Check signing policy proposed by Bike Pittsburgh:

 

"Any Free Ride check over $750.00 requires 2 signatures, Bike Pittsburgh Executive Director and Free Ride treasurer. "

 

 

QUESTION- HOW MUCH IS THE NORMAL AMOUNT FOR SHOP ORDERS? THE GOAL IS THAT SHOP ORDERS SHOULD NOT GENERALLY REQUIRE TWO SIGNATURES.

 

ANSWER - Please see some handy digits posted below the voting chart!

 

 

NOTE: This is based of the check signing policy they adopted already for non-FR bike pittsburgh operations, that states "any check over $500 will require two signatures, the executive director and the Board President or Treasurer."

 

 

Please register your vote on the check signing policy below:

 

Check Signing Policy Votes

Name	Vote (yes or no)	Date
Jessica	yes	6/26/07
Shaun	an unethusiastic "OK"	6/26/07
Matt	yes	6/26/07
Johnny	an unenthusiastic 'ok'	7/2/07
Morgan	Yes	7/2
Stuart	Yes, conditional on proposing a 1K limit to BP first	7/2

 

If you vote no - please comment below, and suggest a revision you would be comfortable with if possible as well.

 

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For reference, here are the amounts of the QBP checks written in the last year and a half.

 

 

3-11-06

$525.00

 

9-30-06

$1235.00

 

11-4-06

$615.00

 

3-3-07

$829.66

 

5-3-07

$1502.00

 

6-20-07

1295.67

 

 

Kinda all over the place, eh? Some other large checks which would exceed the "$750" ideal would be checks for delinquent rent, and "paychecks" for contracted labor (ie: paying someone who teaches several classes and then lumps them together in one check).

 

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p.s. - some background on this in case anyone is totally confused or has forgotten. This has come our way because Bike Pittsburgh, as part of its attempt to become audit-worthy as a non-profit that must audit itself to keep said legal status, has taken the recommendations of its financial advisors (Kitty and Amy Enrico) to formulate some policies for fiscal accountability. The general bent of the policies is that multiple eyes should review things, especially when it comes to big decisions. This check signing policy is the first such policy they have managed to develop. More may come our way eventually. With regards to how these policies apply to Free Ride, there are several points.

• One- as fiscal sponsor one of their jobs is to ensure that everyone working under them crosses financial t's (etc), and one of our jobs as a sponsor-ee is to avoid doing anything that endangers their (our) nonprofit status.
• Two- there has been discussion on the board that it is okay if FR has slightly different policies than BP, but it seems important in the eyes of reviewers that we have some set of policies. Put another way, this list of policies can be crafted to fit the reality we each deal with, but it should exist in some form.
• Three- I fought pretty hard to get this to a point where they understand Free Ride should be consulted in the development of any policy that applies to us. I also told them it takes time, because we have to discuss at our monthly meetings. But- I believe it would be wise for us to be reasonably timely, responsive, and participatory in this process, in order to keep the faith as it were, and show these folks how it's done.-Jessica

 

*i say 'an unenthusiastic 'ok' merely b/c it's annoying and i'll have to listed to shaun whine about it later.  -j.

* I have already begun pre-whining in an effort to save time later.  - shaun 

 

 

Update

 

Based on the comments people have given me on the wiki so far, it seems people are o.k. if not super-stoked about a policy where any check over $750 needs to be double-signed, once by our treasurer and once by Scott bricker. 

 

People would prefer the limit to be $1000

 

My plan, based on this input, is to convey these perspectives to the BP board at the next meeting (july 19th), and see how they respond to the $1000 idea.  If the accept that, we'll go with that.  If they don't, we'll go with $750, which no one on either side has blocked as far as I can tell.

 

-Jessica