AZ AER Scholarship Committee Meeting

Monday August 22, 2016

Meeting Time: 4:15 to 5:30 PM.

Attending: Anna Miller, Jenny Wheeler, Meg Amster, Pamela Gottard, Diane Shifflett

Not attending: Tamara Bishop-Amavilah

During our scholarship meeting, the following topics were discussed:

  1. Anna brought the committee up-to-date on the scholarships we have awarded and where we are in the process of either administering them, or obtaining newsletter articles or commitments for recipients to speak at a conference. We are also attempting to regain grants that were cashed but not used for their intended purposes.
  2. Jean Green received a professional mini grant and is writing an article for the upcoming newsletter.
  3. Aarlin Murietta has spoken at a conference. She has emailed receipts for reimbursements for school books, and appears to be communicating with the scholarship chair and treasurer on a regular basis.
  4. We are attempting to regain two $200 consumer grants that were awarded to Allison Wilson and Treyu Brown that were cashed and not used to fund their participation at a summer camp, as they never attended.
  5. Anna explained our recommended updates to receipt collection procedures. She shared the information provided by the IRS regarding changes to our receipt policies:
  6. When we applied for tax-exempt reinstatement as an entity separate from the national organization, our policy manual contained a provision for collecting receipts. This and our by-laws were part of the documentation we included with our application.
  7. If we would like to stop collecting receipts, we will have to get a private letter ruling with the IRS that will allow them to determine whether this would affect our tax-exempt status. This would cost us $28,300.
  8. The IRS does not provide any advice regarding financial reporting outside of that private letter ruling for tax-exempt organizations. We will maintain our policy of collecting receipts for scholarships and grants and will streamline the process so that it is as unencumbered and easy to track for tax reporting purposes as possible.
  9. Jenny proposed the following:
  10. As a general rule, we will reimburse scholarship and grant recipients for costs directly related to their awards after they have provided receipts reflecting those costs.
  11. We will update our scholarship and grant forms so that applicants can indicate the award-specific purposes for which money will be spent prior to receiving an award.
  12. If award recipients cannot afford to pay for expenses first and then be reimbursed, we will pay those costs directly and maintain all receipts reflecting the costs.

Jenny sent out updated scholarship forms and proposed changes to the policy manual for the committee members to review.The committee agreed that this proposal to update receipt collection procedures would be appropriate and we will make recommendations to the AZ AER board to consider.

  1. Lastly, we discussed additional items we would like to consider for the future, including changing the age requirements for the student merit scholarship and more clearly articulating its purpose.