SLA Board Votes on Undesignated Asset Withdrawal from Grants & Awards Fund
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Posted by: Joel Colon
SLA Board Votes on Undesignated Asset Withdrawal from Grants & Awards Fund Monday, May 13, 2024
On Thursday, April 18, 2024, the SLA Board of Directors voted on a one-time withdrawal of “undesignated” assets from the Grants & Awards Fund. Based on research done by the SLA Investment Policy Review Working Group, these funds were available for immediate withdrawal and transfer to SLA’s checking account for operational expenses.
The total of the “undesignated” assets as of December 31, 2023 was $157,867. These monies, in addition to monies recently used from the Ron Coplen and David R. Bender Funds to support appropriate conference expenses, should allow SLA enough liquidity to cover expenses through August or September 2024, by which time accounting from the conference should be finalized.
This move will also simplify what has previously been a complex system for tracking Fund monies. Before this move, several named Funds were combined in one account - under the heading Grants & Awards - at SLA’s investment company; however, the monies in all named Funds under this heading have been tracked separately. The tracking was managed internally by SLA’s professional staff.
Historically, an “undesignated” pool of assets has existed in the Grants & Awards Fund account. The SLA Investment Policy Review Working Group was unable to uncover the reason for this pool, but was able to confirm its existence since at least 2017. The Working Group will make further recommendations to the Board regarding the management of the remaining investment Funds with a revised Investment Policy Statement later in the year.
“This move represents another step towards giving SLA the flexibility it needs to transcend our current financial status,” said SLA President John DiGilio. “In the background, we are working on boosting revenues and controlling expenses. I want to be clear that though this is a withdrawal from our Grants & Awards Fund, it was from a line item with no designated purpose and it was done with as much clarity of purpose as possible. The Scholarship Fund remains whole with proper monies appropriated in 2024 for our renewed Scholarship program. These “undesignated” monies will give us a lifeline and simplify our investment situation in the long term.”
Members of the Investment Policy Review Working Group include:
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