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? <br />TO: Program Governance Committee <br />FROM: Dale Strickland, Executive Director <br />DATE: January 30, 2007 <br />RE: 2007 Budget and Individual Budget Items for Approval <br />In preparation for the first Platte River Program Governance Committee meeting scheduled for <br />February 7, 2007, we have assembled the following information describing the Program's <br />budgeting process, description of each of the budget items identified in the attached spreadsheet, <br />and request for specific spending authorizations. <br />Budgeting Process <br />We recommend that the budgeting process during the Program period, at least during the early <br />stages, operate much as it did during the Cooperative Agreement. This process would generally <br />be as follows: <br />1) Executive Director will discuss with Program participants (i.e., GC, AMWG, and <br />committees when they are established) anticipated budget needs during the upcoming <br />year. <br />2) Executive Director will develop an overall annual budget using this input and known <br />expenditures (e.g., Executive Director, meeting rooms, FME payments). This annual <br />budget is a tool far the Governance Committee and funding signatories to use to identify <br />potential total annual costs and for the Governance Committee and the Executive <br />Director to use for planning. The annual budget is generally not for individual spending <br />authorizations, but the Governance Committee will be asked to approval of the annual <br />budget for the planning purposes. <br />3) Spending authorization requests for specific projects and activities contained in the <br />annual budget will be brought to the Governance Committee for approval in advance of <br />spending the funds, awarding contracts, or otherwise committing the funds. An example <br />of this would be approval from the Governance Committee, based on the <br />recommendation of the Executive Director, and advice from the appropriate committees <br />when desired, to secure a contractor to implement a monitoring study (e.g., whooping <br />crane survey) identified in the annual budget. <br />4) As with most processes there are exceptions. Possible exceptions to the process outlined <br />above include but are not limited to unique land acquisition potential, unanticipated <br />research opportunities, and overages in planned activities. In these cases the Governance <br />Committee will be presented with the budget needed, how it would impact the overall <br />annual budget, and possible adjustments that could be made to accommodate the request. <br />The final decision to fund the any activity will be made by the Governance Committee, <br />along with any necessary adjustments to the annual budget - increase the budget or shift <br />funds from the general tasks outlined to the new task.