By BudgetCoach on March 4, 2011
I’m not sure where the age line is except to say I am well over the line where cash means something to me. I’m not just saying that money means something to me but actual paper currency has a distinct value to me.
I say this because I have lately been struck by certain demographic group’s inability to handle cash.
Here are a few examples:
We are at a school play and I make a cash purchase. I hand you $10 for $7.38 of items. (Why you didn’t consider sales tax when you set prices I’ll never know.) You stop and use a calculator to determine the change rather than count up to $10: 2 pennies to $7.40, a dime to $7.50, 2 quarters to $8 and 2 dollar bills to round it up to $10. And, I got my change first (see my next rant). Seriously, a calculator to make change for a ten – you’re kidding me, right?
I pull up in my rolling dining room to a fast food coffee place. My order comes to $2.53 and I hand you $5. You hand me my coffee and snack then two dollar bills with $.47 in change on top. Whose idea was it that putting change on top of currency? GIVE ME MY CHANGE FIRST!!!!! They all do it because that is how the cash register presents the information to the cashier. It’s only partially their fault because they have never been taught how to handle money. On the rare occasion I am handed my change first at my favorite coffee place it is usually by a person who is at least 35 years old.
I receive cash deposits from co-workers every day. I can open and count an envelope without looking at the depositor and know if the person is over 35. Currency is in order, all facing the top and occasionally the heads even in the same direction. Under 35? There is no apparent order to the stack. Some bills are folded and they are often out of order. $50’s and $5’s mess them up because they count by $100 rather in order from the highest to the lowest. For example, an envelope with $658 may cash grouped in $100’s with no regard to order with bills folded and in every direction. They must not have any idea how a cash drawer works…no clue!
For years we have talked about how credit cards, debit accounts and online banking are making cash obsolete. Our children use cash so much less than we do. Swipe cards are their cash. Think about it…they use cards for meals in the dining facility, swipe their card to get gas, tap it to buy snacks, use it to get copies in the library and even scan it to buy subway fare.
I’m not sure I will ever see a completely cashless society but I have no doubt it is coming. How sad that even piggy banks will be virtual some day.
Life is good!
Jude
Twitter: MidMajorMom
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Posted in Athletic administrator, Athletic Business Best Practices, Cash & Deposits, Totally Random! Tagged cash deposits
By BudgetCoach on November 17, 2010
It’s true. We are THOSE parents and darn proud of it!
I have always been fascinated by the parents of student athletes and now that I am one of them I understand so much more. Many of the coaches I work with tell me about the wonderful things their parents do for the program and believe me, most of them are not sexy…just a great way for them to save money and to save time.
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a Canisius College Women’s Soccer game on the campus of Fairfield University. We arrived on campus Friday evening to attend his swim meet at the University of Connecticut the next day. This was the first time a Canisius event occurred on campus while I was there for a swim meet since my son started there in 2008.
Decked out in my Canisius College Athletics jacket, I found the visitors section by listening for the cheers from their hale hearty fans. I would venture a guess that the entirety of the visitors section had some sort of DNA match with someone on the field.
I introduced myself as a member of the Canisius athletic staff and enjoyed meeting nice folks who share the student athlete parent bond. We talked about the competition in the conference and the frequency of the games. We compared notes on distance traveled and they commended me for traveling so far each week for our son’s meets.
My favorite conversation was with a mom who wanted to let me know how much easier it was to be the parent of a swimmer rather than one of an outdoor sport. She supposed it was much easier to sit in a natatorium than to battle the elements. She thought it more comfortable to be indoors and while she is mostly correct she does not understand how oppressive the heat can be in a pool. When you are cold you can add layers but when you are in the pool and sweating from the high heat and humidity you cannot take off your skin.
My answer was simple. I gave her the weather issue and agreed we have it easier to be indoors. But I left her with a thought. If their child was a starter or even a top layer substitute they watched them play for 1-1 ½ hours in a game that lasts about 2 hours total start to finish. But with swimming you could attend a meet which lasts 3-4 hours (including diving but that’s another blog) and your child could potentially compete less than a minute if they are a sprinter. Whoosh, they are done!
If this seems like complaining, I’m not. Actually I’m honored to be able to attend so many meets and grateful for the time and means to do it.
This week it will be at least 20 hours…but he may swim a longer event so maybe it will be 4 ½ minutes!
Until next time!
