A Call to Budget: Making Choices That Matter

Nicholas Matz, AICP, Chapter Treasurer

As a parenting technique, I made up short, pithy slogans to convey the truth of the world to my sons. These represented the reality and experience of what I thought they would/will/do face. I called them Dadisms cuz, well, I was the dad. And they were isms. And you try explaining truism to a nine year-old.

The Dadism that applies to the Chapter budget is, If you have money, you have choices.

The Chapter sets an annual budget, like all of the organizations and companies that our members work for (and yes, sole proprietors too!). It both guides and mandates the work that Chapter leadership and management does for our members. Developing, vetting, and adopting the budget takes place so that each fiscal year can start on January 1.

The Chapter’s operating fund receives non-conference revenue primarily from member dues and job advertisement postings. Conference revenue is primarily from registration fees and from sponsorships and exhibitor fees.

The operating fund expenses are primarily  the conference and on managing day-to-day account operations of the Chapter as a non-profit. Our partner and account manager is SBI Association Management.

This year’s income is budgeted at $384,030 and expenses are budgeted at $343,531. We’ve been told that we punch above our weight delivering a quality of member experience comparable to larger APA state chapters.

The Chapter has checking and savings accounts, an investment account, and restricted funds for scholarships, unallocated balances, and a prudent reserve. The Chapter Sections generally have their own accounts, funded from the Chapter on a per-member basis.

The Chapter Work Program provides a blueprint for longer-term spending, as well as funding projects that the Executive Board selects for the year. It is the list of things that we want to do, in service both to the professions we represent and to our members. The Work Program is adopted alongside the annual budget.

The Chapter is financially stable in fiscal 2025, and its leaders and managers have worked in the past 20 months to get it to that coveted status. Like many non-profits, we discovered that business as usual is not a successful financial model, and that we have to be rigorous in our accounting.

This will be my third—and final—Chapter budget. Why don’t you make it your first, as an active, practicing, nimble, and resilient member?