SBAND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR, AGAIN
TONY J. WEILER
SBAND Executive Director
Budget Time. It’s that time of year again
(no, I don’t mean fall/winter), when the staff
and I at SBAND work on our annual budget.
During this time of year, we put together
our best estimate of what we anticipate to be
our income and expenses for the following
year. As with any budget, there is a bit of
guesswork with the number of attorneys
licensed in North Dakota, but that has
remained pretty steady over the last several
years. The budget process includes an analysis
of our income from any source, expenses,
and a look back at the current budget to
plan for the operation and management
of the association in 2019. While license
fees are not our only income stream, the
anticipated number of members is important
in the budgeting process, as that is a large
percentage of our overall revenue.
Many members simply pay their annual
license fee without regard to where the
money goes. Keep in mind, if you pay the
full license fee of $380, the first $75 goes to
discipline. SBAND receives 80 percent of
the balance and the Board of Law Examiners
receives 20 percent, leaving SBAND with
$244. Further, $16 per license fee goes into
the Client Protection Fund. The rest is
utilized by SBAND to run the association.
Once the budget is finalized by SBAND
staff, the executive committee reviews it and
makes suggested changes and modifications.
It then goes to the full board of governors for
review, modifications, and finally acceptance.
We continue to be somewhat conservative
when it comes to calculating revenue and
try to do our best to estimate expenses on
the high side so as to remain with a positive
balance. We operate a tight ship as well
and run the association in a very fiscally
conservative manner.
As you also know, part of the budget exercise
is calculating what we spend on what are
considered “non-chargeable” expenses, as
those cannot be used for any association
activities without allowing members to “opt
out” under Keller v. California. We calculate
that about 46 percent of our revenue is from
member license fees, and the rest comes
from other sources such as continuing legal
education seminars, the fee to file an annual
report to the CLE commission, and other
sources of revenue.
In your annual license fee statement you
will find the “Keller” notice, which uses
a historical approach to identify what is
germane under Keller. For each activity
found to be non-chargeable, SBAND
calculates the cost of the activity, including
all applicable overhead and administrative
costs, and determines the amount of license
fees expended on the activity. The optional
deduction is calculated using our audited
2017 financials (in line with U.S. Supreme
Court caselaw) and anticipating the number
of licensed attorneys in 2017. The “Keller”
notice in your license fee statement will
explain more on how we arrive at each
member’s possible deduction. Once again, if
you have any questions, please don’t hesitate
to contact me.
LSND. You will also find a new line in your
2019 License Fee Statement, dealing with
Legal Services of North Dakota (LSND).
You will be able to add an optional donation
to LSND to help the organization continue
its work in helping those in our state who
can afford legal services the least. Most of
LSND’s funding is derived from federal
funds, and those are often unpredictable.
LSND is critical in serving the state’s
indigent community, and without it there
could be issues with pro se litigants crowding
court dockets and causing even further
delays in justice. I am hoping you will take
some time to think about the importance of
LSND and contribute what you can to this
hard-working organization.
New at SBAND. If you haven’t had a chance
to check out our new and improved website,
please do so. We have online tutorials to
help you navigate the site and provide a
better member experience when utilizing
all that is available to you at sband.org. We
will continue to make changes to the site to
better enhance its value to our members, and
look for a larger social media presence by
SBAND, including Facebook, Twitter, and
an app!
FALL 2018
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