The Albert Rees Davis Endowment Fund, Inc. Policies & Procedures
1. Election of Trustees
Elections of ARDEF Trustees are conducted in accordance with the ARDEF Bylaws and Code of Regulations. This procedure further clarifies the process used to nominate and elect trustees. Elections of ARDEF Trustees are conducted in accordance with the ARDEF Bylaws and Code of Regulations. This procedure further clarifies the process used to nominate and elect trustees. The tradition consistently followed since 1962 has been that the nominating committee appointed to submit nominations for directors of The Singers’ Club Board of Directors consults with the current ARDEF Trustees and prepares the slate of ARDEF nominees. It is the responsibility of each member present to vote only if he is considered a voting member of The Singers’ Club. It is helpful to the process if the Membership Chairman of The Singers’ Club prepares a checklist of voting members prior to the meeting and checks off each member as he arrives. The chairman of the ARD meeting should appoint tellers to pass out the printed ballots which have been prepared ahead of time, collect and count the ballots, and submit a report of the election to the chairman. All ballots, checklists, and tally sheets must be retained for future reference.
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2. Endowment Pool
Rationale
• Investment decisions are made for one portfolio, rather than for several • Smaller funds are better diversified, reducing risk for those funds
• Each fund fares the same as far as investment performance is concerned
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Pooling the ARD Assets:
Set a start date. This should be a date that works well with published tables and existing reports from brokerage houses, bank statements, etc. The beginning of a new fiscal year might be particularly advantageous. At the end of business on that date, the entire paper assets of The Albert Rees Davis Endowment Fund, Inc. will be determined; this will be the value of the pool, and the total number of shares will be equivalent to the total dollar value of the pool. Thus, the value of a share will be one dollar. For securities in which bid and asked values are supplied, the bid value will be used. Also at that time, the value of each fund will be determined based on the value of the assets assigned to those specific funds. At this time there are three funds: the Sheldon & Marilyn MacLeod Music Fund (“MacLeod Fund”), the Thomas J. Shellhammer Fund (“TJS Fund”), and The Albert Rees Davis Endowment Fund (“ARD Fund”). Again, the number of shares for each fund will be equivalent to the total dollar value of the assets of each fund. The sum of the shares of the three funds (MacLeod, TJS, and ARD) will be equal to the total number of shares in the pool. At regular intervals (monthly?) after the start date, the total dollar value of the pool will be determined as will the proportion of that pool that each fund represents. These times are termed check points. At these check points, it is possible that the proportion of the total pool assigned to each individual fund will change, since contributions to and withdrawals from the pool may be specifically attached to an individual fund. This will be accomplished by maintaining a constant share value ($1.00 per share) and “adding” or “removing” shares, as is described in the following section.
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Adding and Removing Money from the Pool:
Monies will move in and out of the endowment pool through a single “money market” account that will provide check-writing privileges to the ARD Trustees.
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Adding money:
Money could be deposited into the money market account at any time. Each deposit would be identified as to the fund to be benefitted by the deposit principal. Shares equal to the principal so deposited will be assigned to the appropriate fund at the next check point in the sequence described below. Interest earned in the money market account is proportionately distributed (as shares) to the established funds (see check point actions, below). If the identified fund is not yet established by resolution, then the monies would be held in the money market account in a “holding” sub-account; they could not be moved into the endowment pool, nor could they accrue interest.
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Removing money
Money could be moved from the endowment pool at any time, and the number of shares assigned to the specific fund involved in the withdrawal would be reduced by the dollar amount of the withdrawal; the adjustment in share number would be immediate. Money could be removed to an “operating” account for the common expenses of The ARD, Inc., in which case the share value of each fund would be lowered proportionately based on the relative number of shares as determined at the most recent check point (the operating account is not part of the endowment pool); the adjustment in share numbers would be immediate.
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Actions Taken at Each Check Point
As at the starting point, the entire paper assets of the endowment pool will be determined, and the number of shares for each fund will be determined by proportionality based on the current share numbers (new money contributions that have been placed in the money market account since the last check point are not included in the pool and are therefore not yet part of the this asset valuation and share determination). Then, new contributions would be added to the pool, and shares equal to the dollar amount(s) of these new contributions would be assigned to the appropriate fund. At this point, all assets will have been “pooled” and the value of the entire pool will be apportioned to the individual funds based on the number of shares assigned to those funds. After the check point procedures have been completed, the sum of the shares in the various endowed funds equals the dollar value of the endowment pool. When there has been no disproportionate contribution or removal of shares from the pool in the check point interval, the share fractions per fund will remain constant. Any interest earned in the money market account will be distributed to the endowed funds in a proportion based on the share numbers before new additions to the endowment pool are made.
