To:Budget & Resource Committee

From:Ray Di Pasquale

Date:September 18, 2006

Subject:Call Letter

Thank you once again for your willingness to be part of this innovative and exciting committee that promises to help the college as we struggle through these very difficult financial times. The intent of this letter is to outline expectations for the coming year. Included with this letter will be information on the current budget which was submitted and the current fiscal situation.

This call letter is asking that you begin deliberations to invite vice presidents to present their budgets to your committee with the idea of understanding their needs and current budget situation. This will include:

  1. Setting a timeline for these presentations to be made some time during the spring semester;
  2. What budget cuts has their division faced and how have they dealt with them;
  3. What are the pros and cons of their budget issues as they pertain to delivering the services for which their division is responsible; and
  4. If they were to list their top five needs in their division, broken down into two categories – personnel and equipment, what would they be and request that they provide detailed information, including budgetary summaries.

We would also ask that each division present creative budget solutions, looking for new ideas and cost-savings measures as we move forward into this new fiscal year.

In the very near future, I will be forwarding additional budget information, as well as a small amounts of money that divisions can present justifications for why these small grants would help their divisions. More information will follow on these procedures.

In conclusion, once again I want to reinforce how important the work you will be doing will help our college move forward. The Strategic Planning Committee will begin its work by answering the following three questions:

  1. What students will we teach?
  2. What will students learn?
  3. How we will provide the resources to support these efforts? (It will be the role of the Budget & Resource Committee to determine this.)

In essence, not only are you the Budget & Resource Committee, but you are Strategic Planning Committee #3, which will look at our resources, how we are currently spending our dollars, and begin the serious plan of managing our budget in these difficult financial times.

Thank you for your service. I look forward to talking with all of you in the near future, and I look forward to your final report, which I would expect to be on my desk with recommendations by the end of the spring semester.

RMD:dmz

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