Finance Committee

The AAS Finance Committee (FC) works closely with the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer.  FC has two responsibilities:

  • Oversight of the Association’s investment portfolio, currently housed in several Vanguard mutual funds, which supplements the annual AAS budget while building assets for future use.  Recent FC recommendations approved by the AAS Board include shifting from active to passive management to reduce management costs (2012); broadening our holdings of low-cost Vanguard funds and increasing the equity share from 60% to 80% (because of low returns from fixed income holdings, 2018); and establishing a liquidity reserve to eliminate the prospect of future equity sales at inopportune moments (2019). FC is currently weighing the growing range of options for environmental and social governance (ESG) investment.
  • Responding to requests from the Secretariat/Board of Directors for financial advice. Some requests are specific—e.g., how to structure regular summer withdrawals from the investment portfolio.  Others are general: FC’s 2018 review of the AAS budget concluded that flat revenues (especially from publications and membership fees) and rising costs (due to loss of subsidized office space, rising expense of information management, and higher personnel costs) necessitate a reduction of $150,000 in the Association’s annual base budget.

Finance Committee Members

  • Siddharth Chandra (Chair)
  • Hyaweol Choi
  • Hilary Finchum-Sung
  • Richard Fox
  • Noriko Manabe
  • Margaret Maurer-Fazio
  • Joanna Middleditch
  • Christian F. Murck
  • Jean C. Oi
  • Thomas G. Rawski
  • Carl Walter
  • Pauline Yu