Agenda and Budget Committee Charge

General Description

  • Standing Committee of the Board of Trustees
  • Number of members is five. All members of this committee serve ex officio. They consist of the President (who serves as chair), Secretary, Treasurer, Associate Treasurer, Chair of the BT.

Principal Activities

The principal activity of the Committee is to meet with the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer twice a year to review drafts of the budget and agenda for the semi-annual meetings of the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees.

Miscellaneous Information

The Committee meets for half a day in early April and early October. The April meeting is by conference call, and the October meeting is at the Providence Headquarters.

Travel support is provided at Level B. An explanation of this level is available on page 2 of the Level B voucher, which is available here:

http://www.ams.org/about-us/governance/board/level-b-voucher.pdf

Staff support for this Committee is provided by the Executive Director’s Assistant.

Note to the Chair

Committee chairs should be informed, at the beginning of each fiscal period, of the budget of their committees and cautioned to remain within the budget. Such items as travel reimbursement, accommodations, and meals for guests of any kind fall within these budgets.

For the purpose of archiving the committee activities, the Secretary maintains a central file system for archiving committee records. Committee Chairs are asked to submit committee records on yearly basis. Chairs can submit material at their discretion, and some materials that they may wish to provide are meeting minutes, agenda, and emails. Confidential material should be noted, so that it can be handled in a confidential manner.

Authorization

December 1973 ECBT Minutes, Item 64
Budget Committee created.
May 1979 ECBT Minutes, Item 7.3
Finance Committee dissolved and responsibilities assumed by Budget Committee; President added to Committee. Authorized to modify the current year budget and small expenditures up to \$10,000.
November 1981 ECBT Minutes, Item 7.23
Changed name to Agenda and Budget Committee.
November 1986 ECBT Minutes, Item 3.15
Authorized to modify the current year budget and small expenditures (phrase “up to \$10,000” was dropped).
May 1990 ECBT Minutes, Item 3.6
Format of ABC meetings changed. Half the meeting will be devoted to reviewing the budget in detail and half the meeting devoted to reviewing the agenda for the ECBT meeting. No actions will be taken at ABC meetings.
May 2000 ECBT Minutes, Item 2.19
No longer send ABC Agenda and Fiscal Reports to entire ECBT; just send to ABC.
November 2001 ECBT Minutes, Item 2.16
Spring ABC meeting will be by conference call.
November 2002 ECBT Minutes, Item 2.7
Membership changed to: President (Chair), Secretary, Treasurer, Associate Treasurer, Chair of Board.
May 2007 ECBT Minutes, Items 2.16 & 2E.4
Spring meetings now take place in April (instead of March). Staff prepares only one set of Fiscal Reports in spring (instead of one for spring ABC meeting and one for spring ECBT meeting). Confidentiality statement for ABC and ECBT meetings approved.

Past Members

A list of current and past members is available here:
http://www.ams.org/about-us/governance/committees/abc-past.html