2023-2024
Committee Roster
Erich van Rijn, California, Chair (evanrijn AT ucpress DOT edu)
Eric Brandt, Virginia
Alice Ennis, Illinois
Scot Kuehm, Princeton
Amy Liu, Oklahoma
Wynona McCormick, Texas A&M
Alexander Saucedo, Chicago Press
Daniel Velasquez, Harvard Education
Board Liaison
Teresa Collins, Kentucky
Central Office Liaisons
Kim Miller
Charge
General Objective:
- Develop and manage tools, programs, and resources to assist Association members in improving the financial management and analysis of their presses.
Specific Charges to the Financial Operations Committee:
- Work with the Business Operations Meeting Program Committee to develop for the 2024 Annual Meeting: (1) a pre-meeting workshop; and, (2) up to four concurrent sessions; include “Press Finances for Non-finance Staff” in your Annual Meeting programming.
- Appraise how the Operating Stats are used by non-financial officers and how they could be most useful to those groups. Assess the Operating Stats Taskforce recommendations and how these could be prioritized.
- Review contents of Business Handbook and develop a plan for revision; begin revision work if time permits.
Common Charges to All Committees of the Association:
- Include your board and staff liaisons in all committee communications and activities.
- Use UP Commons as your primary communications and collaboration tool.
- Encourage discussions on appropriate UP Commons groups.
- Coordinate all research and survey activity through the Central Office.
- Seek opportunities to support the Association’s core value of diversity & inclusion by engaging in activities and developing programs that include participation from diverse members of the community and/or that aim to increase equity and inclusivity in our community.
- Seek opportunities to support the goals of the Association’s 2016 membership restructuring by integrating into your committee activities the participation of colleagues from non-North American member presses.
- Support the Annual Meeting Program Committee as requested, and include in your final report to the board any suggestions for future programming your committee identifies over the year.
- Seek opportunities when conducting activities and events to recruit new members to serve on your committee in future years, being sure to emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion in your efforts; include in your final report to the board discussion of your recruiting efforts; share with the Executive Director the names of potential future committee members.
- Submit reports on Committee activities to the Association Board in time for its October, March, and June meetings. Interim reports are due on 22 September 2023, and 1 March 2024; final reports that recap all committee activities for the year and are shared with the membership are due 31 May 2024. (For convenience, please reproduce your Charge & Tasks at the beginning of all reports, and list the names and institutional affiliations of all committee members, along with board and staff liaisons.)
- Apply the lens of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization to all committee work.
- Appoint a member of your committee to serve as a liaison to the Equity, Justice, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee, providing updates on your committee’s EJIB efforts, seeking information, support, or guidance on EJIB matters as needed, and attending Fall and Spring meetings for liaisons sponsored by EJIB Committee.
- Review your General Objective and Specific Tasks at the end of the service year and recommend changes for next year to the Executive Director.
Committee Projects
Business Handbook
Created by the business managers community and for many years overseen by a Business Handbook Task Force, the Financial Operations Committee now has stewardship over this vital resource.
Please note: prior to July 2022, this group was known as the “Business Systems Committee.” The name was updated to reflect a more accurate range of press activities covered by the committee’s remit.