Re: Treasurer's report (or lack thereof)

David Graham writes ("Meeting reminder!"):
> Agenda, as always, is at http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/agenda/

I have some comments on the minutes, item 4 `Treasurer's report'.

I too agree that what was delivered was not a real Treasurer's
report, and others (IIRC) said so in the meeting. No-one seemed to
contend that a proper treasurer's report had been delivered.

I therefore think this item in the minutes should be amended to read
something like:

No treasurer's report was available. However:

Jimmy Kaplowitz informed the board that the First IB account is not
yet open. American Express has also not closed our bank account with
them at this time.

Branden Robinson stated our account balances as $238.27 and $4759.43.
The balance of our savings account was not known.

Some board members requested that the Treasurer deliver a written
report to the board 7 days in advance of the next meeting.

I note that we have had no report. This situation is getting very
worrying. I would like the lack of coherent and complete reports from
the Treasurer put on the agenda. As a talking point, here is a draft
resolution:

Proposed resolution 2004-12-07.iwj.1

WHEREAS

1. The board has not had a proper report from the Treasurer since the
Treasurer took office.

2. The Treasurer was requested by board members at the last meeting
to prepare a report.

3. No report has been prepared sufficiently far advance of the board
meeting for the board to study and respond to it.

THE SPI BOARD RESOLVES THAT

4. The board is disappointed that the Treasurer has failing to keep
the board properly informed regarding the state of SPI's finances,
and of the efforts to transfer to a new bank account.

5. The Treasurer is reminded that funds are available to hire
professional bookkeeping help.

6. The Board expects a draft formal report, in writing, from the
Treasurer, no later than 14 days following this resolution, and
preferably sooner.

7. The Board expects the Treasurer to respond promptly and
constructively to questions regarding the draft report, including
in particular requests for additional information. Additional
information and clarifications requested should be included in the
Treasurer's formal written report to the next Board meeting.

8. That Treasurer's report should be made available in substantially
final form sufficiently far in advance of the meeting for the
Board to read and discuss it.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, this is not a criticism of Branden.
I don't have personal knowledge of the exact details of Jimmy and
Branden's relationship and cooperation. It is Jimmy's responsibility
to report properly to us.

Ian.

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004, Ian Jackson wrote:
> I have some comments on the minutes, item 4 `Treasurer's report'.
>
> I too agree that what was delivered was not a real Treasurer's
> report, and others (IIRC) said so in the meeting. No-one seemed to
> contend that a proper treasurer's report had been delivered.
>
> I therefore think this item in the minutes should be amended to read
> something like:
>
> No treasurer's report was available. However:
>
> Jimmy Kaplowitz informed the board that the First IB account is not
> yet open. American Express has also not closed our bank account with
> them at this time.
>
> Branden Robinson stated our account balances as $238.27 and $4759.43.
> The balance of our savings account was not known.
>
> Some board members requested that the Treasurer deliver a written
> report to the board 7 days in advance of the next meeting.

Are you suggesting that I should do this to all minutes since I became
secretary?

I, three, agree that the treasurer's report from last meeting wasn't, but
I think we are making progress and I would rather not jinx it with a
resolution demanding the progress we are making.

I think there's a time for resolutions, and there's a time for simply
working together, and this is a time for the latter.

> I note that we have had no report. This situation is getting very
> worrying. I would like the lack of coherent and complete reports from
> the Treasurer put on the agenda. As a talking point, here is a draft
> resolution:
>
> Proposed resolution 2004-12-07.iwj.1
>
> WHEREAS
>
> 1. The board has not had a proper report from the Treasurer since the
> Treasurer took office.
>
> 2. The Treasurer was requested by board members at the last meeting
> to prepare a report.
>
> 3. No report has been prepared sufficiently far advance of the board
> meeting for the board to study and respond to it.
>
> THE SPI BOARD RESOLVES THAT
>
> 4. The board is disappointed that the Treasurer has failing to keep
> the board properly informed regarding the state of SPI's finances,
> and of the efforts to transfer to a new bank account.
>
> 5. The Treasurer is reminded that funds are available to hire
> professional bookkeeping help.
>
> 6. The Board expects a draft formal report, in writing, from the
> Treasurer, no later than 14 days following this resolution, and
> preferably sooner.
>
> 7. The Board expects the Treasurer to respond promptly and
> constructively to questions regarding the draft report, including
> in particular requests for additional information. Additional
> information and clarifications requested should be included in the
> Treasurer's formal written report to the next Board meeting.
>
> 8. That Treasurer's report should be made available in substantially
> final form sufficiently far in advance of the meeting for the
> Board to read and discuss it.
>
> Just for the avoidance of doubt, this is not a criticism of Branden.
> I don't have personal knowledge of the exact details of Jimmy and
> Branden's relationship and cooperation. It is Jimmy's responsibility
> to report properly to us.

