Treasurer (Volunteer Board Member)

About The TLA Network

We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, founded in 2005, that promotes the use of the spoken, written, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN's history includes providing education, training, mentorship, and community-building for practitioners, with a focus on using language for healing, social change, and empowerment. The organization supports diverse individuals and groups who use creative arts to foster connection, growth, and liberation.

• Founding and Mission: Founded in 2005, the TLA Network is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Its mission is to support and promote individuals and organizations that use language arts for personal and community transformation.
• Activities: The network provides education, training, mentorship, and community-building opportunities for those involved in Transformative Language Arts. It supports a wide range of practitioners, from poets and writers to community organizers and therapists.
• Core Principles: The organization emphasizes the power of words to create lasting change and healing. It is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, celebrating and uplifting conversations across various identities and differences.
• Community and Connection: A key aspect of the TLA Network's history is its role in connecting people and groups to share resources and enhance each other's work. It creates spaces for collaboration, education, and inspiration through physical and electronic platforms.
• Examples of Impact: The network supports initiatives like workshops for marginalized communities, storytelling performances for people with disabilities, and programs that use writing for healing and social justice.

Treasurer Role Description

Our treasurer provides oversight and support for financial administration for TLAN, plus oversees our financial administrator. This includes the following:

• Meet with the financial administrator regularly (bi-weekly or monthly suggested) to check in, collaborate, ask and answer questions, and plan.
• Review monthly and quarterly financial summaries prepared by the financial administrator, and present reports to the board at monthly meetings.
• Be listed as the official Treasurer for TLAN for IRS, State Government, and Banking purposes.
• Ensure that basic financial processes and safeguards are in place — such as clear roles, timely reporting, appropriate approval steps, and regular check-ins — in collaboration with the financial administrator.
• Work with the financial administrator, plus consult with the board, in preparation and adoption of an annual budget (running Jan. 1 - Dec. 31) in a timely manner to be approved by March of that fiscal year.
• Conduct an annual evaluation of the financial administrator with input from the board as appropriate and according to the contract with the financial administrator.
• Approve expenditures within guidelines allowed in by-laws. Consult with the board chairs and/or board on expenditures outside of those guidelines.
• Review annual tax documents prepared by the financial administrator, including 501(c)3 status and checking that 1099s to contractors were appropriately sent out.

Time Estimate, Requirements & Perks:

• Time Estimate: 5-9 hours/month, based on current needs of organization and depending on prior experience of Treasurer
• Requirements: A strong candidate would either have, or be willing to grow, the ability to read and interpret nonprofit financial reports (budgets, income statements, cash flow) as well as conduct budget planning, monitoring, and revision. A basic knowledge of QuickBooks would also be ideal.
• Perks: Conference registration, room and board; in years when we don't have an in-person conference, a free class that we offer and free admission to our virtual conference.

The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our offerings, organization, and aspirations. Words have the power to question, subvert, and transform limiting cultural narratives as well as reinforce entrenched stories and stereotypes. The TLA Network wants to make clear that we celebrate and uplift conversations across identity and difference, whether rooted in race, religion, social class, ethnicity, disability, health, gender, sexual orientation, age, military service, and other identities.