Table of Contents
Compensation Questions
Are Board Members Paid?
The short answer is no. As indicated in Article 2.2 of the Community Board Bylaws, time spent on governance work at the Academy is always uncompensated. During the time they spend working on governance matters, board members are therefore true volunteers, who offer their time and service freely to the college, with no expectation of remuneration.
This means that you will not receive any payments from the college for the governance work you do.
Does This Apply to Employees?
Yes, this rule applies equally to all stakeholder groups, even existing employees of the college who may also serve on the board at the same time as they are employees who periodically receive paychecks.
This means that, if you are a current staff member, faculty member, or teaching assistant, and you would like to serve on the board, you will not receive any “extra pay” for doing this “extra work” - meaning no extra pay over and above your regularly paid compensation. This also means that, if you are a teacher or a TA or an employee serving on the Community Board, you should never list governance work, or time spent attending board-related meetings or committees, on any timesheets you submit for payroll purposes.
What About Expenses?
The only exception to the “no compensation” rule for board members would be occasional reimbursement of reasonable incidental minor expenses directly related to governance activities, which all board members were required to pay, due to a board decision.
An example of a reasonable incidental expense would be if the board made a decision that all its members should read a specific book about governance that cost $20 to purchase. The $20 would be considered an incidental expense, and all board members could receive a reimbursement after purchasing it. (Note that if you decided to buy the book on your own initiative, not because of a board decision, then you would need to pay for the book yourself.)
Some things are specifically NOT typically reimbursable as expenses for individual board members, including:
- Purchase costs for and computer hardware or software that may be required for board meeting participation
- Costs incurred for any visits to the college, e.g., flight or other travel costs, car rental expenses, hotel, or meal costs
Occasional exceptions to these specific policies may be decided if funding is available, at the discretion of the board.