You are in: Home » Communication & Education » Notes from the President
Notes from the SCAR President, number 30 (23 September 2010)
SCAR's Finances, Part 3 - External Fund-Raising
Colleagues,
This is the third and final Presidential Note regarding various aspects of SCAR's finances for your consideration. It addresses the mandate to raise funds beyond SCAR's membership fees.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to bring to your attention several improvements in how we handle SCAR financial resources and ensure optimal management of SCAR's assets is these difficult times. These measures were adopted as a result of the last Delegates meetings based on my conversations with several SCAR members about the necessity to ensure, especially when asking for more resources through increased membership fees, that we demonstrate that we manage SCAR's existing resources to their optimum effect.
Operation of Standing Scientific Groups (SSGs) - SSG SC Chief Officers are to provide written notification, once the biennium budget is approved by the Delegates, to proponents for each budgeted activity within two months or less of the end of the Delegates meeting indicating budget decisions. This correspondence is to be copied to the Secretariat. SSGs are to provide comprehensive reports using a new template designed by the Secretariat, two months in advance of the SCAR biennial business meetings. The SSG business meetings should be used to refine these reports, consider last minute items, and develop final budgets and information for the Delegates. These reports are to provide a budget analysis including reasons for under spending.
Operation of the Finance Committee - The Finance Committee will be assembled two months prior to the meeting to allow time for preparation of financial summaries and development of budgetary scenarios for Delegate consideration. This will require that all requests for funds from subsidiary bodies be available at least two months in advance of the Delegates meetings.
Cash Balance Carry-forward Policies - The "no carry forward beyond biennial budgets" will be strictly enforced. If actions are incomplete, funds must be re-applied for and will be considered with all other budget requests in the following biennium budget discussions. Chronic under-spending may result in reduced future budgets. The EXCOM/Secretariat will continue the process of allocating "contingency funds" as they become available to high priority, unfunded activities. A prioritized list of unfunded activities will be maintained by the Secretariat at all times to ensure strategic and orderly allocation of additional funds.
Organization of Biennial Meetings - An Action Group will be formed to provide advice on how best to organize the biennial SCAR meetings so they are as efficient and effective as possible. The frequency of meetings and a 10-year strategic plan integrating all SCAR science activities into a cohesive structure for optimal impact will be considered within the context of other external meetings of relevance to polar science. The AG is to report recommendations to the next EXCOM Meeting for consideration. Time and cost savings will be one aspect of the assessment.
We continue to look for ways to operate more efficiently and to wisely use SCAR's limited funds to greatest impact. These changes are in addition to changes implemented in Buenos Aires including SSGs meeting in plenary for half-a-day to discuss common items and receive instructions from the Secretariat, science lectures during the Delegates Meeting, publication of paper summaries in a Guide to the Delegates Meeting, use of PowerPoint presentations to improve communications, and changes to the Open Science Conference format including moving celebratory introductions to the ice-breaker, awards and recognition conducted at the banquet, and limiting plenary presentations to a single morning session to name a few. Feedback has been positive on these changes and we welcome suggestions on how to continue to improve performance.
Re: External Fund Raising
Colleagues,
As part of the strategy of expanding the Secretariat staff and ensuring full-time employees were available year-round to conduct SCAR business, it was agreed that external fund-raising activities would be pursued to provide additional funds beyond SCAR membership fees. As reported at the Delegates Meeting in 2010, success in this arena has been demonstrated. Examples include CAML (Sloan Foundation), SCAR-MarBIN (Total Foundation), the Martha T Muse Prize (Tinker Foundation) and ICSU and other grants (e.g. IPY Education lessons; ISMASS workshop; travel grants to IPY Oslo). While these additional revenues assist in accomplishing SCAR's mission, they come with targeted allocations for specific activities and significant additional workload for the Secretariat. These accounts include mostly encumbered (pass through costs) associated with projects and thus are not available for other activities. In recent years nearly 50% of SCAR's total budgets are for reimbursing costs associated with these projects. Few if any external sources are interested in funding basic administrative costs of an organization so their usage is often restricted. External funds are usually of limited duration so they are also not useful in defraying recurring costs as they will come and go as grants and contracts are awarded and expire. We are committed to external fund-raising as a component of SCAR's financial strategy.
In the next few years, substantial external fund grants and management fees will close, further exacerbating budget constraints. In particular, the CAML and SCAR-MarBIN/Total Foundation projects are scheduled for completion this year and thus these management fees will end. While we are actively looking for replacement programs there is no certainty that similar projects will materialize in time to replace the lost revenues from management fees, if they materialize at all.
As described in the 2004-2010 Strategic Plan, a Development Council will be established this year. Foundations and other potential sources of external funds have suffered from the world-wide economic downturn so these are difficult times for these entities. I have decided in its first few years I, as President, will chair this council to ensure it is actively developed and a course set for the long term. In the coming months many of you will be asked to assist in these activities as I would like the Council to focus on regions of the world. Many times sources of funding are targeted toward specific countries and regions and this approach will allow us to develop a global strategy as well as a regional strategy in the search for external funds.
As I have summarized above, external fund-raising has many facets to it and the limitations related to these activities must be fully appreciated as we plan for the future. I also wanted to assure you that we are making every effort in all aspects of SCAR's finances to ensure resources are available to accomplish the most important strategic objectives of SCAR. As always your ideas and input are not only solicited but needed to effectively manage our way through these difficult financial times.
Chuck Kennicutt
President of SCAR
About Acrobat/PDF files