Home  › Membership  › Organized Section Membership  › For Section Officers and Organizers  › Section Handbook  › IX. SECTION FINANCES

Organized Section treasurers are responsible for managing Section funds, including basic balancing and upkeep, as well as avoiding overdrafts, resolving problems with the bank, etc. The Executive Director holds signature authority on all Section checking accounts, but will not exercise it in any way inconsistent with the existing relationships with Sections.

A. MAINTAINING CHECKING ACCOUNTS

APSA's auditors require that each Section hold a checking account with Bank of America in Washington, DC, under the Association's tax identification number. At the start of their term, the Section treasurers will be sent signature cards (which are to be returned to APSA) in order to set up their access to Section bank accounts. Checkbooks containing checks printed with the Section name will be provided to the treasurer so that checks do not need to be reprinted each time the checkbook changes hands. There is an initial charge for ordering checks, which will be charged to the Section account. APSA staff will handle all necessary paperwork associated with the checking accounts and will forward bank statements to treasurers on a quarterly basis. Section treasurers are responsible for keeping their account balanced.

Sections are expected to use the checking account to handle all of their funds, including any they might raise in addition to dues. Sections with surplus funds may choose to transfer funds from the checking account into CD's or other interest-bearing accounts. However, Section treasurers will be responsible for opening and maintaining any accounts in addition to the Bank of America checking account. APSA staff can only administer the one main checking account per Section. For accounting purposes, APSA requires that funds pass through the checking accounts as they are received, expended, or invested.

B. REBATE OF MAILING LIST RENTAL REVENUE AND ADVERTISING

Another source of revenue for Sections is the rebate of revenue earned from mailing list rentals. APSA shares the revenue from rental of Organized Section mailing lists with Organized Sections to increase Section revenues so that advertising in Section newsletters is not necessary.

APSA will tally the label sales, and make distributions to Section accounts, annually. This amount will be deposited to checking accounts in July. Sections will receive 5 cents for each of their labels rented (the actual differential in price we charge for Section lists).

Many label orders "merge and purge" members of more than one Section. A member who belongs to two Sections will be counted by each in their membership, but will appear and be charged only once in the label run. Other orders combine Organized Sections with fields; in such orders we charge the Section surcharge only for the first 1,000 labels rented.

We will allocate the rebate in these cases proportionately based on the number of Sections in the label order: e.g. if 3 Sections are combined in the order, each gets 1/3 of the rebate. This works to the advantage of smaller Sections over the big ones, a decent principle if not a perfect one.

In practice, the procedure for different types of label orders is as follows:

Order for a single Section: calculate 5 cents for each label rented and assign the total to that Section.

Order for multiple Sections: calculate 5 cents for each label rented and assign equal shares to each Section included in the order.

Order for Sections and fields combined: calculate 5 cents for each label for which the rate is charged (which is presently capped at 1,000 labels), and assign equal shares to each Section included in the order.

C. PREPARING FINANCIAL REPORTS

Sections should submit annual expense reports in a format supplied by APSA, listing total copying, printing, postage, and telephone expenses, and itemizing other expense categories. For a duplicate form, contact the Organized Section Liaison at sections@apsanet.org.

Treasurers should submit a financial statement by the end of July for expenditures for the preceding fiscal year (July through June).

Funds for the following year cannot be released without this statement. The form will be sent in June to each treasurer. The treasurer is accountable for monies to both the Section itself and to APSA.