Ian, See Branden and Jimmy's mail from over night (to spi-private).
Provided it is kept up, this resolution won't be necessary.

While it is not all one report -- it comes in the form of a handful of
emails from Jimmy and Branden -- it is, at least, the information we are
after.

Jimmy, as Treasurer, the Treasurer's report should be coming entirely from
you as one written, signed report, even if it repeats information posted
elsewhere, previously, or by others. It makes for one, concise, easy to
reference Report.

If the Board so desires, I will start including the entire Treasurer's
report as an appendix to the minutes - minus account numbers/names.

---
David Graham, SPI Secretary
cdlu(at)spi-inc(dot)org D5F45889

David Graham writes:
> Jimmy, as Treasurer, the Treasurer's report should be coming entirely
> from you as one written, signed report, even if it repeats information
> posted elsewhere, previously, or by others. It makes for one, concise,
> easy to reference Report.

Should it not also include something resembling a financial statement?
--
John Hasler

David Graham - SPI Secretary writes ("Re: Treasurer's report (or lack thereof)"):
> Are you suggesting that I should do this to all minutes since I became
> secretary?

No. But previously there was just a heading `Treasurer's Report' with
some facts. This time we have things like `Bdale Garbee suggests that
the Treasurer's report delivered is not a real Treasurer's report'
which clearly states that a report was delivered and implies it was
just Bdale who criticised it.

> I, three, agree that the treasurer's report from last meeting wasn't, but
> I think we are making progress and I would rather not jinx it with a
> resolution demanding the progress we are making.

I agree with you (having seen Jimmy's mail now). But I still think
the minutes should be corrected. Do you have an objection to my
revised wording, which I think is more accurate ?

> While it is not all one report -- it comes in the form of a handful of
> emails from Jimmy and Branden -- it is, at least, the information we are
> after.

Indeed so.

> If the Board so desires, I will start including the entire Treasurer's
> report as an appendix to the minutes - minus account numbers/names.

Yes, please, if that's not too inconvenient.

Ideally I would prefer the reports to be posted to spi-general with
the serial numbers etc. filed off, but if other board members want to
see the full details then it would be unreasonable to ask Jimmy and
Branden to prepare two versions of the report.

Ian.

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004, John Hasler wrote:
> > Jimmy, as Treasurer, the Treasurer's report should be coming entirely
> > from you as one written, signed report, even if it repeats information
> > posted elsewhere, previously, or by others. It makes for one, concise,
> > easy to reference Report.
>
> Should it not also include something resembling a financial statement?

Branden's half of the report did. I'm asking that it all be consolidated
into one instead of being piecemeal.

---
David Graham, SPI Secretary
cdlu(at)spi-inc(dot)org D5F45889

On Tue, Dec 07, 2004 at 01:47:50PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> David Graham writes ("Meeting reminder!"):
> > Agenda, as always, is at http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/agenda/
>
> I have some comments on the minutes, item 4 `Treasurer's report'.
>
> I too agree that what was delivered was not a real Treasurer's
> report, and others (IIRC) said so in the meeting. No-one seemed to
> contend that a proper treasurer's report had been delivered.
>
> I therefore think this item in the minutes should be amended to read
> something like:
>
> No treasurer's report was available. However:

That much sounds fine. I completely agree that our treasurer's reports
are really lacking, and ought to be fixed ASAP, and we ought to be
forthright about the problem in our minutes.

At the same time, I'm concerned that what you're asking for may not be
really doable. A real treasurer's report would include information such
as the balances of monies we're holding for various projects.

I tried to find out this information when I prepared our annual report
earlier this year. The information has either never been kept formally,
or hasn't been kept for many years. To get accurate balances for today
will require a thorough audit of several years' history. From what I
could tell, Brainfood didn't do that kind of audit. That's a lot to do,
and I'm not happy with a resolution that implies our current staff have
failed on this, and pins this sort of thing on a volunteer. The problem
predates both Branden and Jimmy's tenure, from what I can tell.

I think that a proper solution *must* provide proper resources to get it
fixed. We can't just give them an unsupported mandate.

To start this off, what do you, Branden and Jimmy, think you would need
to be able to produce complete monthly reports?

-- John

I wrote:
> Should it not also include something resembling a financial statement?

David Graham writes:
> Branden's half of the report did.

You have a much more liberal definition of 'financial statement' than I
do, but of course it's for the board to decide what's adequate.

--
John Hasler