Anderson Band Boosters
Dear Band Families,
As always, thank you for your continued support of the Anderson Band Boosters (ABB) and the Anderson High School (AHS) band program. The purpose of this letter is to let the AHS band families know about some changes to ABB fund raising, student accounts, and the reasons for those changes.
As you may know from recent news articles, publicly it appears that the IRS has been giving greater scrutiny to booster organizations with regard to how they account for proceeds from fund raising. Recently, several booster groups were assessed large fines because the IRS felt that they had not operated exclusively for the benefit of the entire group. The official IRS position is that any booster club that raises money to benefit an individual student/family rather than a group is in violation of federal law.
To ensure the ABB was in compliance with the IRS, the ABB along with other local booster organizations, reviewed their policies and procedures regarding fund raising activities and their use of student accounts. While the ABB believes it has always made a good faith effort to be in compliance with the IRS requirements, it does not want to jeopardize its tax exempt status or expose any of our band families to potential adverse action by the IRS. Therefore, effective immediately the ABB has made the following changes:
● Discontinued the establishment of new individual student accounts;
● Clarified the expenses that existing student accounts can be used for;
● Revised accounting procedures for future fund raising activities to ensure aid for future band camps and trips.
What this means is that families with existing student accounts will be permitted to use those funds until exhausted. If upon graduation a student has not exhausted their account, those funds will be forfeited unless there is a sibling in AHS band the following year. The only expenses for which student accounts will be permitted to be used are band camp fees (including drum major camp) and expenses associated with an upcoming band trip (i.e. Disney, etc.). Student account monies can not be used for tangible asset purchases such as shoes, gloves, drum sticks, spirit wear, etc.
Prospectively, a percentage of the proceeds from all fund raising activities will be segregated from ABB’s working capital and operating budget into a single account in ABB’s records to accumulate and to be used to reduce the overall group expense of future band camps and trips. In effect, instead of individual student accounts we’re going to a single group account concept.
If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Tom Prues, President
Anderson Band Boosters
Mission:
.. To help promote the Creation, Performance, and Appreciation of Music and Color Guard programs for our communities
.. To give the Anderson Band programs a secure existence through raising money and volunteering
