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AGA Chapter Offices' Descriptions
Aroostook County’s AGA Chapter will be holding elections for our upcoming year – July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Nominations will be open from 22 April – 1 May 2009. If you are nominating yourself, please provide 100 words or less regarding your experience towards the position you are interested in being nominated for by submitting your name and experience write up to Christiane Washington, Ed Malone and Linnea Gosling. If you are nominating someone else, please forward the name and position you are nominating him or her to by sending this information to: Christiane Washington, Ed Malone and Linnea Gosling.
The chapter directors can be single director or co-director.
The following are the offices (and descriptions) that need to be filled:
Chapter Executive Committee (CEC):
President-Elect The chapter president-elect assists the chapter president and other board members in carrying out their duties. • The president may also assign other specific functions to the president-elect, such as the preparation of the CRP. • In the event that the president’s position becomes vacant, the president-elect discharges the responsibilities of the office of president until the expiration of the president’s term or until the election of a chapter president to complete the term of the president. • The chapter bylaws should provide guidance concerning vacancies for chapter officers and directors.
Secretary The primary duty of the secretary is to maintain the minutes of the Chapter Executive Committee meetings, obtain approval of the minutes by the CEC, and ensure the minutes are published in the chapter newsletter and/or on the chapter website.
The secretary can be both a recording and corresponding secretary for the chapter and, as such can serve as a communications liaison between the chapter, the Regional Vice President and the national Association.
As custodian of the official chapter files, the secretary may also be the chapter historian.
The secretary can also issue notices of meetings; after consultation with the president, prepare the agenda of matters to be covered; keep a record of attendance; and prepare the minutes.
Treasurer The chapter treasurer is the custodian of chapter funds and is responsible for chapter financial records and reports, including the maintenance of adequate records of all transactions involving chapter funds. Duties can include: · Preparing the chapter’s annual consolidated budget. · Promptly depositing all receipts of the chapter in a bank account maintained in the name of the chapter. · Making disbursements from the chapter account only on behalf of the chapter and supported by appropriate documentation. · Dual signatures should be considered for large disbursements. Such thresholds should be established by the CEC. · Establishing petty cash funds for special purposes when approved by a vote of the Chapter Executive Committee. · Presenting all bills for chapter expenses to the Chapter Executive Committee and the Chapter Finance Committee chair. · Upon approval by the responsible committee or by authorization of the president (according the chapter policy), paying the bills with a check drawn upon the chapter's account, except for disbursements made from the chapter’s petty cash fund. · Presenting, at least once a month, a financial report to the Chapter Executive Committee. · Recording revenues for all chapter activities forwarded by the responsible committee and paying any expenses in connection with these functions. These collections and payments must be included in the reports of chapter receipts and disbursements. · Preparing financial reports required by federal, state or local government jurisdictions in a timely manner, submitting these reports to the chapter president (or appointed representative) prior to transmitting them to the agency involved. · Determining if the chapter is required to file an IRS Form 990 or Form 990EZ. The chapter’s books and records should be made available to the Chapter Executive Committee at any time and are subject to audit at least annually. Following chapter policy, the auditor(s) may be an appointed committee or a person selected by the president or the Chapter Executive Committee, or a Certified Public Accounting firm. The Chapter Executive Committee, often at the recommendation of the chapter treasurer, usually approves the selection of the bank in which the chapter will establish its checking account. Bank resolutions and appropriate signature cards are required to establish a bank account in the name of the chapter. Unless it is inconvenient to the treasurer, the same bank should normally be used from year-to year.
When choosing the depository, the Chapter Executive Committee must also decide the number of signatures required to withdraw funds from the checking account. Most chapters stipulate that two signatures are appropriate - usually the president and the treasurer. The treasurer is responsible for ensuring that the signature authorization forms from the approved bank are signed by the designated chapter officials and given to the chapter secretary, who will, in turn, authenticate the chapter’s approval of the signatures. The secretary usually arranges for the forms to be returned to the bank.
Chapter Directors or Co-Directors:
Director of Bylaws and Procedures This standing committee ensures chapter bylaws are consisted with AGA National bylaws.