Jude
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Posted in A Budget Coach's life in Sports, Athletic administrator, Mid Major Experience, Mid Major Mom, Student Athlete Parent Tagged canisius college athletics, fairfield university, natatorium, student athletes, Swim Meets, visitors section
By BudgetCoach on November 5, 2010
I know of no one better to highlight the evolution of college athletics more than Dan Starr, PhD. Doc, as most of us called him, was sort of an accidental athletics director. He is a history professor and ended up AD at Canisius College for nearly 26 years, during the time when conferences were forming and the split between Bowl Game schools and the rest of Division I.
As the story goes, the college paid $600 in repairs to future NBA thug Larry Fogle’s car…so the AD gets fired and they ask squeaky clean Dan to come in and take care of things. His first order of business was cleaning up the mess with the NCAA. Timing, as they say, is everything and during this major infraction era conferences were born. That train passed our probation station but Doc made the best of it.
He got us into a conference that fits not only the philosophical mission of our institution but is also financially aligned with it. He elevated women’s sports to varsity and can even boast the first NCAA Woman of the Year, Mary Beth Riley. But that is his press pack…I know SO much more…
I know that if you wanted a good laugh, watch him clean his office. When I say clean, I really mean look through the many piles of papers and books stacked up on every surface. When he announced his retirement he started to organize and pack…I think it took him two years and I think at the end he just put the rest of the stuff in boxes and brought it to his new office on the other side of campus where the history professors are located.
…and to this day I still get a random newspaper clip or book in my work mail, sometimes with a note of a funny memory and other times with no note at all. Other of my colleagues get the same thing…Doc must be cleaning again! I have kept most of them because he is so observant and his timing impeccable.
I have so many travel memories of Doc…the time he and I were at Disney having port wine with Father Cooke (president of the college at the time) and Father Dugan (longtime chaplain of the athletic department) in their hotel room with the door propped open for propriety…traveling to the NCAA Men’s Basketball 1st round in 1996…driving back from Albany the night we won the MAAC in a mother of a snow storm when we stopped at every rest stop for coffee and to clean the windshield.
The best one was at the end of his AD career when our softball team made another trip to the NCAA tournament, this time in Los Angeles at UCLA. I was senior women’s administrator at the time and it was clear the new AD, whose name will never be mentioned in any of my writings, was not going to keep me in that role. Dan got to the airport before I did and arranged for us to travel first class (particularly helpful for a trip across the country in less than 48 hours). After our game on Thursday we went to the JP Getty Museum then on to Marina Del Rey for some great Mexican food and cocktails. Anyone who knows Doc knows that a good cocktail is always a good idea! I’ll never forget the toast. “You know Jude, it’s been a great run. I’ve had a lot of fun. Thanks for whatever you did and for putting up with me all these years.”
Cheers to you, Doc, forever enshrined in the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame!
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com/blog
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Posted in Athletic administrator, athletic business manager, College Athletics, Mid Major Experience Tagged athletics director, Dan Starr, mary beth riley
By BudgetCoach on October 28, 2010
I think about 14 NCAA schools athletic programs had excess of revenues over expenditures last year. In the world of profit accounting, their athletic department made a profit. So, let’s see…if about 1,000 schools belong to the NCAA and 14 schools made a profit then…98.6% of schools had to rely on at least some institutional support last year to survive.
Without ever studying the numbers (but relying on my 20 years in college athletics experience) I will venture a guess that most schools provide at least 90% plus of the funds an athletic department needs to function. Those of us with small arenas (arena is a funny haha word – more like gymnasiums) have a limited ticket revenue stream. And then there is that silly thing called winning which contributes to the equation. Let’s face it, those of us who have to budget need to assume the team will have a losing season without much walk-up game-day business. When there is success then the “extra” revenue can be used for “extra” things rather than for the business of running the department.
