Expense Policy

 

 

Members often have questions about spending money for club events and activities. It is important that everyone understand the policy that the current board intends to follow. This policy applies to all expenditures of ETRC funds.

No expenditure or commitment of ETRC funds, of any amount, for any reason, will be done without approval, before the expenditure, or before any ETRC funds are committed to be spent.

This means that purchases made by any member, whether a board member or not, must be approved according the criteria below, before ETRC funds will be released directly to any vendor, or reimbursed to a member. This policy is intended to provide much more control over expenses ranging up to $200.

1. Expenditures up to and including $50 must have the joint approval of 1) the Treasurer; and 2) the President or Vice President; and 3) any other board member. The Treasurer, President, and Vice President together can approve these expenses.

2. Expenditures from over $50 up to and including $200 must have the approval of the majority of the ETRC board.

3. Expenditures of over $200 must the approval of the majority of the membership. This is defined in ETRC bylaws.

This level of control may seem excessive, but it is absolutely necessary for the financial health of ETRC. Any single expense of a few dollars up to $50 may seem to be trivial, and to be within reason. The problem is that in any month, there can be many expenses of this level. They can quickly total up to hundreds of dollars if we do not monitor them closely. Continual unplanned expenses of several hundred dollars each month will rapidly lead to financial difficulty for the club.

In practice this means that everyone, individual members, committee members, and individual board members, must not commit or spend ETRC money without approval according to levels defined above. ETRC will not be liable for any actual or committed expense that is not approved as above.

Revision 1.0 effective November 22, 2006