After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the NCAA Executive Committee agreed to donate $5 million on behalf of the Association to the disaster-relief efforts.

Those funds have been allocated to a scholarship initiative for victims' families.

The donation was funded primarily through two sources. First, Division I chose to forgo what would have been a larger supplemental distribution of year-end dollars available from the 2000-01 budget (the Executive Committee approved a $5 million supplemental distribution in January). Second, the national office reduced its operating budget by $1.5 million (5 percent).

To achieve the $1.5 million in national office budget cuts, each department was asked to reduce its operating expenses by 5 percent. Some of those cuts, particularly in membership services and championships, will affect membership programs.

In membership services, staff travel will be reduced, which will result in the following policy changes:

* Membership services will not accept speaking engagement requests from nonmembership organizations unless the outside entity covers the costs.

* Membership services will accept speaking engagement requests from affiliated and corresponding members only after a case-by-case analysis has been made about the cost-effectiveness of the engagement.

* For the remainder of the fiscal year, membership services will attend only one meeting per conference, and only the primary liaison to the conference will attend the meeting.

Some NCAA members have questioned whether the cutbacks will affect the relationships that have been established between athletics administrators and NCAA staff, but Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice-president for membership services, said those relationships will be protected.

"We've tried to be sensitive to our membership's needs in making these reductions," said Lennon. "We think these changes will alter our existing relationships with conferences and other organizations only slightly. We don't anticipate a reduction in the quality of service."

Travel also will be reduced in the championships group. Sports committees and championships committees have been asked to reduce the number of days necessary to conduct their meetings.

"This may vary from meeting to meeting depending on critical agenda items," said Judy Sweet, NCAA vice-president for championships, "but if the agenda can be covered in fewer days, meetings should be scheduled accordingly."

Those committees also have been asked to conduct committee business at the championship site, as time permits, in an effort to reduce the number of days required for annual meetings.

Other travel-saving measures include conducting conference calls before the in-person meeting to handle routine agenda items, and reducing the amount of meeting time at coaches association meetings or conventions.

Sweet also said her group is considering eliminating staff travel to preliminary-round championship sites in sports other than basketball unless unique circumstances justify such attendance.

"Our staff also is reducing the amount of mailings and trying to do more online or via e-mail," Sweet said. "We have already started down this path with the championships handbooks ($100,000 savings) and we will be doing the same at some point for facility evaluation mailings, proposed budget mailings and AQ mailings."

Other departments have cut costs in ways that may affect the membership, as well. The enforcement services group has suspended production of basketball gambling videos and public service announcements, and will not be printing gambling posters this year. The group also is delaying implementation of an updated gambling study for one year.

The public affairs group also has trimmed its community-service budget and has made cutbacks in its awards program for annual statistical leaders in NCAA sports.