Medical Students for Choice

“The 990 draft, prepared by msfc's accountants after approval of the audited financial statement by msfcs board of directors, is sent via email by the director of finance to the president and treasurer for review and comment. President and treasurer approve. Executive director and director of finance review and ask accountants to go to final. Upon completion, the 990 is emailed to all members of the board of directors.”

“At the new board member orientation, members sign a statement of their commitment to their responsibilities. The disclosure wording follows: members must safeguard the credibility and integrity of the organization by making a good faith effort to place the welfare of the organization before personal benefit. Board members who suspect they may have a potential conflict of interest between board responsibilities and individual obligation must disclose this to the board and abstain from discussion and voting regarding that issue. Open, honest and professional discussion of potential conflicts of interest is expected of all board members. The board values the range of perspectives brought to board discussions by individuals with diverse organizational experience and professional relationships; potential conflicts may be expected. These guidelines will ensure that the interests of msfc will be paramount in the decision-making role of the board. Potential conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to: a) an organization with which you have a relationship is being considered for a contractual relationship with msfc. B) you, or an organization with which you have a relationship, may benefit from research utilizing msfcs evaluation data. C) your knowledge of msfc's donors may assist another organization. D) your personal relationship with a school coordinator may influence the decision-making process of assigning organizing funds, scholarships, externship or awards. Note: all board members must sign and comply with the following independent voting board member statement. Independent voting board member statement a member of the governing body of medical students for choice is considered 'independent' only if all three of the following circumstances applied at all times during the organization's tax year: 1. The member was not compensated as an officer or employee of medical students for choice. 2. The member did not receive payments exceeding $10,000 from medical students for choice as an independent contractor, other than reimbursement of expenses or reasonable compensation for services provided in the capacity as a member of the governing body. 3. Neither the member, nor any family member of the member, was involved in a transaction with medical students for choice that included, but was not limited to, a loan or grant. The family of an individual includes only his or her spouse, ancestors, brothers and sisters (whether whole or half blood), children (whether natural or adopted), grandchildren, and spouses of brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren.”

“In developing the model, the executive committee considered factors including fairness of compensation without excessive salary growth while rewarding excellent performance, justifiability of the expense as a proportion of the organization's resources, as well as input from consultants and executive directors of similar sized organizations. The current process is intended to provide a steady model for salary growth, requiring appropriate but not excessive annual time investment of the executive committee and board. When determining a raise, the executive committee and board must find a number that is not only appropriate for the caliber of work, but one that is responsible to external stakeholders. The specific raise can include cola plus a merit-based percentage. An overall score is used to determine the appropriate range for a merit-based salary increase. The overall score is determined by finding the mean of all scores given on the executive director annual evaluation by the board of directors (both directors and staff complete evaluations of the executive director and the executive director completes a self-evaluation). The total raise (including both cola and merit adjustment) generally should not exceed 7% in any given year and should not cause the executive directors salary to exceed 12% of the organizations operating budget. The process was last undertaken in march 2014.”

“Documents are available upon request, online through guidestar.org or at msfc.org.”

“Msfc volunteers provide leadership to the organization's medical school groups. Their volunteer leadership functions include organizing educational events on campus, conducting fundraising campaigns to support the school groups' efforts, and organizing advocacy efforts to reform medical school curricula. Experienced medical school volunteers also serve on a regional basis to provide technical assistance and advice to the student group leaders. The estimated number of hours contributed by msfc's volunteer medical student leaders in 2013 is 47,000.”