Financial Impact of Legislation Activities on a State Dietetic Association

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

LEARNING OUTCOME: To identify the financial impact of legislative activities on the budget of a state dietetic association. The (IDA), an ADA affiliate with 3260 members, conducted a financial analysis to investigate the role of legislative activities on the progressive growth of the operating budget. Operating budgets for the previous nine years were studied with legislative expenses tallied separately from the remainder of the operating expenses. The average growths were calculated and the data was graphed for trendlines. The financial analysis revealed similar average annual growths of $3,548 for the operating budget without legislative activities (OB) and $3,408 for the legislative budget (LB). Financial increases in both the OB and LB were mainly attributable to increased staff/consultant costs, regardless of whether the work was for operational or legislative activities. Midway through the years studied, the IDA's push to obtain licensure took the majority of the Government Affairs Director's time. Activities concerning other state and national legislation replaced these LB expenses once licensure was obtained. Likewise, duties of the Executive Director (OB expenses) expanded at a similar rate during this time frame to include state assembly planning and bookkeeping. In this state dietetic association, the notion that legislative activities are rising more rapidly than other operational expenses was not supported. Overall budget growth was directly related to the paid staff, regardless of their assigned duties. District and state associations may find that the amount of money allocated to legislative activities does not inflate their budget disproportionately to other association activities.