3. Fiscal Policies and Procedures

3.1 Membership

A. Categories

1. Regular Membership

a. Includes all members not specifically addressed in a different membership category.

2. Contingent Faculty Membership

a. Includes part-time faculty, temporary contract length faculty, and faculty teaching at more than one institution to achieve full-time employment.

3. Student membership 

a. three categories, each of which has different dues.  All must provide proof acceptable to ASG that being a student is that person’s primary activity.

b. Undergraduate students

i. Must be enrolled full-time as defined by the home institution (typically 6 credits or 12 hours)

c. Graduate students

i. Must hold an undergraduate degree

ii. Must be enrolled full-time seeking a graduate or terminal degree

iii. Includes most professional schools

d. Post-Doctoral students

i. Must hold a terminal degree

ii. Must be working in a non-permanent position in preparation for a permanent position

4. High school membership 

a. Must be a full-time teacher at a high school

b. Will pay the same dues as Contingent Faculty members

5. Conference membership 

a. Must register for the Annual Conference at non-member rates.

b. Receive one year of membership that expires one year from date of Conference registration

c. Conference members have all member rights and voting privileges except as listed below.

i. Conference members shall pay non-member rates for future conferences. 

d. ASG shall be directed to separate conference member dues from conference registration fees for reporting purposes

6. Institutional Membership 

a. An institution may become a member of HAPS with single registration of three or more members.

b. The institution shall provide the names of members with a single payment by any necessary to the business processes of the institution.

c. Dues are determined on the basis of the sum of the individual members’ dues cost, with a 5% discount for three or more members. 

7. Emeritus Membership

a. HAPS members who have maintained membership for 10 or more consecutive or non-consecutive years immediately prior to retiring at the age of 65 or older are eligible to be Emeritus Members. 

b. Younger faculty who are forced to retire due to health reasons may also qualify - send a note to info@hapsconnect.org and explain your circumstances.

i. Business Manager and Executive Director will make a decision; if not in agreement then the full board will decide at next scheduled meeting.

c. Emeritus members shall have lifetime free membership in HAPS and retain all voting privileges.  

8. Honorary Membership

a. Honorary members shall be granted by a majority vote of the full board

b. Honorary members shall have lifetime free membership in HAPS and retain all voting privileges.  

c. The Business Manager and Executive Director are honorary members for the term of their employment, which allow them to serve on committees (see Bylaws Article 3.5).

B. Policies

1. Dues are set by the Board and reviewed periodically.

2. Members who have not paid their dues shall be maintained in the membership database.

a. Past members will be retained in the database until address is shown to be incorrect or 

b. Past members will be removed when such action is requested by the individual or heirs.

3. The membership renewal notices are sent electronically by our content management system, maintained by ASG.

4. Multiple year memberships

a. Applicable only to the Regular Membership category.

b. The dues for a three year membership are the regular membership dues for three years reduced by 5%.

c. The dues for a five year membership are the regular membership dues for five years reduced by 10%.

d. ASG shall be directed to prorate multiple year memberships over the duration of the membership.

3.2 Awards and Scholarships Funding

A. Funding Sources for External Awards

1. The ADInstruments Sam Drogo Technology in the Classroom Award

 a. One award of $1500 each is funded by ADInstruments

b. ASG will invoice ADInstruments each Spring for payment.

2. Gail Jenkins Teaching and Mentoring Award

a. One award of $1000 is funded by Wiley.

b. Wiley gave HAPS $5000 in 2016 to fund five years of scholarships. 

c. Funding from Wiley will continue the award through the 2021 Annual Conference.  Anonymous donor donated $1000 in 2018 to extend this scholarship by one year. After that time, the award will be sustained by designated donations from HAPS members.

3. John Martin Second Timer Award

a. Individual awards are $500 and are being funded by donations from HAPS member John Martin, starting with the 2020 Annual Conference.

b. The funding will cover two awards in 2020 and for three awards starting in 2021.  The total number of years of funding was not established up front

B.  Funding Sources for Internal Awards

3. Travel Awards

a. All travel awards are funded by the Board of Directors

b. Travel Awards will be first awarded to general members who have submitted completed applications.

c. If all Travel Awards are not awarded to the general membership, then Steering Committee members may be considered for a Travel Award.

3.3 Travel Expenses and Reimbursements

A.  Board and Steering Committee meetings at Annual Conference

1. Travel costs to the Annual Conference are the responsibility of attendees.

2. Lodging on the night before the Board or Steering Committee meeting for Board and Steering Committee members in rooms shall either be paid directly by HAPS or by reimbursement. 

a. Any participant will be reimbursed at a rate equal to the group room rate for the night before a Board or Steering Committee meeting. 

