Libby Bucks modernized to address past program issues

Your Board of Directors has become aware of some historic issues with the Libby Bucks program that are being aggressively addressed in a modernization of the program.

What are Libby Bucks?

‘Libby Bucks’ are part of a gift certificate program, each worth ten dollars that can be purchased from the Chamber of Commerce for use in member businesses. Libby Bucks have long been sold by the Chamber of Commerce and act as same as cash when tendered by a customer. The sale and use of the certificates is designed to encourage local citizens to shop and buy in Libby area stores. The local banks have partnered with the Chamber to make the use of Libby Bucks easier on the business community and accept them as part of your regular banking deposit. Tens of thousands of Libby Bucks are sold each year by your Chamber and circulated back through our member businesses.

Issue:

There has long been a lack of internal controls within the program. Without those controls, there have been tracking problems concerning the purchase and use of the Libby Bucks.  We have not been able to get a clear picture of the number of Libby Bucks in circulation nor been able to discern how many have been printed and used without payment to the Chamber’s Libby Bucks account. We know that there are some Libby Bucks that are currently unaccounted for and have reported the issue to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s office.

Solution:

Since this situation is clearly unacceptable, the Libby Bucks program is being modernized and new policies and procedures have been implemented.

Effective immediately, all Libby Bucks purchased from the Chamber office will have a serial number affixed to the front of the certificate. The name of the purchaser and the person handling the transaction will be noted in a log book along with the serial number of the certificates. When the certificates are used and we retrieve them from the area banks, each Libby Buck will be logged back into the system.

Old Bucks Revalidation:

Those Libby Bucks that have already been purchased and distributed can still be used through March 1, 2018. After that date, the area banks will require Libby Bucks to be serial numbered before they will treat them as cash.

If you currently hold Libby Bucks without a serial number, you can come by the Chamber office and we will assign them serial numbers and log them in for use. If you have a great number of them and are concerned about bank clearance, call the office and we can arrange to have someone come by your business for revalidation stamping.

Community Outreach:

The Chamber Board will be doing a broad public relations campaign to get the word out to consumers in the area. They, too, can bring their Libby Bucks to the office for revalidation if they are concerned about using them after March 1.

We understand that there may be some confusion while we transfer from the old system utilizing Libby Bucks without serial numbers and thank you ahead of time for your patience as we work through what should be a short and important transition. If you have any questions, please call the office at 293-4167.