Take a Strategic Approach to Budgeting

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Online (Zoom)

Your budget should incorporate the strategic priorities of your library and be moving you along a sustainable path. How do you do your budget? Are you considering the impact of future needs and taxes, or is the budget focused on the coming year only? Does expedience take priority?

This webinar provides some space to think about budgeting and give you some ways to make the budgeting process more organized and effective. We'll introduce practices that make the budget a more useful tool.

A number of strategies are used for budgeting, and no one strategy fits all libraries, but certainly one will feel right for you! We'll also talk about how the budget connects to the B&A and levy, so that you can complete all three with greater ease. Hopefully, you'll leave this webinar feeling excited about the preparing for the coming year.

All ILA Noon Network webinars are free. The webinar recordings are available to ILA personal members shortly after the webinars. Registration for all live webinars is limited to Illinois libraries.

This webinar is presented by the ILA Human Resources & Administration Forum (HRAF).

About the Speaker

Jamie Rachlin is the founder and President of Meristem Advisors and was
previously a public finance banker for 25 years. Since starting Meristem in 2018, he has worked with over 80 Illinois libraries on their debt and budgeting needs.

Meristem works extensively with Illinois libraries on all aspects of their financial planning and strategy. Meristem was founded on the principle that clients deserve to have deeper conversations with their advisors than afforded by larger companies.

Meristem provides traditional bond financing services but is also available on a consulting basis for financial strategy, referendum support, capital planning, budgeting, and revenue forecasting.

Previously, Jamie was a Managing Director at RBC Capital Markets and BMO Capital Markets GKST.

Jamie holds an M.B.A. in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S.E. in Civil Engineering from Princeton University, and an A.B. in Computer Science from Brown University.

Take a Strategic Approach to Budgeting