3.  No per diem meal expenses will be paid.  HAPS will typically provide breakfast and lunch on the day of the Board and Steering Meeting.

B. Regional Director Travel to Regional Meetings

1. Regional Directors or other designee representing HAPS shall have expenses paid according to the following guidelines:

a. Reimbursement is door-to-door reimbursement of reasonable expenses, meaning from the time they leave their home or office until they return.

i. Members can be reimbursed for reasonable airfare expenses with a valid receipt. In the event that the member drove but could have flown, mileage will be reimbursed when pre-approval is obtained from the Treasurer.  Members can be reimbursed for mileage to and from the airport as described in 3.3D. 

ii. Members can be reimbursed for meals. Meals will be reimbursed via per diem allowance calculated using the US Government Rate Calculator for covered meals. Covered meals are those not already provided by HAPS (whether members choose to partake or not). Covered meals on travel days will be reimbursed using the value for "first and last day of travel" provided by the calculator.  If the limit is exceeded, the Treasurer must approve additional costs. Meals that are provided during the event will not be reimbursable.  Alcohol is not covered when HAPS directly pays the cost of meals. 

iv. Members can be reimbursed for airport parking or a taxi/Uber/Lyft transport to/from the airport with a valid receipt.

C. Other Travel

1. From time to time the Board may approve other requests for sponsored travel. Examples of covered events may include travel to another conference by member(s) of a HAPS Committee, a retreat for committee related work, etc.  Participants in these events need to contact the Executive Director and Treasurer to get clarity about what will be covered in advance of travel.  

D. Reimbursement

1. After travel has been approved by the Board, the Executive Director will provide a pre-populated reimbursement form with the items that will be covered by HAPS to be completed by the participant.  Meeting attendees must submit travel expenses, including receipts for expenses other than meals, and a list of covered meals, within 30 days of the end of the event.  

2.If requesting mileage reimbursements, must submit addresses of start and end of drive.

i. HAPS will use the IRS Federal Mileage Reimbursement rate to calculate mileage reimbursements.  HAPS will use Google Maps to calculate distance for mileage reimbursements

ii. Unusual expenses, such as car rental or travel from other than home-to-meeting, must be approved in advance.

3.4 Standing Travel Budgets

A. President

1. A travel fund shall be established in every annual HAPS budget to provide funding for the President, or the President’s designee, to travel on HAPS business.

2.  The President shall determine the use of this fund.

a. With majority approval of the Board, President may choose to use money from the President’s Travel Fund to pay for travel expenses of other Board members who would otherwise be unable to attend the Annual Conference.

B. Regional Directors

1. A travel fund shall be established in every annual HAPS budget to provide funding for Regional Directors, or other designees, to travel to regional conferences.

2. The Executive Director will oversee travel requests for Regional Directors to attend regional conferences.

C. Executive Director

1. Travel funds for the Executive Director shall be established in every annual HAPS budget.

a. The Executive Director’s expenses associated with annual and regional conferences shall be budgeted as expenses associated with each conference.

b. Travel to advance the goals of HAPS, including travel to other association meetings, shall be budgeted as Executive Director travel.

2. All travel expenses incurred by the Executive Director shall be reimbursed as detailed in the ASG operating manual.

3.5   Budget Development Process

A.  General

1. An annual budget shall be developed and submitted to the Board of Directors for approval as directed in the Bylaws.

2. Budget will guide all spending for the upcoming fiscal year

3. Items on an approved budget require no additional approval in the fiscal year that the budget is active

a. No budget approval spans fiscal years - all must be approved for each year.

4. Budget line items shall be determined depending upon frequency:

a. Recurring line item expenses will be calculated, when it makes sense to do so, using the average of the three previous years of normal expenses.

i. Exceptional years will not be used in calculating the average.

b. Committee expense requests will be evaluated by the Board and incorporated in the budget as approved.

5. If full profit/loss statement from the most recent Annual Conference is not available, Treasurer shall work with Business Manager and Executive Director to produce best estimate.

B.  Timeline

1. January - March: Treasurer calculates proposed budget of recurring line items.  Works with  the Executive Director to resolve any discrepancies or known changes.

2. April 30: Deadline for Committee Chairs to submit budget requests for the next fiscal year via online form in hapsconnect.org.   