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Establishment of New Funds
Once a resolution is passed by the ARD Trustees establishing a new fund, monies in a holding account for that new fund are moved into the pool at the next check point (see above). The ARD may wish to set up specific dollar levels that might need to be met before a particular type of endowment could be established (a fund is “established” when the monies are moved into the endowment pool).
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Operating Account
A checking account outside the endowment pool would be used for the purposes of meeting incidental expenses of The Albert Rees Davis Endowment Fund, Inc. Examples of such expenses include stationery, registration fees, etc. This may be an interest-bearing account. The account may be funded by contributions from the money market account in the endowment pool as noted above. (August, 1996; revised, Jan, 1997)
3. Establishing New Sub Funds
A named sub-pool can be established for gifts to ARDEF when they equal or exceed a minimum threshold of $5,000. Gifts less than the threshold will be placed in a holding account separate from the general fund, and all appreciation will accrue to the general endowment pool until the named sub-pool is established. A donor contributing an amount in excess of the threshold to establish a named sub-pool may be invited to provide guidance as to the purpose of the sub-pool. Distributions from the sub-pool must be able to substantially support that purpose. We intend to use a twenty-times need guideline. Some examples:
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Gift Level Tier 1
Music for a Single Concert
Yearly Income Sought $500
Gift Required 20x Need $10,000
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Gift Level Tier 2
Scholarship Support
Yearly Income Sought $1,000
Gift Required 20x Need $20,000
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Gift Level Tier 3
Assistant Conductor's Chair
Yearly Income Sought $2,500
Gift Required 20x Need $50,000
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Gift Level Tier 4
Conductor's Chair
Yearly Income Sought $5,000
Gift Required 20x Need $100,000
4. Spending Rule
Spending guidelines are to be established for each fund in the pool. These guidelines are meant to be firm but not inflexible. Guidelines might differ for different funds. The guidelines should be reconsidered at regular intervals (three years). Special spending “dividends” could be declared should extraordinarily positive fund performance seem to warrant such an event. Unless otherwise established for a fund, the following Normal Spending Guideline will be used.
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4.1 Normal Spending Guideline
At the end of a fiscal year, the year-end values of a sub-fund are determined for the most recent three years. The average of these three amounts is called the “base value” of that sub-fund. If a sub-fund has not been established for this length of time, then its base value is the average of the fiscal-year-end values over the life of the fund (i.e., one or two years). The funding available from the sub-fund for grants during the next fiscal year is 5% of the just-established base value.
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5. Scholarships and Fellowships
In order to carry out the educational purpose of the ARDEF and to comply with its tax-exempt status under IRS rules, the Board of the ARDEF has adopted the following policies for awarding scholarship and fellowship aid to music students. Qualifications of Applicants: Applicants must be engaged in full- time or substantial part-time study of music pursuant to obtaining an undergraduate or graduate degree. Exceptions to this policy (i. e. full-time or substantial part-time study pursuant to a degree) will be considered on a case-by-case basis. All applicants should be prepared to show evidence of music study. All applicants should be prepared to provide evidence of need for scholarship or fellowship assistance. Selection of Recipients: It will be the responsibility of The Singers’ Club to select the recipients (normally during the Mather Scholarship Competition in the autumn each year). Singers’ Club decisions on such matters are subject to prior agreement with the ARDEF regarding the number of recipients to be awarded funds and the allocated amount of the funds to be awarded. Payment of Scholarships: ARDEF may send award checks either 1) to the institution where the recipient is enrolled or to an instructor of the recipient, when agreed to in advance by all parties or 2) directly to the recipient. In any of these cases, the recipient will be informed of his responsibility to comply with appropriate tax law relative to how the scholarship or fellowship funds are used.
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6. Delayed Scholarship Awards
The Singers’ Club usually identifies scholarship recipients late in a calendar year. It is expected that a scholarship recipient will use the award between the time the award is made and the following April 30 – the end of the ARDEF fiscal year. The following policy should guide the spending schedule: 1.1. If the recipient does not use the award within that expected time he may request a carry-over of the award.
Following such request, ARDEF may carry the award over an additional twelve months to the end of the next ARDEF fiscal year. If the award is not used during this carry-over period, the award will be cancelled. 1.2. Should no award be made by the Singers’ Club before calendar end of year, funding allocated for a delayed award will remain available through the remainder of the current ARDEF fiscal year. A delayed award may be made until that time. After such delayed award, the recipient will be expected to use the funds before the end of the following ARDEF fiscal year – effectively a one year extension. If the award is not used during this extended period, the award will be cancelled. 1.3. Scholarship grants available, but not awarded during any ARDEF fiscal year will not carry into the next ARDEF fiscal year.