Hi Carol,
Thank you for your e-mail. I would like to participate in the January
5th call. Happy holidays!
Best,
Ellen
Ellen Terry
Program Director
Humanities Washington
206.682.1770 x 101
[log in to unmask]
From: Museum on Main Street [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Harsh, Carol
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 8:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: invoices and receipts - IMPORTANT
Dear MoMSers,
I am sorry to hit you with this on a Monday morning, but I need to alert
you to some policy changes at the Smithsonian that will impact what we
need from your council in order to be reimbursed for travel and for STAR
Funds.
With regard to travel, when vouchering out after a trip, we need the
following:
* Original boarding passes
* Original boarding pass receipt
* Original receipts for any taxis, restaurants, etc.
* Original hotel receipt with a zero balance (not the one they
slide under your door on the morning that you check out)
* Original, signed travel expense documentation form with
receipts attached. This can't be a PDF document sent to us by email, but
instead sent by regular mail.
Just for clarification, in simple terms, the Smithsonian considers an
"original receipt" to be a document that is actually printed by the
company or the original source and includes the company name and/or
logo. It cannot be a PDF document. Even as more and more people
purchase airline tickets on line and get email documents from the
airlines that indicate that a ticket was purchased, this does not
suffice as adequate documentation of travel.
If per chance you don't get boarding passes or the boarding pass receipt
at the airport, then we will need to ask for a redacted credit card bill
showing the charge for the ticket or your frequent flyer mileage report
that shows mileage for the trip.
If you are in the process of requesting reimbursement for travel to the
Federation's conference in November and don't have the proper original
receipts, please let me know and we will work together to find a
reasonable solution.
You probably know by now that the documentation requirements for STAR
Funds has also been modified over the past few months. The purchase
orders we are writing for STAR Funds are actually "service contracts".
In other words, we are contracting with your council to provide a
certain service that involves capacity building activities for the host
communities. So, vouchering out requires the following:
* Documentation of the work done requires a report that
describes in detail the training that occurred as well as the benefit to
the host organization.
* Agendas, participant lists, letters of support that indicate
the importance of the training to the community, etc. are all good to
have on file, but are not required.
* Receipts for travel, lodging, etc are not required, but should
be kept on file by the councils as backup documentation if MoMS is ever
audited and additional information is needed.
I can't stress enough the importance of this information. The
Smithsonian's Comptroller has been very clear that without this
documentation from this point forward we will not be able to reimburse
your council.
So, just to make sure that all your questions may be answered, I am
scheduling a series of conference calls so that we can discuss these
changes with you. Hopefully this will help us avoid documentation
problems after the fact.
Thursday, January 5, 2:00 PM (eastern standard time)
Wednesday, January 18, 2:00 (eastern standard time)
Please let me know if you want to participate in one of these
conversations and I will send you instructions for calling in to the
conference call. If you are unable to participate in either of these
calls, please let me know and we can add another time and date for a
call.
In the end, these requirements are simple to follow. We just need to
fine tune the way we operate and successfully communicate these changes
to all of you. And, service contracts for the STAR Funds will enable us
to capture the details of the content of the training as well as lasting
legacy of improved practices at the local level. It makes so much more
sense for us to be focusing on that, rather than the minutia of small
receipts.
I would love to hear from you with your reaction to all of us. My goal
for the new year is to get all of this behind us so that together we can
continue to impact the cultural arena of small towns across the United
States.
So, it is in total admiration for the good work that you continue to do
that I wish you a blessed and restful holiday.
All the best,
Carol
Carol G. Harsh
Director, Museum on Main Street
Smithsonian Institution, SITES
202-633-5333
202-465-5267 (cell)
202-633-5344 (fax)
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