3. March - May: Executive Committee works to incorporate approved Committee requests into proposed budget.

4. Annual Conference Board Meeting will accomplish the following:

a. Board will solicit last minute modifications from Steering Committee members

b. Board will change proposed budget items as necessary.

c. Board will approve the budget for the following fiscal year, as defined in the Bylaws

C. Responsibilities

1. Responsibilities for Treasurer and Board are defined in the Bylaws

2. The Steering Committee Chair and Executive Director are responsible for reminding Committee Chairs concerning budget requests for the next fiscal year.

3. The Executive Director and Business Manager are responsible for informing the Board of any issues that have budgetary impact.

3.6 Expense Payments

A.  Approval Authority

1. Signing authority and agents are defined in the Bylaws (see 7.2 and 11.3) 

2. The Board authorizes the Treasurer to approve payment of expenses not contained in that year’s budget when it is not possible or prudent to convene the Board for approval.

3. The Board authorizes the Treasurer to approve payment of normal expenses related to the Annual Conference.  

4. The Board authorizes ASG to pay expenses, process income, and process refunds related to the Annual Conference and Regional Meetings.

5. The Board authorizes ASG to pay expenses, process income, and process refunds related to the dues, scholarships, grants, courses, and other normal operations of the Society.

6. If an approved expense is greater than expected, or there is a non-budgeted expense, or there is any other unanticipated expense

a. Up to $1000, the Treasurer has authority to approve.

i. Treasurer shall seek guidance from Business Manager, Executive Director, and Executive Committee when necessary.

ii. Treasurer must inform the Board within one week of such approval or denial of expense

b. Expenses greater than $1000 must be approved by the Board, or if impractical then by the Executive Committee.  

B.  Method of Payment

1. Responsibility for all payments lies with the Business Manager, who shall oversee ASG in preparing all payments on behalf of HAPS.

2.  The Business Manager shall obtain signature or charge authorization from the Board as outlined in the Bylaws (see 7.2) to process payments.

3. Payments may be made by any means deemed appropriate by the Business Manager.

C.  Expense Reimbursement Policy and Procedure

1.   Requests for reimbursement of expenses on behalf of HAPS business must be made within 30 days after the activity has occurred.

a.   To receive reimbursement of expenses on behalf of HAPS business, receipts must be sent to ASG within 30 days.  

b. Reimbursement for travel expenses should also include the ASG Travel Reimbursement form found on hapsconnect.org.  

D.  HAPS Credit Card Purchase Policy and Procedure

1.   Usage

a. A HAPS credit card can be issued to the ASG staff, Executive Director, and Treasurer.  Other authorizations shall be processed as outlined in the Bylaws.

b. The HAPS credit card can be used only for approved expenses. (See Approval Authority, above)

2. Documentation

a. Receipts for all credit card charges must be provided to ASG within 30 days of usage.

3. HAPS credit card possession 

a. Four HAPS credit cards have been issued: two to ASG, one to the Executive Director and one to the Treasurer.

b. HAPS credit cards will be destroyed upon completion of official term of office/employment  and new HAPS credit card issued.

3.7 Accounts and investments 

A. General 

1. HAPS has two sources of funds

a. Retained earnings/operating funds derived from or being used for business purposes.  

i. Checking account for operating expenses

ii. Reserve account for longer-term holding of retained earnings

b. Donation-based funds 

i. Unrestricted donations 

ii. Endowment funds of principal-restricted funds

c. In practice, all non-restricted funds are treated as identical

B. Location of Funds

1. Bank accounts 

a. Checking account for operating funds

b.  May have a money market account holding operating reserves.

2. Vanguard accounts

a. Unrestricted Funds account is currently invested 100% in the Vanguard Lifecycle Strategy Growth Fund (VASGX)

b. Restricted Funds are invested 20% in Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Admiral Shares (VBILX) and 80% of funds are in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTSAX)

C. Investment strategies and decisions

1. Investment decisions are made by the Board

a. Finances Committee will make recommendations about investments to the Board.

b. ASG will implement board decisions

2. Financial Investment Review Procedures

a. The current goal of the HAPS investment fund is to provide for long-term financial stability of the HAPS organization. A secondary goal is to generate income to use for grants, scholarships and other special projects.

b. The investment strategy should be considered within the context of the larger account structure that HAPS has created in order to manage day-to-day cash flow needs and provide for reserve funds to meet immediate, unforeseen expenses. These other accounts (Cash and Operating Reserve) are separate from the investment accounts and are not impacted by the investment strategy outlined here. Unless otherwise noted, the investment strategy will impact both the Unrestricted Portfolio and the Endowment investment account.