Have you noticed that no expense is going down? Funny thing! While we experience flat line budgets things like transportation, equipment and the biggest money sucker of all, officials, are going up like a skier on a tow rope. I call officiating an unfunded mandate. While it’s tempting not to pay them…well…you know…
Here is another thing about institutional support. The ability (and willingness) to fundraise can change the amount and percentage of institutional support. This was something I worked hard to educate folks about during our current self-study. For our example our fictional school has a general student ratio of 45% men and 55% women. Let’s say the Men’s Table Tennis team has a coach who is a prolific fundraiser. He is a world champion and has an international following. He receives donations which he uses for team travel and recruiting and the players are decked out in the newest clothing and have state of the art equipment. The Women’s Table Tennis team has the exact budget as the men at the beginning of the year, $250,000. The men spend $300,000 and women spend $275,000 but the men’s deficit is covered by their booster money. In spending dollars the men outspent their female counterparts by $25,000 bringing the balance to 52% male and 48% female. OH NO! But wait, there’s more! In reality the actual institutional support is $250,000 for the men and $275,000 for the women now showing the actual balance at 48% male and 52% female. Ahhh…much better…
Here is another question: should the men’s program be limited to how much they can spend even though they work hard to raise it? Is that really what we mean when we say “gender equity?”
As we embark on a complete organizational review at our school, part of the new initiative begun by our new president, I have to remind the committee that if they are looking at athletics as a profit making venture they are going to have to move to one of those rare 14 schools that flipped their program last year.
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com/blog
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Posted in Athletic administrator, Athletic Business Best Practices, athletic business manager, College Athletics, EADA/Dept. of Ed, NCAA Agreed-Upon Procedures, Officials, Team Travel, Tickets Tagged institutional support, ncaa schools, revenue stream, self study, Team Travel, unfunded mandate
By BudgetCoach on October 21, 2010
So here you are, on that coveted committee in your beloved institution of higher learning. Congratulations! Or is it a good thing? Maybe not so much!
You have to time decisions with a calendar, not a clock in higher education. We have committees for just about everything. There is probably a committee to study whether there are too many committees on campus. In any organization, culture shift is a slow process but higher ed brings it to a whole new level. I graduated from college 30 years ago and there are still several committees on campus studying the same issues we studied in the 1970’s. Seriously, I am not making that up. When I was in school, core curriculum was a hot topic and as it turns out, they have been studying it with great fervor for nearly this entire new millennium.
Committee work is a curious process on a college campus. We are “highly educated” and tend to look at 72 sides of each issue. We make sub-committees of our committees and then spend weeks coming up with convenient times to meet. The sub-committees need to report to the committees and tend to exhaust the angles. Nowhere in the world is form over substance more revered than on a college campus.
So, the next time you want to be on a committee, keep your hand down…even if it is only to order pizza!
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
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Posted in A Budget Coach's life in Sports, Athletic administrator, athletic business manager, College Athletics, Mid Major Experience Tagged athletic administrators, athletic business, college committees, committee work, core curriculum, higher ed, higher education, institution of higher learning, organization culture
By BudgetCoach on August 20, 2010
Well, I guess I shouldn’t be sitting here writing, when there is so much to do at work…but I am because I promised myself I would post twice a week.
My office moved last week. Actually, I moved my stuff to another office last week. It is wonderful and I love it. I love not being next to the gym…that got really old after the first summer camp five years ago. I seriously am not complaining but bouncing balls and screaming children (summer)/college athletes (school year) can grate on your nerves like a real alarm clock across the room.
I’m in a hallway with colleagues rather than only one (who misses me although he would never admit it!) and there is a bathroom on our floor. Don’t laugh – that’s huge!
With the move have come some challenges. I got rid of about 10 boxes of material to be shred. In spite of the extra room, I actually have less storage space. I will likely keep moving things around for a few weeks. I have not gotten much work done for nearly a month because I had audit prep, the audit and now the move. The piles are getting higher and here is the order I will assign each task. Here is my actual To Do list:
HR/Payroll – time to complete letters of appointment and send information to payroll
Reimbursement checks – be sure coaches and staff gets reimbursement as quickly as possible
Team Travel – set up the fall team travel advance checks
Visa Statements – distribute July Visa (yup, I know it’s late – sue me!)
Officials – view assigning website and set-up game official payments for all fall sports (I have to search for the passwords every year. Maybe this will be the year I put everything in one place!)
All the other crap which steals my time and will likely jump above the rest of the list.
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
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Posted in A Budget Coach's life in Sports, Athletic administrator, Athletic Business Best Practices, athletic business manager, College Athletics, Officials, Team Travel Tagged college athletic business, college athletic business office management, College Athletics, fall sports, letters of appointment, official payments, reimbursement checks, Time Management, to do list
By BudgetCoach on August 17, 2010
Today’s post was inspired by my friend Amy who is what I call an “adult onset athlete” and whose journey I find inspiring. She talks about how jubilant she felt at the end of a triathlon this past Sunday until she saw the times. She talks openly about the struggle. I really think anyone could identify with her self doubt.
