ALIA members-only pages

Last updated October 2008

This guide is intended for group convenors and treasurers, but may also of interest to any committee members and those wanting to start an ALIA group. This guide provides details of the funding support from the Association for ALIA groups. It also includes how ALIA can assist groups with planning and budgets. ALIA groups have a separate bank account from the rest of the Association. To help ALIA manage the groups' finances effectively and carefully for the benefit of all members and the profession, we ask your group to assist us by submitting annual break-even budgets. Breaking even and generating income is an integral part of the Association and ensures your group assets grow and remain healthy. Funding support is available for groups planning significant events. This means that your group can plan to hold events without needing to fundraise or seek seed funding to cover the initial outlay of venue booking fees etc.

Where can I get more information and support?
Please contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address)

• Recommended planning timetable

Groups' Funding and Support

• Special project funding
• Funding support for ALIA membership recruitment activities
• Support for events and activities
• Covering costs and generating income

Group Events and Activities

• Networking and social activities
  
  
• Professional development (PD) activities
• Registration fees
• Gifts for Speakers / presenters
• Payments for Speakers / presenters
• Group publications
• Group awards

Group Committee Activities and Expenses

• Meeting expenses
• Travel expenses
• Administrative expenses
• Group administrative officer
• Petty cash

Annual Budget Cycle

The ALIA financial year runs from January to December and groups need to have their Group Activities and Budget Forecast for the following year submitted by 20 November of the current year. For example, if your group is planning on holding events in 2009, you need to have your forecast to ALIA by 20 November 2009. (PLEASE NOTE: submitting your yearly forecast is NOT the same as submitting a proposal for an individual event.) To simplify and streamline the process for groups submitting Group Activities and Budget Forecasts a template has been developed and is available for download as a Word document or in Rich Text Format. To submit your group budget and activity forecast: download the template, add in the relevant information, then attach the report to an e-mail and send to Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address).

Recommended planning timetable:

• Review how your group is going, is there anything that needs to change, any new ideas
• Determine who will be Convenor, Treasurer and Secretary for the next year, so they can be included in your group's planning
• If necessary, seek new committee members. For more information about group committees visit here.

In September-October
Further develop and finalise your group plans for next year
Considerations could include:

• Outcomes of the preliminary 'How are we going?' sessions mentioned above
• Primary objectives of activities (what does your group want to achieve for the following year)
• Your audience for activities (who is your target audience for these activities)
• Possibilities for co-operation with other groups (seek out other groups who would be interested in sharing the organising of an activity)
• Membership recruitment activities (will there be any activities to attract new members, can you incorporate recruitment activities into other events)
• How your group can achieve cost-recovery for the year

Tip: Use the annual ALIA strategic plan

By mid November (deadline 20 November)
Submit your Group Activities and Budget Forecast
Your activities and budget forecast needs to include:

• Your planned activities
• Your planned income and expenditure
• Who will be your group's Convenor, Treasurer and Secretary for the following year
• How your group plans on communicating with it's members

Groups' Funding and Support

ALIA groups have their own account separate from the Association's funds and all income generated from your group goes into this account. By planning activities that generate enough income to cover your costs ensures all groups' finances remain healthy, and that your group can continue to enjoy the benefits of strong financial backing from ALIA to support your group's planned activities. Surplus funds also help grow the groups' account and assists us in providing special project funding and funding support for significant professional development events such as symposia and workshops. ALIA groups are able to access funding support for significant activities. Rather than your group needing to generate enough funding for a specific event from each of your other activities, all that is needed is a budget breakdown that indicates the activity will break-even or make a surplus. This assists us to maintain and grow the groups' account for the use of all groups. Please contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address) if you want to apply for funding for your event.

Special project funding

Special project funding is available for activities that fall outside those detailed in this guide and could include:

• Support for a group representative to attend a non-ALIA event - any group can apply for special project funding for a member to attend an event of particular relevance to your group's purpose
• Produce a significant publication - other than newsletters
• Develop guidelines for an area of practice relevant to your group
• Run professional development workshops or activities for regional and rural members
• Committee interstate travel to attend annual or irregular meetings relevant to your group's key activities
• Administrative support for active groups to aid in the organisation of group committee work

If your group is interested in submitting an application to the ALIA Board of Directors for special project funding please read about the special project funding criteria and contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address) for assistance in developing your proposal.

Funding support for ALIA membership recruitment activities

Support for events and activities

ALIA provides extensive support for your group when holding activities. We can help by:

• Paying venue deposits on your group's behalf
• Receiving and processing credit card registrations; and
• Booking Internet airfares and accommodation for speakers

It should not be necessary for group committee members to pay costs incurred for ALIA group activities with their personal credit card. Please contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address) to arrange payment on your group's behalf.

Covering costs and generating income

As mentioned above, covering costs and generating income is an integral part of groups and ensures your group assets grow and remain healthy.

The two main avenues for covering costs and generating income are:

• Charging participants

Charging for attendance at activities is the main way your group can cover costs. Non-ALIA members should be charged at least 33 per cent more than ALIA members [By-law 2]. This ensures that there is a clear benefit to being an ALIA member.