3.  Procedure for Portfolio Review

a. The Finance Committee will prepare an Investment Status report on a biannual basis. This report will include a description of the current portfolio holdings based upon the last quarterly statement from the investment company (e.g. Vanguard) and the performance of the account over the previous 6 months.

b. Once every three years, the Finance Committee will prepare a more in-depth Portfolio Analysis of the portfolio holdings and performance relative to the stated Investment Goals, to include recommendations for continuance or changes as appropriate.

c. HAPS will continue to rebalance the investment accounts as contributions are added, in accordance with the Investment Goals. This is accomplished through reinvestment of gains and investment of retained earnings (from new income) being divided appropriately amongst the types of accounts in order to maintain the allocation percentages identified in the Investment Goals.

D. Endowment spend policy

1. HAPS will spend 3% of the market value of the endowment fund each year, based on the previous fiscal year’s second quarter end-of-quarter market value, in support of grants, scholarships, or disbursements to the general operating fund; provided such a withdrawal does not reduce the value of the endowment below the corpus.

3.8 Board-Designated Operating Reserve Fund Policy

A. Statement of Purpose 

1. The Operating Reserve Fund will help ensure the long-term stability of the organization by providing funds to meet cash flow needs in the case of a short-term financial emergency.

B. Fund Balance

1. The target amount for the Operating Reserve Fund will be set at 25% of the board-approved, budgeted annual expenses.

C. Funding the Operating Reserve Fund

1. The organization’s Treasurer will authorize the transfer of funds into the Operating Reserve on an annual basis.

D. Use of the Operating Reserve Fund

1. In case of financial emergency, the Board of Directors may vote to authorize the Treasurer to activate the removal of funds from the Operating Reserve Fund. 

2. A financial emergency may be designated if there is a significant shortfall in budgeted income necessary to meet expenses.

E. Management of the Operating Reserve Fund

1. A separate bank account will be set up for the purpose of housing the Operating Reserve Fund. 

2. The Fund may be invested in a secured, short-term financial instrument such as a money market account or a certificate of deposit, at the discretion of the Treasurer. 

3. The Operating Reserve Fund will be listed separately in the net assets section of the organization’s statement of financial position as “Board‐Designated Operating Reserve” and longer‐term borrowings from the reserve will be shown as a liability – “Due to Operating Reserve” – in internal financial reports. 

4. The Treasurer will report the status of the Board‐Designated Operating Reserve Fund to the Board as part of the regular Treasurer’s report.

F. Responsibilities of the Finance Committee

1. The Finance Committee will receive reports on the Board‐Designated Operating Reserve Fund at its regular meetings and shall be charged with assuring that the funds are invested prudently in accordance with the guidelines stated above and that the organization receives a reasonable rate of return considering the size of the reserve fund, the instruments in which it is invested and other relevant factors. 

2. The Finance Committee will review the Operating Reserve Policy every three years, or sooner if conditions warrant, and put forward any necessary changes for Board approval.

3.9 Development 

1. Statement of Purpose

   1. The purpose of this is to outline the process and procedures for ongoing fundraising efforts.

2. The Development Team

   1. The Development Team is composed of the Executive Director (Chair), the current Board President, the Past-President, the Treasurer, and the Fundraising Chair. 

   2. The Development Team is responsible for creating the development plan, to include specific tasks and deliverables, and monitoring progress implementing the plan. 

   3. The Development Team meets at least quarterly to review progress on the development plan and update as necessary.

3. Development Tasks Overview

   1. Fundraising Goals: Prior to the start of the fiscal year, the Development Team sets fundraising goals and proposed uses of funds to be included in the annual budget.

   2. Development Plan: Prior to the start of the fiscal year, the Development Team proposes a calendar of fundraising events, tasks and communication plans, and a responsible party for each. The Board approves the calendar for the year alongside the budget, and new fundraising events may be added during the year, with Board approval.

   3. Tracking: Throughout the fiscal year, the Development Team tracks fundraising efforts through the project-based accounting system and provides updates to members.  

   4. Reporting: As Chair of the Development Team, the Executive Director provides an update to the general membership 1) during the Annual Business Meeting, and 2) in an end-of-year Impact Report to include the following related to development and sponsorships: accomplishments in fundraising toward annual objectives, recognition of donors according to their preferences, and updates on the supported projects or programs.

   5. Donor Communication: Donors will receive verification of payment at the time of the donation, and a personal thank you letter at the end of the calendar year. This letter will be drafted by the Executive Director, approved by the Development Team, and signed by both the Executive Director and the Board President.

   6. Confidentiality: Members of the Development Team shall keep confidential all information regarding the organization’s fundraising efforts.