ABR Budget and Finance Committee Fulfills Duty of Care
By Marina I. Feldman, MD, MBA, ABR Secretary-Treasurer, and Brent Wagner, MD, MBA, ABR Executive Director
2025;18(3):2
The ABR governing board has three legal duties: the “duty of care,” “duty of loyalty,” and “duty of obedience.” The National Council of Nonprofits describes these as:
Duty of Care: Take care of the nonprofit by ensuring prudent use of all assets, including facility, people, and goodwill.
Duty of Loyalty: Ensure that the nonprofit’s activities and transactions are, first and foremost, advancing its mission; Recognize and disclose conflicts of interest; Make decisions that are in the best interest of the nonprofit corporation; not in the best interest of the individual board member (or any other individual or for-profit entity).
Duty of Obedience: Ensure that the nonprofit obeys applicable laws and regulations; follows its own bylaws; and that the nonprofit adheres to its stated corporate purposes/mission.
In reference to the duty of care, the volunteer governors who sit on the ABR Board recognize their obligation to serve as stewards of the fees collected from diplomates and candidates that fund the organization’s activities. These resources allow the ABR to administer the exams and programs that support board certification as a recognized valuable credential.
As defined in the ABR Bylaws, the duties of the Budget and Finance Committee include reviewing and approving the annual budget, overseeing investments, recommending exam and all other fees, reviewing personnel compensation, and related matters as assigned by the Board of Governors. The Committee’s thoughtful deliberations offer oversight of management functions as well as a perspective that focuses ongoing attention on controlling costs.
The committee, along with the Board of Governors, considers the important balance between the stability of financial reserves and the ABR’s potential strategic needs. Over the past five years, resources have been required not only to develop and refine software related to remote exams and Online Longitudinal Assessment, but also to bolster efficiency tools to support volunteer subject matter experts and enhance cybersecurity initiatives. These initiatives strengthen organizational resilience and improve our capacity to respond to the evolving needs of the profession.
