Conference Office Accountability Plan.
Introduction. The Division II Presidents Council approved
the allo-ca-tion of Division II revenue to Division II conference offices to
address initiatives identified in the Division II strategic plan. The Presidents Council believes that Division
II conferences are the appropriate group to implement some of the programs to
address Division II strategic plan priorities.
As part of this program, the Presidents Council will hold Division II
conference offices accountable for the decisions they will make regarding the
use of these strategic plan funds.
Money is available to
Division II conferences* that are in good standing to implement and maintain
programs and services. This money will
be used to fund the three ?required? grant areas, as well as a choice of eight ?permissive?
enhancement areas, as listed below.
Required
Grant Programs.
1. Conference Diversity and Governance
Structure Enhancements.
2. Student-Athlete Enhancements.
3. Academic Support Enhancements.
Permissive
Grant Programs.
1. Compliance and Rules Education.
2. Officiating.
3. Promotions/Identity.
4. Technology.
5. Professional Development Programs.
6. Sportsmanship.
7. Consortium with Other Conferences.
8. Consulting Fees for Work Done by a Consultant
for any Priorities Identified in the Division II Strategic Plan.
*Independent
institutions may submit requests for strategic initiative dollars in these
areas, as well. Requests from
independent institutions will be reviewed by the Budget and Finance Committee
when the group reviews requests from conference offices.
Money
for strategic initiatives is available to Division II conferences that are
eligible for Division II enhancement fund distributions.
The general principles governing the program are as follows:
1. The program will be overseen by the
Division II Budget and Finance Committee.
The committee will develop guiding principles to govern decisions
regarding conference requests.
[Attachment]
2. The
administration of the program will take into consideration the di-verse nature
of conference structures and allow conferences a reasonable degree of
flexibility in constructing their programs.
At the same time, adherence to some specific criteria and restrictions
is re-
quired to en-sure that the grant
moneys are used according to the principles established by the Management
Council and Presidents Council and provide for responsible financial accountability.
3. The moneys requested by a conference must
be used to enhance existing programs, to support pro-grams initiated or managed
by the NCAA or to implement new programs.
(Prohibited use would include building or refurbishing facilities and
increasing countable grants-in-aid for member schools.)
4. Conferences must use dollars received through
this program as specified in the initiative(s) or program(s) outlined by the
conference in the annual "request form" or as modified by requests
approved by NCAA staff for the committee. If the Budget and Finance Committee determines
that a conference has not used strategic initiative dollars as outlined in the
conference's "request form," the NCAA shall have the right to obtain
full reimbursement for sums paid to the conference for all strategic
initiatives that are not followed.
5. Conferences
may establish a "consortium" with one another in one or more of these
areas by pooling grant moneys and conducting joint programs, subject to the
approval of the Division II Budget and Finance Committee.
6. A
conference may allocate a portion of its grant in the form of subgrants to one
or more of its member institutions for specific programs identified by the
conference, subject to the approval of the Division II Budget and Finance
Committee. The conference request must
include a summary from the member school(s) as to how subgrant
money will be spent, and the conference must include supporting documentation
as to how the conference will measure the success of the subgrant
programs.
7. A
conference must allocate its entire grant for programs and services each year;
it may not, for example, budget the moneys to carry over a portion to the next
year. (The Budget and Finance Committee
may approve an exception; e.g., to allow the purchase of equipment that might
be ordered in one fiscal year, but delivered and paid for in the next fiscal
year.)
Conference
Programs. Listed below is a summary of each strategic
initiative program that conferences can access and suggestions on how a
conference might use funds to develop or maintain programs to meet a specific
objective. A conference may choose to
include all, some or none of the following suggestions and may develop
additional plans better suited to the conference's needs, subject to the
Division II Budget and Finance Committee's consideration:
Required
Grant Programs
1. Conference Diversity and Governance
Structure Enhancements. The conference must spend a minimum of
$15,000 each year in one or more the following areas:
a. Institutional or conference senior
woman administrator enhancements, which could include expenses for the
NACWAA-HERS Institute; NACWAA Fall Forum; conference meetings; or senior woman
administrator training/professional development workshops.
b. Institutional or conference faculty
athletics representative enhancements, which could include expenses for the
FARA annual convention; conference meetings; and FAR training/professional
development workshops.
c. Conference office diversity, which
could include expenses for an office internship or an entry level
administrative position in the office, if diversity in the office is enhanced;
or a diversity hiring seminar hosted by the conference.
2. Student-Athlete Enhancements. The
conference must spend a minimum of $15,000 each year in one or more of the
following areas:
a. Conference SAAC, which could
include expenses for a conference SAAC meeting; conference SAAC Web site;
conference SAAC projects or initiatives; conference SAAC community service
activities; and conference SAAC workshops or training.
b. Student-Athlete Health, Safety and Welfare,
which could include expenses for the conference-managed needy student-athlete
assistance fund, the coaches? education program; student-athlete education
program; conference meeting for medical personnel and training, CPR training;
health and safety equipment for member schools; technology upgrades for NCAA
Web-based injury surveillance system; and charter bus
3. Academic Support Enhancements. The
conference must spend a minimum of $15,000 each year on academic support
enhancements, which could include expenses for tutorial services; academic
advising; CHAMPS/Life Skills programming; mentoring programs for
student-athletes; degree-completion scholarship programs; technology/equipment
for academic support; and summer school financial assistance.
The
total amount of money requested for the three ?required? areas above must be at
least $79,000, with at least $15,000 allocated for each ?required? grant
program.
Permissive Grant Programs.
Conferences
may receive up to $26,000 in ?permissive? grants. These permissive grants can be to increase
funding in any of the ?required? areas listed above or to fund the ?permissive?
enhancements below.
1. Compliance
and Rules Education (e.g., Compliance Workshop).
2. Officiating
(e.g., Developmental Clinics).
3. Promotions/Identity
(e.g., Monthly Conference Television Show).
4. Technology
(e.g., Software Upgrade).
5. Professional
Development Programs (e.g., NACDA Convention, if the trip is not already in the
conference?s or institution?s base budgets).
6. Sportsmanship
(e.g., Coaches? Ethics Workshop).
7. Consortium
with Other Conferences (e.g., SID Technology Workshop).
8. Consulting
Fees for Work Done by a Consultant for any Priorities Identified with the Strategic
Plan.
Timetable. Listed below is the timetable that will be
followed by the Management Council and Presidents Council to administer the
Division II conference office strategic initiative programs.
February 15 Deadline for conference offices to complete form to request Division II strategic initiative funds for the following academic year.
March/April Budget and Finance
Committee will:
1. Review the conference?s progress in model conference guiding principles.
2. Review the conference grant requests for
the upcoming year.
3. Request additional information from
conference offices, if needed.
4. Tentatively approve conference grant
monies.
May 1 Conferences receive notification from Budget and Finance Committee regarding tentative conference allocation for strategic initiatives identified for the following academic year.
June
30 Annual
reports due in national office to detail conference strategic initiative
expenses from the previous academic year.
July/August Budget and Finance Committee
will:
1. Review additional information requested
from March/April meeting.
2. Review annual report of conference grant
uses and impact forms.
3. Make final decisions regarding conference
grant monies.
September
15 Conference offices
receive notification from Budget and Finance Committee regarding conference
allocations. (Disbursement of checks to
conferences from the NCAA for Division II strategic initiatives will occur at
this time, as well.)
The National Collegiate
Athletic Association