Approval and funding of Business Travel and Staff Development

INTRODUCTION

The Temple University Libraries strongly encourage and generously support staff participation in professional conferences, library and information technology workshops, and other seminars or webinars. These opportunities can significantly assist library staff to continue their education by introducing them to new developments in libraries, archives, and information technology; expanding their knowledge of important issues, techniques, and best practices; and serve as mechanisms for the exchange of ideas with colleagues. At the same time, the libraries have limited funding and we must carefully ration travel funds in order to produce the greatest net benefit to the libraries, and indirectly for the Temple students and faculty we serve.

This policy and procedure statement outlines general guidelines for the submission, consideration, and reimbursement of requests for business travel, staff development, and entertainment to be funded by the libraries.

The standards noted below are supplementary to the travel policies and systems established by Temple University and are intended in part to clarify how the libraries implement University policies.

A. ACTIVITIES COVERED BY THIS POLICY:

Attendance at meetings, seminars, conferences, workshops, and formal continuing education sessions sponsored by library, archival, or information technology related organizations; or by other organizations, when it has been determined that the content is relevant to the employee’s work assignment.
Fundraising which includes: donor relations work, trips to assess potential gift collections.
Other activities necessary to promote the Libraries’ or the University's business.
Job Candidate travel and entertainment.

B. FUNDING LEVELS:

Discretionary professional development and travel is subject to an annual individual funding limit. Most travel to professional conferences such as the (ALA) American Library Association annual conference, (SAA) Society of American Archivists, Innovative User Group, Code4Lib, etc., is considered discretionary in that there are alternative means of gaining knowledge and contributing to the information professions. Memberships to organizations and the like is voluntary, and is a non-reimbursable expense.

The annual individual limits are periodically reviewed by the Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration against funding availability in ongoing budgets. This will ensure the discretionary funding levels are sufficient to encourage ongoing staff development and bringing back of new knowledge and best practices to Temple University.

2. Discretionary annual limits are:

$2,000 (as of 2010) for individuals in librarian positions who have not yet achieved ongoing regular appointment (i.e., librarians in contract years 1-6)

$1,700 (as of July 1, 2018) for all other staff

It has been library policy for a number of years that those individuals in librarian positions who have not yet achieved ongoing regular appointment (i.e., librarians in contract years 1-6) are allocated a somewhat higher amount per year than other staff for discretionary travel and staff development purposes. These individuals must successfully demonstrate repeatedly continued professional growth and increasing professional involvement and contribution to the profession in order to progress through peer review and obtain regular appointment in the seventh year. It is intended that the higher discretionary limit minimize to a reasonably manageable level any financial obstacles to the employee’s progress to regular appointment in this dimension of evaluation.

Unspent discretionary funds may not ordinarily be held over and added to a subsequent year’s discretionary limit.

Request for travel and staff development to fall within the discretionary allocations are subject to review for relevance and assessment of prospective substantive benefit to the University and individual as noted below in section C.4.

3. Administrative, non-discretionary travel with full funding.

a. Some travel and staff development activities are undertaken as mandatory job training to obtain required knowledge, techniques or certifications; while other travel and staff development are required to conduct university business or to represent Temple officially (for example, ARL, NERL, PALCI). Administrative non-discretionary travel is funded fully and the amount is not deducted from any annual discretionary allocation which would ordinarily be assigned to the individual. i.e., award of administrative non-discretionary travel shall not diminish the annual discretionary allocation.

Proposals for travel to be considered administrative non-discretionary travel are evaluated by the Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration or alternate acting as travel officer.

b. Travel by executive staff (members of the Library Leadership Council) related to broad areas of responsibility is also considered administrative travel (as of 2005) for funding purposes.

c. Travel to Temple by job candidates or guest speakers and consultants are considered administrative travel.

Costs incurred by library staff during job interviews or speaker visits such as local hotel accommodations, refreshments, luncheons or dinners are reported to financial services staff for reconciliation against library FOAPALs. Individual out of pocket expenditures for lunches or dinners attended by external visitors or candidates as well as staff are considered entertainment and as long as reasonable and approved in advance are reimbursed upon presentation of acceptable receipts as noted below (section E).

C. Submission, Review, and Approval of Requests:

In April of each year, the Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration will call for travel and staff development requests from library staff for the coming fiscal year. While requests may be submitted at any time during a fiscal year, staff planning to attend the major national and regional conferences and other activities, when the dates and other pertinent information are known, should submit requests in the spring in order to permit allocation of sufficient funds in the budget for the fiscal year for those attending. Persons requesting funds late in the fiscal year for major predictable conferences and after early–bird registration discounts expire risk partial funding. Requests for registration for webinars are encouraged year-round.
A single request per individual must be submitted for each instance of travel or registration, including webinars. Requests are only accepted on the form, "Temple University Libraries Request Form - Business Travel, Professional Meetings, and Staff Development". [See sample attached]
1. All information requested on the form should be filled in completely, with special care being given to the section requiring justification for the anticipated total expenditure.
2. If multiple individuals are to participate in the same webinar, the form may be consolidated if only one individual is going to pay. If multiple individuals are going to the same conference and each will seek reimbursement – individual forms are needed from each traveler indicating the expected costs to be incurred by that individual.
3. Requests should be submitted directly to the requestor's department head, or designee, who will make a recommendation to the Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration.
Individuals may neither recommend or approve their own travel requests nor have them approved by someone who reports to them.
The Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration will review all travel and staff development requests to ensure that it is in the business interest of the Libraries and the University to fund or partially fund the requested travel or other expenditure and that the request appears to conform to applicable University policies and standard rates. The following criteria are used to assess the request. When there are multiple requests for attendance at conferences or when funding for the individual or library is particularly scarce, these criteria may be more strictly applied so that not all requests may be assured of funding.
1. relevance of the topic to the mission, and the current and future work of the libraries
2. relevance of the topic to the usual duties of the individual
3. cost relative to other equivalent means of gaining knowledge
4. degree of participation (officer, committee chair, presenter, etc.)
5. whether the individual has obtained a scholarship or substantial forgiveness of registration or other fees from the meeting sponsor or third party
6. likelihood of substantial benefit to accrue to the Libraries, the University, and/or the individual
The Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration will approve, modify and approve, or deny the request for travel funding and conference time. The determination is marked on the Request Form together with any special instructions, provisos or questions, together with an indication of the specific funding source to be used (the Fund and Org numbers to be inserted as appropriate into Concur).
The Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration will email the traveler and the traveler’s supervisor a scan of the completed travel request form together with any notes or particular instructions or limitations pertaining to the request.
In cases of approved and fully funded or approved partially funded travel, the traveler should then proceed to make his or her travel arrangements as described below.

D. TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS:

After receipt of confirmation of travel approval, individuals are expected to make their own travel arrangements directly and retain all receipts for eventual reimbursement as noted in section E. below.
Airline ticketing:
1. The traveler must use the Concur booking system for University travel. Use of Concur will cause ticket charges to be paid directly from library funds in the appropriate designated FOAPAL.
2. The Concur system will enforce expectations that University employees make economical arrangements for their flights and ensure booking at regular coach rates.
3. Travelers must note that tickets booked in Concur are ordinarily non-refundable and any change will add to the cost of tickets. Travelers are charged to exercise care in selecting tickets.
4. In the event airline tickets are not used (due to illness or other cancellation), the traveler will be expected to apply the value of the tickets to their next instance of library-supported air travel.
Rail Reservations: Amtrak reservations should be booked through Concur at the coach rate only. Travelers using Acela or business class express Amtrak for personal convenience will be reimbursed only at the lower published coach rate.
Hotel Reservations: Hotel reservations can be booked through Concur using your personal credit card. Or, it can also be booked outside of Concur. The expense is reimbursable but the receipt must reflect the dates of travel as approved on the Travel Form by the Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration.

If assistance is needed to book travel and/or local hotel reservations, contact Tebo.Buchanan@temple.edu, x16510.

If there are any changes to travel such as cancellation, please advise the Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration. This will ensure proper reporting of monies since all travel has been budgeted and is tracked for the FY.

E. REIMBURSEMENT:

Please note that reimbursable expenses cannot be reimbursed unless the travel has already occurred. There are no exceptions.

The following are some of the expenses that are reimbursable, within previously authorized funding, subject to specific limits as noted and contingent upon presentation of acceptable receipts as noted.

Reimbursement is accomplished by the individual traveler inputting all required information into Concur, including uploading receipts.

Requests for reimbursement should be submitted within two weeks after travel has been completed. Particular care must be taken to ensure that reimbursement requests, particularly those submitted for travel occurring in the latter part of a fiscal year, be submitted in sufficient time for processing before the end of that fiscal year.

Registration fees must be paid directly by the University Libraries using a library staff member’s Temple University P-card. Please contact Marianne Moll for assistance with conference registration.
Fares for buses, trains, taxis, and limousines are reimbursed upon presentation of acceptable receipts.
Airline baggage fees paid separately from airline tickets in Concur may be reimbursed upon presentation of acceptable receipts.
Parking fees and tolls are reimbursed upon presentation of acceptable receipts or, in the case of EZPass tolls, a printout from the traveler's EZPass account showing the date, time and cost of tolls associated with the travel.
Mileage driven in a personal automobile is reimbursable at accepted University rates (published IRS rates) for the most direct route as indicated by the Concur system via mileage calculator.
Car rentals for up to mid-sized car unless a larger vehicle such as a van is needed to transport gift collections, etc.
Hotel bill for lodging upon presentation of an acceptable original receipt.
1. An acceptable receipt is one indicating positively that payment in a certain amount has been made and that the balance due is zero. This requirement is enforced at the university level.
2. The duration of the hotel stay should ordinarily be for no longer than the duration of the conference plus one day travel if necessary. Exceptions must be approved by the Executive Director of Library Finance and Administration.
3. The Libraries observe the common Temple practice that limits or caps the hotel reimbursement to the maximum GSA hotel rate published for the city and date in question, unless the hotel is an official conference hotel in which case the receipt for that hotel will be reimbursed at the full amount shown on the receipt.
4. Cost of internet access on hotel bills is reimbursable.
5. Cost of in-room entertainment is not reimbursable.
6. Cost of room service is reimbursable under meals while traveling but needs to be itemized as such and is subject to the per diem cap as noted below in section 9.
7. Meals while traveling – the Libraries will reimburse using the per diem method allowed by the University and in Concur, up to the per diem rate as published in the applicable GSA per diem schedules.
Meals for entertainment are reimbursable based on presentation of an acceptable original receipt. Example, library staff member takes job candidate or a donor and one or two other staff to dinner or lunch and pays for all diners.

https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates/per-diem-rates-lookup

Exclusions from reimbursable:

Parking or moving violation tickets will not be reimbursed.
Added costs incurred due to errors in reservations made by the traveler (i.e. incorrect ticketing dates for airline tickets, car rental or Amtrak tickets).
Memberships in associations. It is the policy of the University Libraries to not pay for memberships of individuals in various professional organizations. Therefore expenditures for individuals’ memberships are not reimbursed by the libraries. Individuals are encouraged instead to deduct these expenditures from income taxes to the extent allowable by law.
Airline and Hotel without the exception form.

References: Temple University Controller's Office policy,

Attachment: TUL Request Form - Business Travel, Professional Meetings, Staff Development

Updated: June, 2021

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