1 June 1997
REPORT
of the
NSS SECRETARY/TREASURER
- Attachment E -
BACKGROUND: The July 1996 Secretary-Treasurer report defined the overall vision for where we are going and the division of responsibilities between those who are doing the work. The October 1996 S-T report located our funds, discussed our real property legal records, defined goals for changing the way we manage our NSF Trust Funds, and described how we planned to change our accounting system. The February 1997 Secretary-Treasurer report recommended a FY97/98 NSS budget and changes to our contract with the NSF under which they manage our Trust Funds.
OVERVIEW: Since the last Board of Governors meeting we’ve concentrated our efforts on 1) migrating our accounting system from DacEasy to LedgerMaster and 2) adopting a new NSS chart of accounts so as to integrate our accounting, membership, and bookstore financial systems. This report also addresses the current status of routine NSS financial activities.
INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY:
Dave Irving continued to pay our NSS committee & publication bills on time. He expected to have all FY 96/97 bills paid by 1 June. Dave will be at the NSS Office the first week in June to close our FY96/97 Operating Fund accounts. He will have a preliminary FY96/97 fiscal report at the convention BOG meeting. The final FY96/97 fiscal report will be completed once we get the NSF report on our Trust Funds. While in Huntsville Dave will close one of the bank accounts we have there. He will also eventually close the restricted funds account we have in Dayton. This will reduce our 6 bank accounts down to 4.
Bill Stringfellow continued to lead our effort to develop a new NSS chart of accounts (COA) to work with the LedgerMaster software we adopted last year to integrate our accounting, membership, and bookstore financial systems. After addressing a flurry of comments in April String published the version which Camile Duke is now implementing at the NSS office.
Camille Duke, Phil Winkler and Les installed an updated version of LedgerMaster during May and entered our new COA into the office computer. Once Dave Irving closes out our FY96/97 DacEasy-based office accounts the first week in June, Camile will enter the closing figures into LedgerMaster. Our accounting, membership, and bookstore financial systems should be completely integrated by the end of June. We plan to run our new LedgerMaster and old DacEasy accounting systems in parallel for one to two quarters before we abandon DacEasy.
Marla Steele continued to gain visibility into NCRC regional & national rescue seminar fiscal activities which continue to be conducted outside of our corporate books. She is also developing a data base that describes most of the Society’s personal assets.
Scott Fee continued to perform the accounting for NSS News advertising.
Debra Quamen continued to be occupied with 1997 NSS convention finances. Bill Stringfellow and Peggy Kesner have bank accounts and budgets in place for the 1998 and 1999 NSS conventions.
Scot Fee reconciled the 1988 NSS convention bank account. Bill Stringfellow reconciled the 1999 NSS convention bank account. Patty Daws will not be able to continue to reconcile the NSS office bank accounts and Gary Moss will assume that role.
Ted Kayes renewed our NSS insurance policies and obtained a new one to cover the NCRC trailer and its contents. NCRC will recover the cost of trailer insurance through student fees.
GENERAL ACTIVITY AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
How we do business:
This is a period of transition for the S/T Department. We're migrating from DacEasy to LedgerMaster software and updating our Chart of Accounts. In the process we examined how we’ve done business in the past and decided to make some changes that will allow the NSS office to maintain most of our accounting records in LedgerMaster. The NSS Office will deposit all NSS income and pay most NSS committee expenses with the approval of the appropriate NSS officer. All bills and reimbursement requests will be sent to the Office, with the exception of the following:
Publication (NSS News, Journal, ACA, Members Manual, SpeleoDigest, NSS books, etc.), insurance, Nominating Committee, and NSS officer bills and reimbursement requests - send to Dave Irving
Dave Irving reimbursement requests - send to Paul Stevens
Paul Stevens reimbursement requests - send to Dave Luckins
Over time this division of responsibility will continue to evolve. During the rest of 1997 we’ll also continue to work to fully integrate NCRC and NSS conventions into our accounting system.
NSS Trust Funds & NSF::
The NSF approved the amendments we passed at our March 1997 NSS Board of Governor meeting. A final contract was signed by the NSF and is now in route to Dave Luckins for signature.
Cash Flow:
It now looks like we’ll need $80-100K in August or September to cover the cost to print Cave Minerals of the World. Convention sales could make a big difference in whether or not we have the cash in hand or have to borrow as much as $20K from the NSF. On top of that it looks like we’ll run out of Caving Basics in July and should spend about $5K to reprint it in time for Christmas sales.
Cave Diving Section:
The Cave Diving Section has been collecting funds from its members and forwarding them to the NSS to cover their NSS dues. In September we received a CDS check for $592 and a $1105 check in October 1996, but both were returned for insufficient funds when we cashed them. CDS indicated on several occasions since then that they would provide valid replacement checks. In April Wayne Marshall (current CDS treasurer) said he mailed CDS checks for over $5K to the NSS office to cover NSS dues for CDS members, but as of 1 June nothing was received. As a result we are not recognizing their memberships. In the mean time CDS members are calling the NSS office, ten last week alone.
FUTURE ACTIVITIES:
Our priority between now and the Fall 1997 BOG meeting will be to continue to keep up with the bills. Other tasks include:
run both DacEasy and LedgerMaster accounting systems in parallel for a few months and compare the results. Begin to expand the use of the new LedgerMaster and COA system to our other cost centers (NCRC and NSS conventions)
complete a data base of NSS fixed assets, track their location over time, and account for their value in our fiscal reports
complete codifying our financial policies in the Board of Governors Manual so they can be visible, maintained, and updated over time.
Paul Stevens
NSS Secretary/Treasurer