Director of Education/Profession Certification/Early Careers This committee has the responsibility, within the chapter’s geographical area, for developing, promoting and improving the understanding of public sector financial management at the federal, state, territorial and local government levels by: • Members of the association; • Non-AGA members from the public and private sectors who work in or are interested in financial management within the various levels of government; • Area financial management educators and students. • In fulfilling its responsibilities, the committee should work closely with the Chapter Programs Committee, the National Office, educational institutions within their area and other professional organizations who have an educational mission. • The committee may also arrange seminars on financial management and invite the participation of members of other professional organizations and local business representatives. • To ensure the best possible attendance, seminars must receive advance publicity. Appropriate continuing professional education credits should be arranged. • When group leaders are carefully selected and well briefed in their respective seminar subjects, the program will be a success.
Director of Membership This committee is responsible for attracting members to the chapter and maintaining the active interest of current members. Through implementation of a well-conceived membership recruitment and retention plan, the committee: • Analyzes the chapter’s membership mix to determine areas in public sector financial management that are not represented and defines a recruitment process to attract professionals within these targeted groups to AGA. • This might include special initiatives targeted to recruiting and retaining early career members • Reviews registration rosters from recent chapter events to identify nonmember participants and follow-up with these potential membership leads. • Queries the membership on how to better respond to their needs and forwards the recommendations to the Chapter Executive Committee for use in developing new programs and services to members. • Reviews and appropriately revises letters used for recruiting and welcoming new members, as well as reactivating suspended members. • Maintains an up-to-date record of the names and addresses of all chapter members and makes current listings of all active chapter members available to chapter chairs responsible for mailing chapter materials and announcements to the membership.
Director of Communications This committee is responsible for enhancing the image of the chapter and that of the governmental accountability professional. This includes promoting a better understanding of financial management functions and practices through recognized media channels and maintaining a timely liaison with other professional organizations to recognize the work of the chapter’s committees. • This committee develops policies and establishes standards governing all chapter publications for approval by the chapter’s Executive Committee, including basic publication formats, costs and distribution media. • The committee is responsible for publishing a monthly or bimonthly newsletter to keep chapter members informed on upcoming meetings and chapter activities. • The committee also provides technical guidance to the newsletter editor to ensure adequate coverage of financial management subjects and the various government departments to include in the chapter publication. The newsletter competition at the national level, as well as the Chapter Recognition Program, provides further guidance in this area. • This committee is responsible for conducting or overseeing member studies of financial management matters of general interest to the chapter members and publishing the results of these studies after approval by the Chapter Executive Committee. • The committee cooperates with other research organizations and participates in combined endeavors to improve financial management within the financial management profession. • This committee is responsible for promoting the chapter activities program to the membership and preparing reports for the national association, showing credits earned in accordance with guidelines contained in the Chapter Recognition Program rules.
Director of Community Services This committee converts the chapter’s desire to perform public service into tangible programs by: • Surveying the membership to determine areas of public service interest. • Researching existing projects and programs within the community, which could benefit from member expertise. • Investigating new areas of unmet need, which could become a chapter-sponsored public service project or program. • Recommending a program of public service for chapter approval; and • Coordinating and overseeing approved public service endeavors. The National Office can provide chapters with a Community Services Handbook filled with many ideas for public service activities.
Director of Programs/Technical Meetings This committee has the responsibility of developing and initiating a comprehensive program in the field of public sector financial management for the general chapter membership. • Some chapters establish subcommittees to assist the program committee. • The efforts of the program committee have a marked impact on the success of the chapter in achieving its goals. • Ideally chaired by one of the chapter’s more seasoned members, the committee should prepare an annual program plan for approval by the Chapter Executive Committee. • In implementing the chapter programs, this committee is generally assigned responsibility for securing guest speakers/panel members for meetings, as well as obtaining the necessary program materials for technical meetings. More specifically, these tasks include, but are not limited to, the following: • Coordinating meetings, including arranging for speakers and required audio-visual needs. • Arranging adequate accommodations for speakers and guests, taking times and points of arrival/departure into consideration; securing biographical data from speakers and forwarding it to the publicity committee chair, chapter secretary and chapter editor in ample time for preparation of publicity releases and chapter meeting notices; and following the meeting, sending a letter of appreciation to each speaker. |
