Varsity Crews |
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The following letters were sent to the chapter secretaries and also placed on the TASO web site. It is reproduced here for your convenience, or in case you have not yet received a 6-digit TASO ID and thus cannot get into the Member's Portal on the TASO web.
Gentlemen, Mike Fitch, Bob Watson, and I attended the TASO Board of Directors meeting in Austin last weekend. The future of our organization was discussed at length during the two day meeting. We now have a clear picture of where we are and what needs to be done in order for our organization to move in the right direction. Your desire to hire an Executive Director immediately was conveyed to the TASO Board and they responded with a two year commitment with Bud Alexander. We also authorized Mr. Alexander to hire two assistant directors to work directly with the individual sports. An experienced bookkeeper has been hired to keep our finances in order and help with data entry. Mary Wilson will continue her position with TASO. We now have the personnel to operate the office productively and efficiently. We finally know where we are financially and have projections for the future. Each sport will be responsible to operate within the budget each division generates. We will no longer have one sport subsidizing another sport. Several other items which could have an impact on the future of our organization were presented by the Direction and Finance committees. These items were discussed at length and will be presented again before the TASO-Football BOD meeting in July. I have attached a letter from TASO President, Tim Head. He explains the Board of Directors actions in more detail. It is important for you to remember that TASO approached and initiated the dialogue with the UIL. The future of our organization looks better than it has in several years. I would like to thank Bob Watson for the countless hours of service to the Finance and Direction committees. He continues to represent football as a member of both committees. We have several agenda items to conclude before our meeting in July. I will be providing more information before the end of May. The TASO report will be posted on the web page. Please contact me if you have any questions. Tom Panger April 27, 2003 A Message to the Members of TASO from the President of TASO, Tim Head This past weekend, the TASO Board of Directors held its Spring Meeting in Austin. All six sports divisions were fully represented and were prepared to discuss the issues and make decisions that will promote the viability of this organization to represent and the promote the interests of officials across the state of Texas. The purpose of this message is to inform you, the members of TASO, what the Board accomplished and present to you the issues we are still working on. As President, I truly believe that after a year and half of stormy weather, the Board can say that they saw the beginning of a rainbow and based on the decisions that were made, the days ahead for TASO will be brighter. After reading this message, if you have any questions, please contact your Division President or me. FINANCIAL: Don Whitaker presented to the Board a financial report that included the auditors report for the FY 2001-2002, a projected cash-flow statement for the current year, a Profit & Loss statement, and a Balance Sheet. Larry Anderson of Anderson and Associates presented an overview of the audit report. The audit of the records for FY 2001-2002 was quite lengthy due to the necessity to reconstruct the financial records, to do several "tests" by contacting sample chapters across the state to compare their records of dues submitted with those recorded and deposited by the TASO office, and other procedures that were necessary due to the "very poor accounting procedures." The audit did not reveal any "real improper use of funds." It did find that in reviewing the reimbursement of expenses by the staff, that some bills had been paid twice, or airline tickets that were purchased in advanced were not used. Generally speaking, for the FY 2001-2002, the balance sheet for TASO experienced an approximate $50,000 decrease in its cash position. In part this can be attributed to a $37,000 decrease in membership dues from the previous year. The $50,000 decrease in our cash position could have been greater if the building in Mesquite had not been sold. The operating expense for TASO was approximately $948,000, which was about $120,000 higher than the previous year. The administrative expense of $646,000, which includes office expenses, salaries, and items not identified to a specific sport were a big part of the Operating Expense. Currently, the financial records for FY 2002-2003, beginning with January 1
are being organized and reconciled by Carolyn Bible. Carolyn was hired by Bud
Alexander to perform this process because of her career as a business manager
for the University of Texas. A full copy of the audit report is available from
the TASO office or from your Division President. The income portion of the statement included the Oppenheimer funds of approximately $140,000 in reserve and the projected income from membership dues of $716,000. This is a projected income total of $855,000. The expense portion of the statement included the office expenses, salaries, payments to NFIOA, rulebook purchases, and state convention expenses. During this FY, two payments of approximately $75,000 each will be made to NFIOA. Currently, NFIOA has been paid $61,000 for what was owed for August 2002 - July 2003. The second payment is due July 1 for FY 2003-2004. Don emphasized that this is the last time TASO's expenses will require two payments; that we will be current with NFIOA. The expense statement also reflects the July state convention for the combined sports of volleyball, basketball, and football. This convention has a financial commitment of approximately 1090 hotel rooms to which the previous administration committed TASO. If these sports are unable to recruit its members to the convention TASO will be required to honor in some form this financial liability. The Cash-Flow statement projects a positive balance of income over expenses of over $45,000 in spite of the $150,000 due to NFIOA and a projected expense of $28,000 for the convention. This is significant when compared to the audit report of the previous year's deficit of $30,000! For the first time in several board meetings, the Financial Committee presented to the Board a current P&L statement and Balance Sheet for the January - March 2003 quarter. All bills are current! EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND TASO STAFFING The Directions Committee which includes Dorothy Brooks (Volleyball), Bob Watson, Ronnie Girouard and Don Whitaker presented the following recommendations which the Board discussed and approved. The Board offered a two-year contract to Bud Alexander to be the Executive Director of TASO. No longer will "interim" be placed before the title. The Board approved the creation for two "assistant directors." This allows for the filling of a vacancy and the creation of an additional position. These two positions and the Executive Director will be directly