Just to get this out of the way, I work in a competitive world where victory is easily quantified. 1-0 you win, 0-1 you lose. Simple. Straight forward. When a swimmer touches the wall first, a runner has the streamer of victory across their chest or a hockey team scores more goals than their competitors we have easy visuals that let us know without doubt who the winner is. Right? Well, by the numbers, yes this is correct, but the numbers do not tell everything.
What you see isn’t always what is.
I remember years ago, July 1984 to be precise, watching a man and a little boy through the glass at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The man (I was thinking Daddy but I really had no idea who it was) was tossing the little boy up in the air much to his delight. At that same time our late son, just hours post-op from his open heart surgery, was rushed back into intensive care with complications. Watching the obvious joy on the boy’s face and the pure love on the man’s face filled me with sadness and jealousy. How could anyone be happy when my world was crashing down at my feet? My husband helped me reframe. He reminded me that they too were at the hospital. You don’t just randomly show up there and toss your little boy around. We had no idea what their story was. They likely had someone in surgery or intensive care, as well. And, where was the mom? Was she still in the hospital herself, separated from her family during such a difficult time? Where I saw joy and felt sadness my husband saw sadness and felt compassion. Once again, what you see isn’t always what is.
I posted a comment on Amy’s blog which I thought of when I read her post today:
Your journey is not to be benchmarked by your times. It is to be judged by the shiver you get when you finish, when you feel the effort was worth your time, not your time being worth the effort.
Here is Amy’s URL: http://amymoritz.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/the-experience-is-reason-enough/#comment-244
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com/blog
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Posted in Athletic administrator, Mid Major Mom Tagged amy moritz, Defining Victory, MidMajorMom, triathlon
By BudgetCoach on August 9, 2010
When is an audit not an audit? When it’s Agreed-Upon Procedures!
Friday concluded the active period of the audit of agreed-upon procedures. The nice young man from Deloitte and I shook hands and off he went, going back to his office to write up all we discussed and summarize his findings. All the while he was there, camps continued, folks began moving into their offices and coaches readied their locker rooms for the influx of student athletes arriving on campus this past weekend.
For nearly two weeks I either prepared materials for the audit or was searching for information requested as part of his testing. Unlike an independent audit and random testing, agreed-upon procedures transactions are easy to identify. An auditor needs to “test” each agreed-upon procedure and should have each sport represented. If you glance at the trial balance detail you can likely find the transactions they will want to see.
Tip 1: Arrange a comfortable space for the auditor to work. I have heard stories of where institutions will put the auditor in a hot or cramped space with the idea they will leave faster if they do not have comfortable quarters. This works about as well as giving coffee to a drunk.
Tip 2: Be sure cost centers are organized in well marked file cabinets. If you have separate budgets for operating, recruiting, fund raising, camp, etc. group them all in one large hanging file, identified with cost center name and any numeric identification.
Tip 3: Print, print, print. For one time every year, redundancy is ok! Have one notebook with the trial balance and one notebook with agreed-upon procedures.
Tip 4: Identify the largest transactions in each cost center, by agreed-upon procedure. Prior to the audit, go through each cost center and identify the largest transaction in each line item. Arrange the folder so that these back-up materials are on the top. This will save a ton of time during selection search.
Tip 5: Identify other folks in and out of athletics who will likely be asked for information. Each year our Softball coach is asked to provide his camp information to the auditor. This year, in a fit of exasperation, he asked me why he is always the one chosen to provide camp information during the audit. Simple answer: he has the largest camp each year. Be sure the ticket manager, facilities manager and head athletic trainer are available during the audit. Each of them are usually responsible for large transactions so they will likely have to explain a few of them each year.
Bonus Tip: Rather than copying originals before sending them to institutional business invest in a scanner. Arrange the scanned documents by month and document number. When a transaction is requested by the auditor, simply print the document. They can use this as proof of transaction or bring it with them to institutional business to follow-up.
These are just a few of the tips from The Shadow System © Audit Prep Guide. It’s not too late to get ready for a great audit. Please e-mail me for more information.
