I just had my first email question about creating a budget for the new year. Churches vary on budget seasons so some of us are going to be receiving forms to fill out with deadlines in the next few weeks. Others won't have to do such for a few more weeks. We have new members to the CLN who are starting libraries or just now becoming librarians. Let's help each other with the task of creating a budget for 2024.
What do you do first?
What forms do you receive from the Finance Committee to fill out for your budget request?
What are your budget line items?
What have you learned through the years about budgeting for a church library?
Replies
Let me start by saying that I am a part of a large church with a large budget.
I budget 5 books a month + $5 a month for supplies. Please know I may spend all $60 at one time, but on paper I spread it out. We have a laminator, so I add the cost of 2 rolls of laminate. I like to add some for mission projects and gifts to the kids during Fall Festival kind of thing. Add in the cost of Atriuum, and send it in.
(I figure the cost for a book at $20, so I'm able to buy quite a few books for $100 each month.)
We have a separate budget for conferences, but if you don't you may want to add the cost of registration for a local conference. Because you are new you may need more budgeted for supplies, we are to the point that we are just buying tape and such for book protection.
We also have a separate budget for any kits purchased. Those come to the library when they are finished with them, but we are not responsible for purchasing them. We no longer purchase DVDs, CDs, or audio books because the demand for them is no longer there.
I have a friend on the budget committee she asks me if I need more Or if I am good and she takes it from there.
This year we have a new finanical sec and new book-keeping system and she moved the cost of library on line and software support to the library budget because no one else uses it (before this it came out of the tech budget (which is huge and they never spend all of it and it was the tech people who ordered the software I requested) Before I just covered the cost of labels label protectors and barcode labels
I told my friend this so she was going to bring it up when they meet and get my budget raised to cover the change She knows that I shop around try to find best prices and often pre-order as books can be cheaper then and I also pointed out how the cost of books have gone up