The proposal is to amend Section 2.6(2)E of the NESFA Code to add a section b.5: Review of Disbursements: For all asset accounts, examine the bank statements (or equivalent) to find all disbursements above $900 and an appropriate sampling of those which are smaller, including all disbursements to Officers. Have they been correctly entered into the books? Is the purpose for which they were made properly documented?
Add a new subsection to 2.6(2):
[In Program's report during the debriefing] We are making a Program Fiat here, which can be overruled by Boskone 42 Program or by the Membership at a Business Meeting – only Program can give out free memberships.
This should be redundant, since comped memberships should only be able to be given out by an area which has budgeted for them – except for the people who come with the Guests of Honor (spouses, children, etc.), only Program has done so in any Boskone budget that we remember, so only someone who has authority to commit portions of Program's budget should be authorized to give them out. On the other hand, there apparently are people who think that 'free' memberships are exactly that, created from nothing and reported to no-one – so we should do something to try to clarify the situation. And comped memberships are an even more sensitive case than most budgetary items, since many people regard them as establishing precedents. But Program is not the right place to put this authority since, while the vast majority of comped memberships do come under Program, there is a great deal of the convention which is not under Program's authority and which may at times need comped memberships. If we're going to create a rule for comped memberships, we should try to make sure that it's one which works in all cases.
We propose to handle the issue of 'free' memberships by making it explicit that all Boskone memberships except those for the Guests of Honor must be paid for by some person or organization and that any Boskone membership paid for by Boskone must be paid from a budget line item which is explicitly designated for that purpose, then allowing normal budgetary controls to deal with the original issue. This should not impose any significant hardships since all non-GoH comped memberships that I can remember have already had budget line items authorizing them.
None of this is intended to interfere with "passes" issued to provide limited access to the convention to people who are providing services to us; to make this clear we're proposing a new section which formalizes such passes.
Add new section 1.9(17):
1.9(17)M There are no "free" Boskone memberships except those for the Guests of Honor; all others must be paid for by someone. Memberships may only be paid for by Boskone itself when permitted by a budget line item which is explicitly designated for that purpose. As with any budget line item, only its owner may authorize expenditures against it. [8/04]
Add new section 1.9(18):
1.9(18)M Passes are issued to non-members who are providing services to the convention and allow them limited access sufficient for them to provide those services. Passes must be approved by the convention Chairman or by the Membership. These are "free".[8/04]
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