Do you have programs and events planned for the year? Do you estimates of how much they will cost? Do you have estimates of all your other expenses and your income for they year? If so, then I would recommend that your board sit down and formulate a budget for the year. When you have this put together, call a meeting of the membership and present it to them. Have someone go through it line by line briefly explaining each item. Open the floor for discussion(set a time limit). We now vote on our budget as a whole, but we do have explain it line by line and have a discussion before we vote. A few times adjustments have been made. After the budget has been approved if changes arise, there would be a motion made by a member and a 2nd by another member to approve the new expenditure. That goes into the minutes and you shouldn't have to completely redo and resubmit the budget. At the end of the year when you look at your books you would see the income and expenditures for the whole year, both the budgeted and the ones voted on later and you can put together an "actual" budget for the end of the year for informational purposes.
When you vote on things, you may have to word the motions carefully or even break them down such as:
I move that we hold a spring carnival
If that gets approved then:
I move that we budget $3000 for expenses for the spring carnival.
The issue really is that all four of us are new board members and that up to this point it has been very unorganized. We have guidlines but not bylaws and my concern is not whether or not the budget should be put out but HOW. We have no precedence and I need to be sure that if we put it out there that I do it correctly.
I don't want to just throw a piece of paper out there and say this is how we are doing it. I need to know the protocol involved. Do you vote on the PROPOSED budget as a whole or line by line?
When changes are made--extra programs or over budget on individual programs do we revote each thing that changes or a new budget as whole.
We are gathering bylaws together and will be making serious changes to protect this organization and to further define roles but we have only just begun.
Another question--when voting are we voting to spend the money or are we voting to have a function or both combined? One of my ideas last night received flack because they thought it would be work for them. (they aren't required to participate)I don't know exactly what we are voting for either.
Our budget is created by the President, Treasurer & Principal. It is distributed at out first meeting and approved my the members present. This year we will be posting our budget on a bulletin board. If parents are going to contribute their time & $$, they deserve to know what the money will be spent on. Out budgets are definately estimates. If for some reason we need to purchase something way outside our budget, we would have the members vote on it. Even though the board sets the budget, the members have to know and agree with how the board wants to spend the money earned.
We usually present and approve our budget at our first meeting in the fall. We give everyone who attends the meeting a copy so they can follow along as the President goes through it. We also consider it simply an estimated plan of what we will bring in and spend for the year. If something comes up later in the year, we simply present the change to the membership and if a vote is required we do it. We don't go back and submit a new budget. At the end of the year the treasurer and president usually sit down and put together "actuals" so the next board will be able to better do their budget for the following year. It is also in our by-laws that a copy of the budget is available to any member. All they have to do is contact a board member.
Maybe this person has some big ideas of events to do and she wants to see how feasible they really are. Personally I would feel a little uncomfortable if an organization I was involved in refused to show me their budget for the year. What's the big secret?
Our budget is made available to everyone. On Back to school night it is included in the packet the parents get.
Obviously a budget is like a rough estimate. You can only speculate what certain fundraisers will yield you and what your expenses will be.
Most parents never really look at the budget and we have yet to have anyone question it. I don't think it is a bad thing to let parents see how much money assemblies, class trips, & the like cost you. Those big expenses are what justifies your need to fundraise.
I am not sure what legal issues you are worried about ????? We never change our budget just because we add things or take something away. It is just a projection of what you think you will make and what you think you will spend.
We are a private catholic Home and School Association. A parent asked last night for a copy of our budget. We do not have a published budget for the year. What we do have is a general guideline for us as new officers so that we knew what the programs we usually sponser tend to cost and if we would have any room for others etc.
This parent wants to know how much money there is so that she can make more informed decisions. I understand why, but I hesitate because of any possible legal issues. I have searched sites but cannot specifically find how and if a budget should be made available to parents. The budget is so fluid and so subject to change that my gut feeling says if we do make it available, legally we will need to have the budget approved and then stick exactly to that budget. It would take another vote to change the budget each time we add a activity or go over a budgeted amount. I need to know what others know about this issue.