responsible to the sport divisions to assist them in their programs. In addition, Mary Wilson will continue in her position and the current position of bookkeeper/data entry will be maintained. The employment package will include benefits in addition to the salary. FUTURE OF TASO In its discussions the Board contemplated the future of TASO with the goal of providing the services that its membership expects and sometimes demands of TASO, bringing stability to the organization, regaining the trust of some of its members. Members question the value of their $50 dues. "What do we get for our dues," has been asked. The Board understands that $10 of the dues goes to NFIOA membership, $10 for rule books, case books, mechanics manuals, and $1.25 per member goes to the maintenance of the TASO web site. These are tangible expenses. In addition the membership dues goes to the administration of TASO and its representative boards, funding of clinics and conventions, representation and support for officials who go before the UIL, and civil litigation protection for the chapters. This may not seem to be enough for our members. Therefore the Board authorized that each sport division will be responsible for developing their own budgets based on the income generated from membership dues and other sources and present them to the TASO Board. These budgets will represent the divisions' percentage of the financial responsibility to maintain the TASO administration and the expenses that each division deems appropriate to serve their membership. This practice is a return to the way budgets were created in the past. This process makes available to the membership direct input into the financial affairs of their division. Through their division director, the member will be able to recommend to the division services and programs that are desired. In addition, the Board directed the Finance Committee to determine the feasibility of reducing membership dues to multi-sport officials since membership to NFIOA is not required for each sport an official is a member. This has been a financial problem with TASO over the entire history of its organization, how do you identify multi-sport officials within the organization. The membership roster on the web site of TASO will be the answer. With this technology, TASO and NFIOA will be able to identify those multi-sport officials. Of course, it will require the various chapters to maintain their chapter's membership records. The web site is the chapters. It is their membership record. Instead of completing written records that had to be completed in duplicate, the chapter uses the web site; one time entry and or correction serves the chapter, TASO, and NFIOA. So, with accurate record keeping by each chapter and TASO maintaining these records, a multi-sport member will directly benefit which could benefit the sports divisions by recruiting more multi-sport officials. Bringing stability to TASO has a lot to do with its financial ability to
provide the services and programs desired of its members. Even with the
projected balance of a positive cash flow, the Board is interested in reducing
its over head expenses which includes a monthly rental expense for the office,
office supply expenses, and all other expenses applicable to maintaining a
office. The purpose of this is to reduce our operating expenses by taking advantage
of the willingness of the UIL to assist TASO's ability to autonomously and
effectively promote officiating in Texas. The Directions Committee approached
the UIL and reported to the Board that the UIL presently has office space
available, that TASO would be responsible for its phone costs and other office
related expenses, and that TASO could take advantage of their reproduction
facilities, which would be a savings. The Board, in addition to the possibility of facility usage, was directed to meet with the UIL to "investigate the feasibility of a full affiliation with the UIL" and report back to the Board no later than the July convention. A full affiliation with the UIL would not affect the autonomy and independence of TASO; in fact it could be enhanced. It would be the same situation that the various academic and athletic entities currently have under the structure of the UIL. Financially, our monies would remain our monies but TASO would be able to take advantage of the University of Texas's accounting system with its built-in safe guards and accountability. Financially, we would remain responsible for the salaries and employee costs but able to take advantage of the reduced costs of the medical, retirement, etc. benefits package to University employees. Financially it would save the organization office expenses, motel/hotel expenses and more. Services to the membership could be more direct in representing the affairs of TASO to UIL, immediate resolution of incidents between officials and schools, and a more direct communication to the staff responsible for making recommendations to the Legislative Council of the UIL. The above are some of the potential benefits the Board envisions that could bring stability to the organization and allow it to grow in the services that can be provided. CONCLUSION I'm sure that the last section, regarding affiliation with the UIL, has raised some of your eyebrows. That's why the Board spent a great deal of time discussing this issue along with other issues and ideas that would benefit TASO and its members. Dr. Breithaupt's presentation to the Board in his UIL report emphasized the UIL's continued support in maintaining the independence and autonomy of TASO 's ability to represent the officials of interscholastic sports. Dr. Farney and Dr. Breithaupt pledged to help in any way to bring stability and growth to TASO. You might ask, "What is the UIL getting out of all of this?" They do not want to become directly involved with the administration and organization of officials. They do not want to be like the 49 other states who directly assign officials to games. The benefits that the UIL will gain from assisting TASO are the benefit the schools and school children will receive - quality officiating from TASO organized chapters! I do believe there is a rainbow after a year and half of stormy weather. Our financial picture is positive. The financial affairs of the organization are being placed in the hands of the individual sport divisions. The Board is investigating ways to reduce our costs. We are going to be fully staffed with individuals who are committed to TASO and have the expertise to assist in the development of and recruitment of quality officials. The presidents, president-elects, and immediate past presidents of each sport division dedicated themselves to making TASO a viable organization committed to meeting the needs of their members and promoting excellence in officiating. They represented your interests this past weekend, they presented your concerns and your questions to the board and the board addressed those issues in the decisions that I have noted above. Contact your division director, your division president, contact Bud Alexander or me if you have any ideas for the good of your organization. The days for TASO are becoming sunnier!! Respectfully, Tim Head, President |