AAACN 2002 financial profile

An independent auditor's report conducted by Gold, Meltzer, Plasky, & Wise was presented to the AAACN Board of Directors in August 2002. This report concluded that the financial statements "present fairly, in all material respects, the assets, liabilities and fund balance of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing as of June 30, 2002 and 2001 and the results of its revenues, expenses and its cash flows for the years then ended."

As of June 30, 2002 AAACN's expenses exceeded revenues by $39,270, leaving a fund balance of $280,071. Of this, $24,350 can be accounted for by a loss of sale of investments and the decrease in interest and dividends from investments, which is consistent with the market as a whole over the past year.

In spite of this, AAACN's 7-year average rate of return on investments is still quite positive at 6.8%.

As per last year's financial report, the Board of Directors did not see much opportunity to reduce expenses further and focused instead on increasing revenues. However revenues did not meet projections, as is consistent with current national trends for volunteer organizations. Other than the $10,850 loss of interest and dividend income, most of the remaining deficit was related to insufficient income from membership dues and our products/programs.

Since membership dues and conference fees are AAACN's primary source of income, two actions will be taken. Membership dues have remained constant for 10 years and the Board reluctantly decided that it was time for a modest increase. Dues will be raised by $10, effective July 2003. Conference registration fees were also last increased in 1999. The FY 2003 budget includes a $25 (9%) increase in conference registration fees. In addition, significant effort is being made to realize income from our state-of-the-art Telehealth Nursing Practice Core Course (TNPCC). AAACN telehealth nursing practice experts will present three pre- and post-conferences over the next year.

The Board also developed a more conservative income budget for 2003, with increases only projected in the areas of Grants'/Contributions/Scholarships and Viewpoint advertising. The increase in Grants/Contributions/Scholarships has already been achieved through donations by the president and president-elect of their honoraria. Viewpoint continues to be attractive to both members and advertisers, and significant effort is being made to solicit more ads.

Expenses were well controlled in FY 2002, coming in $28,685 under budget. Since it was learned that there were further opportunities to reduce expenses, the Board scrutinized the budget very closely. We decided to decrease expenses for Board of Director meetings and the membership directory. The membership directory will be available on the AAACN Web site and paper copies will be printed for leadership volunteers. As per the association's usual practice, increases in expenses focused on providing better member service. This year's budget includes a $4,000 (33%) increase in Internet services, primarily to develop and maintain an e-commerce site.

Industry standards maintain that an organization should have at least 50% of their operating budget as a fund balance, and AAACN's balance exceeds this standard. However, the Board of Directors decided that, in the interest of fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility, it was time to take some prudent action. The FY 2003 budget reflects the changes necessary to maintain a viable organization in an unstable financial environment.

Kathleen P. Krone, MS, RN AAACN Treasurer kkrone@umich.edu

Copyright American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing Nov/Dec 2002
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