Feature. . .
WASFAA Fiscal Year Change
Tracy Reisinger, University of Portland
WASFAA Treasurer

The WASFAA membership recently voted to change the WASFAA fiscal year. The fiscal year was May 1-April 30. Members approved the change to make the fiscal year be January 1-December 31. This by-laws change was proposed and recommended by the Executive Council for multiple reasons. There were pros and cons to changing the fiscal year. The cons being that the fiscal year bud-get would be set by the outgoing board so the new board would not have as much say as to how WASFAA funds were being spent. Another con was that since the fiscal year would no longer match the membership year or the Executive Council's year, the sitting board would not be responsible for funds that were spent. However the current board felt the pros outweighed those concerns.

The pros to switching the year were numerous. First, the fiscal year would be closed before the busiest time of the WASFAA year. With the Annual Conference and spring training going on in the spring and in April the income and expense activity for WASFAA is at the highest level. Also, income and expense activity for the two Summer Institutes is starting to pick up at the time as well. Second, with all this activity the largest events of the year have had their overall budgets split between fiscal years and split between Executive Councils. With that split, the board believed that the issue of budgets crossing Executive Council years was going to be happening regardless of when the fiscal year was set. Third, the closing of the fiscal year books was occurring during the busiest time of the year not only for WASFAA and its activities, but also for the Treasurer if they happen to be from a private school when April and May are peak awarding times.

With the change to January-December, the fiscal year will be ending when there is very little WASFAA activity going on. Fall training would be done, and income and expense activity would be very low. Also December is a slow time for just about anybody who would agree to serve in the Treasurer position. Finally, it would mean that most WASFAA activity expenses would fall within one fiscal year instead of being split between fiscal years. Several examples are the Annual Conference or the Summer Institute where depending on when the expenses are incurred half the expenses were occurring in one fiscal year and the other half in the next fiscal year. With this change, most expenses will happen within one fiscal year and make it easier for committee chairs to track their income and expenses.

So what happens now? WASFAA will end its current fiscal year early on December 31 and begin the new fiscal year on January 1. As Treasurer I was thrilled to see this happen and was gratified to see Executive Board members and WASFAA members recognize that even though something has been done one way for a long time, that when looking at all the issues, we weren't afraid to try something new for the overall benefit of the many volunteers who serve on the board and for benefit of the WASFAA members. I look forward to working with our new Treasurer-Elect, Steve Herndon, as WASFAA heads into its new year.