[Lnc-business] Functionally Allocated Budget proposal

[Joshua Katz]

Colleagues,

I am attaching a spreadsheet illustrating my proposal for allocating
compensation expenses.  The numbers are roughly based on the 2015 numbers I
was provided; those were historical, showing how compensation was
allocated.  I made some modifications based on my own thoughts.  The point
isn't the numbers, though - the point is to have a spreadsheet that makes
allocating the budget in this way relatively easy.  My intent was to make
it easy for the LNC, if it wished to adopt a budget of this form, to see
the impacts of changes and proposals.  Similarly, the sheet should make it
easy for anyone who happens to agree with my view on this overall to come
up with hypothetical distributions.  I built it quickly, but I believe it
is built correctly, and that making changes, either to the total allocation
line or to the percentages allocated to each line, should make the other
values work out correctly.

The column "proposed amount" shows what is currently allocated in the
proposed budget to that line.  The final column shows the percentage of the
budget the line will account for once compensation is added.  The 1
appearing below the FAE column is a test digit.

Note that, according to the policy manual, any work that combines two or
more lines, or that can reasonably be allocated to two or more lines, goes
into Administrative (40).  This sheet has that line at 20%, but it may need
to be higher.

I've given most of my arguments for this sort of allocation before, but the
highlights are that I believe it will enable the LNC to do more governing
and less managing, will give staff broad instructions at the start of the
fiscal year and avoid micromanagement later, enables the LNC to adapt to
changed goals or aims during the term by amending the budget, and shows
anyone looking at the budget what the LNC's priorities are, in a
quantitative manner.  It is more transparent than a large compensation
line, and it would be, in my opinion, a useful tool for the LNC to exercise
its governance responsibility.

To clarify, this proposal has nothing to do with how hard staff works.  I
think we all agree about that topic.  This isn't about checking up on them;
it's about the board setting broad priorities.  It also imposes no new
obligations on staff; the policy manual already calls for timesheets.  In
fact, it is my hope that a move in this direction would lead the LNC to be
less demanding on staff, not more.

In any case, thank you for your time and consideration.

Joshua A. Katz
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