• Sponsorship

If you are considering obtaining sponsorship please contact your ALIA Group Liaison before approaching potential sponsors. To get further information and ideas on how to negotiate sponsorship and to assist in coordinating an Association wide approach to sponsorship, please go to our Sponsorship guide or contact the Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address)

Group Events and Activities

Networking and social activities

These activities include library visits, information exchange, and similar networking and social functions. Your group needs to include information about these activities in your 'planned activities' section of your annual budget submission. Please plan these activities carefully to ensure your group recovers costs.

To recover costs you could request a gold coin contribution for ALIA members and charge $5-$10 for non-members' attendance. There is no requirement to bank gold coin contributions, instead add the coins to your petty cash. Meetings could also be held in restaurants, cafes etc where people pay for their own meal and beverages.

ALIA doesn't require your group to provide a budget breakdown for either of these methods if your costs are covered this way.

Please note: In the case of networking and social activities alcoholic beverages are subject to Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) and cannot be paid for by ALIA. Where possible, have your participants pay for their own drinks. For more information please contact the Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address)

Professional development (PD) activities

When planning PD activities you need to consider:

• What is the purpose of your activity?
• Who is your audience?
• What are the learning outcomes for your participants (what do you hope your audience will learn)?
• Where is the best location for your event?
• When is the best time and date for the type of event you're organising?

And for your group's benefit, ensure evaluation is incorporated into your activity - ALIA has provided an Evaluation form template [ 126kb doc | 166kb rtf ] to download. This is available in a Word document for you to adjust and print.

Certificates of participation for your attendees are also available at no charge from the Association. An order form for these can be found here

For more information and support, contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address)

ALIA encourages groups to include ALIA PD Scheme points for activities. For assistance with assigning PD points please contact the ALIA PD officer (please remove '.nospam' from address) ph. 02 6215 8216 or 1800 020 071.

If your group is planning to organise PD activities please include an estimated budget figure in your annual activities/budget submission and remember to submit a detailed breakdown for your PD event to ALIA 3 months before your event is held.

Registration fees

Because covering costs and generating income is an integral part of maintaining and growing your group's finances, your group should aim to run activities at a surplus. This also helps us ensure that your group achieves cost recovery over the year even if one or two of your activities fail to break-even.

You're also encouraged to obtain sponsorship to help to reduce costs for ALIA members. But remember - non-members should be charged a minimum of 33% more than the member rate.

ALIA National Office is able to arrange registrations for your events and depending on the size of the event your group may be charged a minimal fee. If your group is interested in having ALIA coordinate your event registrations, please contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address)

Gifts for Speakers / presenters

Your group may like to present a gift to your speakers or presenters at an event. Gifts of up to $100 do not attract Fringe Benefits Tax (including wine and gift certificates). Please make sure these gifts are included in your group's budget.

Payments for Speakers / presenters

If your group chooses a speaker who is not a professional speaker or presenter and you want to pay them a fee rather than presenting a gift, you can do this by asking your speaker or presenter to complete a form that is available from ALIA. For more information about this option please contact the ALIA Finance Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address) ph. 02 6215 8219. Please ensure you include the fee for the speaker or presenter in the budgeting for your activity.

Group publications

ALIA can offer a great deal of assistance to groups wanting to publish electronic newsletters, including support from our web publishing team. If your group is interested in publishing your newsletter electronically, or in creating a new one, please contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address)

If your group wants to produce a hardcopy newsletter, you will need to recover all costs associated with the publication and distribution.

You could recover costs through:

• Charging a fee
• Seeking advertising and/or sponsorship
• The surplus generated by other activities you've held during the year

Group awards

For many groups, having their own award is an opportunity to recognise excellence in their region or area of interest. If your group is interested in organising an award, your group will need to recover all costs associated with the award as ALIA has a major awards programme. All details of income and expenditure for awards must be included in your group's annual budget and activities forecast.

If your group is interested in proposing a new award, please contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address) to discuss the submission process.

Group Committee Activities and Expenses

Meeting expenses

In the new group structure and with the support of chat rooms, e-mail and e-lists, the need for frequent face-to-face meetings for group committees has reduced.

National and multi-state group committees are encouraged to meet by teleconference. This is an inexpensive way to meet and supplement communication by e-mail, e-list postings and chat sessions. Teleconferences can be organised by contacting the Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address)

Your group is also asked to keep expenses for committee meetings cost neutral. We also ask that all committee members pay for, or provide, their own alcoholic beverages. Alcohol costs for committee meetings will not be reimbursed.

All costs incurred for your committee meetings are to be recouped from your group's surplus generated by activities throughout the year.

Travel expenses

If your committee wishes to travel within your group region, you are required to cover the costs incurred from your group's budget surplus for the year. Please remember - you need to include this travel in your group's annual budget forecast.

Administrative expenses

These expenses include any postage, phone calls or other general expenses incurred in the administration of the group. Your group is required to cover these costs from your group's budget surplus for the year. Please remember: your group needs to include these administration expenses in your annual budget submission.

Group administrative officer

Your group may engage a group administrative officer, however the wages cost must be fully recovered from income generated by your group's activities. Please remember: groups need to include budget information for their group administration officer in the annual budget submission.

Your group may informally engage administrative support, as a one off, up to a maximum payment of $50 including GST. For more information about this position, please contact Your ALIA Groups Liaison Officer (please remove '.nospam' from address)

Petty cash

Every group is able to maintain a petty cash float of up to $300 to help cover incidentals throughout the year. Petty cash should be included in your group's budget under expenses.