fedral Funding Agencies:
- Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars
- Flowdown Provisions
- Debarment
- Civil Rigths
- Equal Opportunity
- FEDERAL FINANCIAL REPORTING PROCEDURE
- Finance Director receives via e-mail Quarterly National Science Foundation FFR Due Date Reminder.
- Finance Director reviews schedule of advances/reimbursements & verifies that dollars have been reimbursed and tagged to the correct award within QuickBooks. Class accounting is used to track costs and reimbursements in accordance with approved budget.
- In the FFR Attachment screen, Finance Director enters the cumulative expenditure amount in the column for Cumulative Cash Disbursements (A3) for each award.
- Finance Director updates FFR tab 2 as needed. All current awards are handled on cost reimbursable basis. Save and continue to Step 3 (Certification).
- Finance Director reviews & updates Preparer Certification and clicks "Forward for Certification."
VI. ANNUAL MEETING
As part of the BSA operations, they host and put on an annual
botanical conference which is where the bulk of the awards sponsored
by the BSA are given out. This conference is at a new site each
year.
Johanne Stogran, a BSA employee in Ohio, is our dedicated meeting
administrator and coordinates the meeting activities year round.
The conference is held in July/August of each year and the BSA
collects income from registration fees, sponsorships, advertising,
and exhibitor booth rentals. Expenses include site selection expenses,
registration & housing costs, promotion, field trip costs,
honoraria, administration, etc.
There is a separate bank account that Johanne maintains at Bank
One for all the Annual meeting collection of income and expense
payments. Johanne maintains all the accounting activity in the
master company online Quicbkooks file. The monthly bank statement
and all bank correspondence are mailed directly to the BSA main
office in St. Louis and the bank statement and cancelled checks
are reviewed and reconciled there.
An additional $3 million of liability insurance was taken out
with Traveller’s to cover this event. This will be paid
annually along with our existing liability policy, but the cost
is directly allocated to this event.
VII. SECTIONS & SPECIAL FUND ACCOUNTS
SECTIONS
As part of being a general member of the BSA, there are special
interest groups (i.e. ecology, paleobotany, etc) that each member
can join (called Sections); some of these Sections require an
additional fee be paid up front and these monies are allocated
towards a specific cash fund for that section (although no separate
bank accounts are kept). These funds are discretionary & to
be used by the Sections as their bylaws allow – for association
dues, awards and Annual Meeting related expenses.
In addition to monies they raise through dues, the sections are
also allocated an annual sum (called an Allotment) that they can
also spend in accordance with their bylaws.
Each section has both a Cash account (from dues raised and specific
donations to that fund) and an Allotment account. Expenses for
the sections are first paid out of the Allotment accounts and
then out of the Cash account. Since no Sections are allowed to
end the fiscal year in the red, any over spending of the Allotment
account is covered by a transfer from the Cash account of each
specific section.
Allotment
Allocation
To continue placing an emphasis on the annual meeting and to
provide active Sections with more resources to support their activities,
the Executive Council instilled a new method of allocation. The
Allotment amounts used to be a fixed $700 per year per section
but have been restructured to be in increments of $1,150 and $400,
with each amount determined based on the Section’s activity
at the last annual meeting.
$1,150 is allocated to disciplinary Sections organizing one or
more full contributed paper sessions (approx 10-12 presentations).
The remaining disciplinary and regional Sections shall be allocated
$400. Since the activity of some Sections at the annual meeting
is variable and dependent upon the presence of a co-convening
society, the allocation may vary from year to year. In an effort
to keep funding and participation synchronous, in those years
when a co-convening society (e.g. but not limited to, Association
for Tropical Biology, American Bryological and Lichenological
Society, Phycological Society of America) meets with the BSA the
allocation for the affiliated Section will be $1,150 for that
fiscal year. If the co-convening society does not meet with the
BSA in the following year, the allocation to the appropriate affiliated
Section will return to the lower level. The Treasurer will notify
sections of the their allocational status and available funds.
Based on BSA board discretion, the Allotment funds may either
be carried over to use in future years or any unused funds are
then taken back.
If an allotment is unused for two years, the funds will revert
to the BSA, and the annual allocation will cease until the Section
petitions the BSA Treasurer for an allocation by presenting a
proposed activity and budget (invited speaker, social, symposium,
etc.) for fund use. Allocational funds will not be transferred
to any other sectional accounts or societies.
Use of Allotments
These funds are administered by the BSA Treasurer in accordance
with policies established by the BSA Council and Executive Committee.
Direct payments of awards and honoraria are made to the recipients.
Officers of the Section or chairs of the award committees must
provide the name of the award recipients, name and address of
the awardee to the Treasurer prior to the 5pm on the day of the
BSA banquet for the awardee to receive their award at that time.
Expenses may be billed directly to the Treasurer with prior notification
by a Section officer. All other expenditures are handled as reimbursements
supported by receipts. All payments to non-society members should
be submitted by a sectional officer.
For accounting purposes, these monies are never given directly
to the Sections. Dues and donations are accounted for as part
of the normal dues collection process and reported in the financial
statements. Section expenses are submitted to the BSA office and
paid from the general operating account.
Separate accounting is done outside of the online Quickbooks
accounting for the BSA; a separate (not online) Quickbooks file
is maintained to track the running balances of the various Section
and Special Fundraising funds. Reporting is done to the Sections
on a quarterly or as requested basis.
SPECIAL ACCOUNTS
Special fundraising & award accounts – there are specific
fundraising & award funds that have been setup through the
years and they provide scholarships, awards and other benefits
to both members and non-members (see attached list). Most of these
awards are given out at the Annual Meeting in August.
The FAC has voted that both the Section and Special accounts (excluding
Allotment accounts) that have a minimum average balance of $1,000
or greater during the year will be allocated their pro-rata share
of any investment increases or decreases that occur during the
year, including both realized and unrealized gains.
See the attached information from the web site with descriptions
of each Special Interest Fund.
The following Special funds have specific directed donations
that need tracking each year:
BSA Unrestricted Funds
BSA Endowment Funds
BSA Educational Funds
BSA Botanical Friends Fund
BSA PlantingScience Fund
Vernon I Cheadle Fund
Michael Cichan Fund
Conant Travel Fund
Isabel Cookson Fund
Leasure K. Darbaker Fund
a) They receive a dedicated donation each year from Mellon Bank
Katherine Esau Fund
Donald Kaplan Memorial Fund
John S. Karling Fund
a) Check the budget to see if any of the awards given were directed
to come specifically from the Karling fund.
b) The Karling fund sells T-shirts & merchandise at the Annual
Meeting. Historically, both the costs (from AJL Merchandising)
& the proceeds are posted to the Karling fund. This changed
in Yr 2003 as the BSA office sells the remaining t-shirts and
sales were poor, so evaluate annually before affecting the Karling
accounts.
Margaret Menzel Fund
Maynard Moseley Fund
James M. and Esther N. Schopf Fund
Winfried and Reneta Remy Fund
a) Pat Gensel, BSA Past President, has allocated the full royalty
proceeds from her book, “Plants Invade the Land” to
the Remy & Remy fund. Various royalty payments are received
during the year from Columbia University
Aaron J. Sharp Fund
Thorhaug Fund
Grady L. Webster Fund
Wilson Fund
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- GO GREEN – THINK BALANCE – BE
SUSTAINABLE