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com/blog
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Posted in Athletic administrator, Athletic Business Best Practices, athletic business manager, EADA/Dept. of Ed, General ABC Information, NCAA Agreed-Upon Procedures, Time Management Tagged independent audit, NCAA Agreed-Upon Procedures, NCAA Audit, redundancy, student athletes, trial balance
By BudgetCoach on July 27, 2010
What do I know about riffs? Absolutely nothing, well almost nothing anyway! A few years ago, during a management staff meeting, our Director of Athletic Communications commented that one of his assistants spent the better part of Sunday evening clearing riffs for the baseball team. It seems the riffs (refers to any short series of notes that create a melody within the melody of the song (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostinato)) had some suggestive or violent language inappropriate for some fans (including the middle aged administrators!) and he spent a great deal of time editing the CD.
I guess I never paid much attention but learned that all ball players (at home) are introduced with their own riff – some part of a song that gets them psyched to hit a grand slam every time they step up to the plate.
That got me thinking…I need a riff! Or maybe an entire CD filled with short musical moments that would summarize my actions at the moment or summarize my life.
Here is a short list:
Life’s Been Good (Eagles) as I get out of bed
Takin’ Care Of Business (Bachman Turner Overdrive) – as I unlock my office each day
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (Billy Joel) as I cook dinner (I wish!)
At Last (Etta James) whenever I get to spend time with my husband
I Hope You Dance (Lee Ann Womack) whenever I miss my son at school or think about him leaving home for the city lights
Hey Jude (Beatles) – for every time I introduce myself to someone who is oh so clever and begins singing it to me (this would truly be the best defense is a good offence!)
Did I get you thinking? What’s your riff? Tell me, please!
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com/blog
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Posted in A Budget Coach's life in Sports, Athletic administrator, College Athletics, Mid Major Mom, Totally Random! Tagged athletic communications, bachman turner overdrive, billy joel, etta james, hey jude beatles, lee ann womack, linkedin, riff, scenes from an italian restaurant, twitter
By BudgetCoach on July 26, 2010
This year my NCAA audit of agreed-upon procedures begins Tuesday, August 3, 2010. During this preparation, I also gather information for the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA). While I have not technically done anything for it, I have been preparing for it all year.
I created The Shadow System © Audit Prep Guide a few years back to help me consistently report our school’s financial position while helping me compile data annually which can be benchmarked with other schools. Our conference does this so it is vitally important our data is consistent and comparable. There will be more information on our website during the next few weeks. Contact us if you would like to get more information on how you can get a customized The Shadow System © Audit Prep Guide.
While these entries may not be clever and pithy, they will give you a general idea of what goes on in any athletic business office (big or small) and help you get ready for this annual disclosure.
External Audit: Remember, only NCAA Division I must have an external auditor review their NCAA Agreed-Upon Procedures annually. Division II must be audited at least every three years while Division III does not ever need to have an external auditor review their procedures. Division III may feel like they are off the hook but I always recommend to my Division II & III friends they also have their books reviewed annually. This is especially important while trying to create fiscally responsible budgets and for creating the culture of fiscal integrity.
This To-Do list will highlight what I am doing every day until the audit:
8 Days to go (July 26, 2010):
Print: Take last year’s notebooks (The Shadow System © Audit Prep Guide) and print each section. Keep previous notebook for reference during preparation.
Data Mining from outside sources: Using the Audit section of The Shadow System © Audit Prep Guide, contact others on campus whom have data needed to complete the EADA.
Information includes:
Enrollment numbers from previous year
Scholarship information from financial aid
Roster information from compliance
Capital projects and assets from institutional business and finance.
Please go to the contact section http://athleticbudgetcoach.com/contact/ and start a conversation!
I have to run…I have a lot to do today!
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com
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Posted in A Budget Coach's life in Sports, Athletic administrator, Athletic Business Best Practices, athletic business manager, EADA/Dept. of Ed, NCAA Agreed-Upon Procedures Tagged athletic business, data mining, eada, equity in athletics disclosure act, external audit, external auditor, fiscal integrity, NCAA Agreed-Upon Procedures, responsible budgets, The Shadow System (c) Audit Prep Guide
I’m not sure where the age line is except to say I am well over the line where cash means something to me. I’m not just saying that money means something to me but actual paper currency has a distinct value to me.
I’m not sure I will ever see a completely cashless society but I have no doubt it is coming. How sad that even piggy banks will be virtual some day.
