▪  NPC executive directors and board members are encouraged to plan their arrival in Washington so they may attend the special session on NAVREF Leadership – The Next Generation.  Current NAVREF board members will lead a discussion of what serving on the NAVREF board entails and why one retiring medical center director described his years on the NAVREF board as “the best experience of my entire VA career.”

▪  If you are undecided about whether to bring your HR staff member(s) to the conference, please be sure to read the program description about the workshop on It’s All About People: Human Resource Management for Your NPC.  Please note that this session will address high level human resource management, not the basics.  HR specialists who attend the conference will be identified as such on their name tags to encourage networking during the conference and beyond.

▪  The workshop on Making QuickBooks Work for NPCs assumes attendees are familiar with QuickBooks basics. The workshop will focus on customizing QuickBooks to streamline data entry, capture information in a way that will let you extract useful data, set up and generate customized reports, use timesaving memorized transactions, perform year end closing, and much more.  The content will be applicable to a range of QuickBooks versions including QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks for Nonprofits and other variations.

The speaker, Bill Caldwell, CPA, is investing considerable time in getting to know NPCs’ financial transaction and reporting needs in order to customize the workshop. If you have specific QuickBooks questions or challenges, please call Angela Murakami (or send an email to amurakami@navref.org) so they may be incorporated in planning for the session.

 ▪  The content for the Special Session for VA Attorneys is being developed by the Office of General Counsel.  Questions about the program for that day should be addressed to Associate General Counsel Renée Szybala (renee.szybala@va.gov).  As always, NPCs are encouraged to join up with each other to support the registration and travel expenses for one or more attorneys in your Regional Counsel office so they may attend the conference.

▪  Please help NAVREF identify sponsors for the 2010 NAVREF Annual Conference.  Sponsorship contributions help to ensure that the costs of the conference are covered while keeping the registration fee as reasonable as possible.  It is also a way for NPCs to become aware of vendors that other NPCs are using. 

Sponsorship levels are described at http://navref.org/development/2010_AC/NAVREF_2010_AC-Sponsors.pdf.  If you think any of your vendors may be interested, please send an email to amurakami@navref.org with contact information, and we will follow up with them to explore the possibility of sponsorship.  Thank you!

If you have not already done so, please make your hotel reservations and register for the 2010 NAVREF Annual Conference at your earliest convenience.  The deadline for regular registration is September 17.  To register, go to: http://www.regonline.com/navref_2010_annual_conference  

Before departing Washington for their traditional August recess, members of Congress took steps to move FY 2011 appropriations forward.  The full House approved its VA funding legislation.  The Senate Committee on Appropriations approved its VA funding bill, but postponed floor action until after the recess. 

The outcome for VA research is a $9 million (1.5%) increase over the prior year and provides FY 2011 funding at $590 million.  Although the appropriations process is not yet complete, it is likely that this will be the final funding level because the House and Senate bills provide the same increase.  Although it is a disappointment after several years of significant growth in the VA R&D appropriation, this outcome is not surprising given the increasing pressure on Congress to reduce the deficit. 

Details of the House and Senate funding levels for VA research are posted at http://www.navref.org/newsletter/pdf/HouseandSenateReportLanguage.pdf.  It should be noted that the House report on its bill (H. Rept. 111-559 on H. 5822) contains the following statement:

Infrastructure review.--The Committee has not yet received the report, requested in 2005, on a comprehensive review of VA research facilities and their deficiencies. The Committee understands that the work on this report is largely complete and directs the VA to provide it by September 1, 2010.

It seems the House would like to have this long awaited report available in time to inform FY 2012 budget deliberations.

For additional details of FY 2011 appropriations for VA and to track progress through the remainder of the cycle, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app11.html

FDIC Coverage Permanently Raised to $250,000 – Financial overhaul legislation enacted in July contains a provision that permanently increases to $250,000 coverage for funds held by banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).  This may make it a little easier for NPCs to manage large amounts of money while ensuring their safety.

 New IRS Form 1099 Reporting Requirement – A provision in the health care reform legislation enacted in March requires all businesses, including nonprofits, to issue a Form 1099 to all vendors from which they buy goods or services costing $600 or more annually.  Last week, an attempt by Congress to make this requirement less onerous for small businesses and nonprofits failed.  In case the requirement stands through the 2012 effective date, NPCs will need to ensure that their accounting systems are set up to capture the information necessary for compliance and that they are obtaining federal tax ID numbers for their vendors by sending them an IRS form W-9.

HIRE Act Tax Savings – The HIRE Act passed in March provides a payroll tax exemption (the Social Security portion of FICA) for businesses – including nonprofits - that hire workers who have been unemployed for at least 60 days.  As an additional incentive to reduce unemployment, businesses also may get a $1000 tax credit for every new worker retained on the payroll for at least a year.  Although NPCs’ new hire decisions may not have been driven by these tax savings, NPCs may wish to review the HIRE rules with their accountants to determine whether they may be able to incur tax savings on new employees hired during 2010.   

IRS Extends Filing Deadline – It is our expectation that even if their revenues fall below the threshold that triggers the IRS requirement to file a Form 990, all NPCs file an IRS Form 990 or EZ with the IRS, but just in case . . . Any nonprofits that have not filed required forms (a Form 990, 990-N or E-Postcard, or 990-EZ) for 2007, 2008 and 2009 can preserve their exempt status by filing returns by October 15, 2010.  For details, go to the IRS web site http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=225702,00.html.