LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE

13356 Eldridge Avenue Administrative Services

Sylmar, CA 91342

Departmental Operational Plan 2010-2011

Mission College is committed to operating within its annual resource allocation. To assist in the
planning and allocation of resources, each department is required to submit an annual budget
request. Annually, each department will receive a Departmental Operational Plan template to
facilitate the analysis of available base funding and provide an opportunity to request additional
resources to carry out the mission and goals of the department. In FY 2009/10 a process was
developed and has been modified for the current year. In our recent accreditation follow up
visit, the College was commended for the form and substance of the current budget planning
process. Departments and division leaders expressed concern that the process was too
complicated and duplicative. In response, the Departmental Operational Plan template has
been developed to simplify and automate the base funding request for salaries, regular
positions, and operating expenses. While the process requires thoughtful analysis and
planning, this revised template will be a valuable tool in developing annual budget requests.

Guidelines for Completing and Submission of Department Operational Plan Document

The following guidelines will assist unit heads to complete and submit the department
operational plan document. Unit manager will need to submit one operational plan for each
program or fund center in the unit.

Completing the Operational Plan Document

The Departmental Operational Plan template is set up as an Excel template in three parts:
departmental goals and objectives, departmental personnel staffing, and departmental
operating budget request. The template is designed to include macros and links to
automatically populate the form with current regular positions and budget data relating to prior
year operating expenses. Requests for additional regular positions, hourly, sub and relief,
overtime and student workers must be manually entered by the department.
  When first opened, the workbook prompts for the following “Security Warning”
message near the top left corner:

Click on the “Options” dialogue box next to the “Security Warning” message. “Microsoft Office
Security Options” dialog box appears. Choose “Enable this content” in “Security Alert –
Macro” dialogue box then click OK.
Start your departmental operational plan with updating the departmental goals and objectives.

 Part I - Departmental Goals and Objectives: The Operational Plan requires that each
departmental unit outlines goals and updates the objectives, identify all unrestricted and
restricted (categorical), and SFP funding sources, and provide a written justification to
support the budget request. Justification and expected outcome are required for all
proposed positions, temporary personnel, and increase in resources to accommodate
enrollment growth and changes in levels of service. Since this information is part of the unit
plan, initially developed during program review, it will be made available to you after it has
been updated. All units have been requested to update their unit plans by December 31,
2009. Updated resource requests will be extracted from the program review system and will
be available in mid-January 2010. This information can be used to complete Part I –
Departmental Goals and Objectives.
 Part II - Departmental Personnel Staffing: A macro link “Current Staffing” is inserted near
the top right of this Excel sheet. Clicking the macro will populate the form with current
positions in the department, including regular certificated and classified staffing levels.
These represent the 2009/10 level of funding and should be reviewed by department
managers for completeness and accuracy.

Departments requesting new regular positions and temporary staffing add these requests in
color shaded section. This includes requests for hourly personnel, substitute and relief,
overtime, professional experts, student workers, etc. and other operating expenses. The
“Job Class Reference” and “Unclassified Hourly Rate” pages are included in the operational
plan template for reference purpose when requesting new positions. The department can
also request this information by contacting Budget Office.
 Part III - Departmental Operating Budget Request: The unit’s current year operating budget
along with proposed personnel costs for coming year from Departmental Personnel Staffing
are automatically transferred into Departmental Operating Budget Request page to
formulate the department proposed operating budget for coming year. Requests for
additional resources identified in Part I Departmental Goals and Objectives Services other
than personnel salary can be made directly in the proper expenditure row in “Proposed
New Resources” column. Unit manager will need to review the requested departmental
budget and identify proposed funding support.
Submission of Departmental Operational Plan

The proposed operational plan, once developed, must be submitted to your division vice
president, approved, and forwarded to Budget Office. In order to allow sufficient time for
review and transmission of preliminary budgets by the deadline established by the District
Office, unit managers are requested to submit to Budget Office the approved 2010-2011
departmental operational plan no later than January 31, 2010. It would be desirable to also
email the electronic copy of the completed operational plan to Frances Nguyen at
@nguyenfh@lamission.edu.

Budget and Planning Committee will review the departmental operational plan in consultation
with division administrators and respective department head. The approved departmental
operational plans will be integrated to formulate the 2010/2011 preliminary operating budget
for the College. Necessary adjustments to reflect step and column increases and shift
differentials will be made to the budget requests submitted by departments to derive the
projected annual salary for regular certificated and classified personnel in coming year.
By May 2010, final adjustments will be incorporated into the College operational plan request.
Department managers will be notified in June what their tentative operating budget will be for
the next fiscal year. It is the goal of this process that the college’s operational plan budget will
be a budget request that reflects the appropriate level of operations consistent with FTES
targets, unit assessments, strategic goals and available resources. In the current fiscal
uncertainty and difficult fiscal times, budget requests may need to be revisited and adjusted.