AAUW NC 100 Club

Overview

At the July 23, 2004 board meeting, the following motion was passed:

AAUW NC will establish an AAUW NC 100 Club where membership is available to those who have given 100 hours to AAUW at any level or $100 to AAUW NC in calendar year 2004; club members will be recognized at the 2005 state convention.

The rationale for that motion was based both on the need for AAUW NC to do a better job of fundraising as well as the ReConnection Goal V (identify expertise in the branches).

These are discussion documents to implement that motion that have been reviewed by the executive committee (though not, explicitly in this form) before being posted here.

Nuts and Bolts

A draft process to implement this includes four different forms. Now don't go bananas, it's really not that complicated. The four forms are

1. The donation form. A version of this was published in the last Tar Heel News. It's a simple name/contact info/amount along with an optional name and contact information if the gift is in honor or in memory of someone. This is sent to the Treasurer along with the check.
   
   
2. The form to document a contribution of time. This is the only other form that the average member would be concerned with. It asks for how much time was spent in branch, state and national/regional meetings (with a cap of 20 hours/year in each of those categories) and then the amount of time in other "projects," with some info about the other projects. The member gets the form signed by someone who can "vouch" for them and then sends it to their branch president or directly to the state president or her designee.
   
   
3. The form for "complicated" donations of money. The only ones who should be concerned with this are state board members who choose to "return" expense reimbursements to the state and those who donate airline miles or hotel points. This allows folks to combine, say, unreimbursed expenses with cash contributions to reach the $100 level. This form goes to the Treasurer. Note that the new reimbursement form has a spot to document the donation.
   
   
4. A form branches can use to document the work of a group. We all know that once a project is "done," some folks will just not go back to it, even to complete a simple form. This form allows the branch president to recognize a person or group who put in a large effort. On the other hand, the branch may ask that anyone who thinks s/he qualifies for the 100 club turn in one of the forms (2) or (3) to the branch president. Then the branch can use this fourth form as a summary and can predict how many of its members will be recognized at Convention.

Policy Change

For clarity, it is suggested that this program be implemented with a change to the AAUW NC Policy document and a new section on "recognition". The proposed language also has a "placeholder" for the AAUW NC Recognition Program that was also authorized at the summer board meeting.

While we have been doing fundraising in AAUW NC for some time, there is no mention of that in the policies and this proposed language also includes a new section on that. In particular, when the funds are raised for specific purposes (e.g. SAR) or are "donated" as an unreimbursed expense that would have been charged to particular line item, it seems appropriate to include a matching "expense" to balance the "income."

For Board Discussion

For this to move forward, the board must agree that the motion of the proposed policy change is in order, and then it must be moved, debated, and voted on.

If the policy change is passed without substantial changes, the rest of the implementation can be handled by Joanne or a committee she appoints, and a second motion could give her and/or the Executive Committee explicit authority to approve the details (that might be worked out by an ad hoc committee).

Other notes

Please consider the four forms a "first draft" of this, and come prepared to make suggestions for improving the forms or the process. Obviously there are other questions that need to get worked out

• What records does the Treasurer keep and forward to the convention committee? What else has to be done to make sure the list announced at Convention is correct?
• Who reviews the applications based on time to look for projects and/or people who may be of interest to the AAUW NC board?

The change to the policies about fundraising may seem tangential to this issue, but it is suggested that we add it now. Why is this important? Well, we've not been hitting our fundraising goals, but we have been ending each year with a surplus. We all suspect that this is because many people are just not submitting reimbursement requests. While this is quite generous of them (and one motivation for this program is to recognize that generosity), it also means that we really don't know how much it is costing to run AAUW NC. With this proposal, expenses that are not reimbursed would show up as "donations" as well as "expenses" -- the bottom line is the same, but we have a better idea of what our total expenses really are.

Again, the executive committee has reviewed this, but if you really want to send brickbats, contact Nancy Shoemaker.