Attachment E-1
Prepared by Peri
Frantz, NSS Secretary-Treasurer
s-t@caves.org, 408 356-8506
Status as of October 15, 2006
Contents:
Overview
Financial Reports
Finance Committee
Insurance Committee
FY 2007-2008 Budget Planning
Agents of the Treasurer and NSS Financial AccountsNSS Office Accounting
Convention Treasurers
NCRC Treasurers
Other TreasurersRestricted Funds
Great-X Status
Acknowledgement of Donations
Financial Web Site
The Department of the Secretary-Treasurer consists of the Finance Committee, the Insurance Committee, the Agents of the Treasurer, and the Financial Web Master. Detailed reports on these areas of activity follow. My major focus since the summer board meeting has been year-end accounting and financial reports, and bringing new committee members up to speed.
Attachment E-2: Preliminary FY 2005-2006 Financial
Statements
Attachment E-3: NSS Restricted Funds Summary: No update available
at this time.
Attachment E-4: NSS Operating Fund: YTD Revenue &
Expenses (As of August 31, 2006)
I’ve added three members to the finance committee:
Budget Wrangler: J. Brandon Stephens is our new "Budget Wrangler". He is responsible for preparing a budget template that the EC can use for the FY 07/08 budgeting cycle. I’ve sent him this year’s budget, several prior years’ financials, and information about what we need in the template. He’s now digested this information, and is about to start on the actual template itself. He plans to have it ready by the beginning of November. Ideally, he would attend the budget meeting in January, to help manage things, but he is an accountant and January through April are his busy season, so this is unlikely to happen. While desirable, I don’t think this is a major problem.
Restricted Funds Manager: Tim Peters is working with David Irving to learn the ins and outs of transferring money between the restricted funds and the operating funds, and preparing fund reports. When he is up to speed, he will become the Restricted Fund Manager.
Financial Web Master: Robert Sewell has accepted the title of Financial Web Master, and will be responsible for maintaining the financial Web pages on caves.org. He has created a prototype, which I have reviewed, and is now revising it. The major problem in accomplishing this update is my limited time, as I need to provide Robert with text and historic files to include on the site.
In addition to these three, I have the names of several additional volunteers, whom I will be contacting in the near future. As urgent as their assistant is, I will most likely delay getting them started a few months, because Dave and I don’t have the band width to bring more than a few people up to speed at a time.
Achievements:
• Preliminary FY 2005/06 Reports are finished and attached. Based on feedback from the auditor, they may need a few adjustments before they are finalized.
• FY 2005/2006 audit is almost done. The auditor has been waiting for some information from the NCRC treasurer, which he has just received. The audit should be complete shortly.
• FY 2006/07 YTD report for August is attached. September is in progress.
Problem Areas:
• I need to locate even more accounting assistants. I have several leads that I need to follow.
• I’m still waiting on an updated Fund Report from the NSF. I hope to have prior to the meeting.
Goals:
• Continue to expand the Finance Committee and train new members
• Begin documenting all of the varied tasks that Dave Irving does.
• Continue improving the level of financial reporting to the Board.
Ted Kayes, who constitutes a one-man insurance committee, has nothing to report.
Plans: At the CRF BOD meeting, I learned that CRF is working with a new insurance agent who has been able to provide lower-cost liability insurance for them. I’ve passed the contact information along to Ted, and he will contact the agent to determine if there is anything he can do for us.
Planning for next year’s budget has begun. J. Brandon Stephens is working on a budgeting template (see above for more information) and the EC has begun collecting budget expectations from their various committees. We will begin working with the numbers as soon as the template becomes available in early November, and expect to complete at least two cycles of review and revision prior to the annual budget meeting, which is scheduled for January 20, 2007.
Agents of the Treasurer are those people responsible for managing checking and other financial accounts that use the NSS’s Federal Tax ID Number. There are currently 25 such accounts, which can be loosely grouped into four general categories; NSS operating accounts, NSS Convention accounts; NCRC accounts; and miscellaneous committee accounts. The NSS operating accounts are used in day-to-day business, are managed through the office, tracked in LedgerMaster, and are relatively easy to monitor. The other accounts support activities conducted away from the office. Although a few of them are tracked in Ledger Master, most are not. These accounts are more difficult to monitor, and must be manually folded into the year-end financial statements.
I am making slow progress with the project of updating signature cards on these accounts to include Bill Tozer and myself as signatories. Currently 10 accounts are in compliance (up from six in my last report). I have sent reminders to the other agents, and several additional updates are now in progress. The process is slow and unwieldy due in part to homeland security requirements. It is also going slowly because my time since the convention has been limited, and I haven’t been able to give it the attention it needs. I expect the time situation to improve following the Board Meeting.
Office accounting is proceeding normally, and there is nothing of note to report.
Note: This section only covers Convention financial reporting. See the AVP Report for general convention reports.
Status:
2006 Convention, Bellingham Washington: Treasurer Marla Pelowski is making good progress wrapping up r\the convention finance.
2007 Convention, Marengo Indiana: I am receiving regular reports from Treasurer Jo Ellen Kimmel.
2008 Convention, undetermined: The Florida bid team has not submitted any additional financial information regarding the proposed convention in Florida. As has been stated before, the first cut a budget previously submitted will require substantial work before it can be approved.
2009 Convention/ 15th International Congress of Speleology (ICS): Michael & Melissa Cicherski, the Congress/ Convention Treasurers are refining the Congress budget to provide a clearer picture of how funds will be spent in the years leading up to the congress. They are also reviewing and revising figures for various activities and events. Chairman George Veni is working with Shreiner University to finalize the facilities contract, in part based on my feedback and that of others. The final contract will impact the Congress budget and registration fees. There is still more than adequate time to adjust registration fees for the Congress in response to the contract.
2010 Convention, Vermont: I have not yet seen a budget proposal from Vermont, however there is no need to be concerned given the 3-year lead-time.
Problem Areas: None
Goals:
• Assist the Florida and Vermont convention committees in developing their budgets.
• Provide oversight on the ICS contract with Shreiner University. Assist the Cicherskis in the continuing refinement of the Congress Budget.
• Enhance the Convention Budget Template to simplify the budgeting process.
Status: There are currently 10 NCRC Bank Accounts: One for NCRC National, one each for 8 of the NCRC Regions, and one for the 2006 Seminar.
Achievements:
• Berta
completed the consolidation of all of the NCRC accounts into a
single report which she passed on to Dave Irving for inclusion in
the FY 2005-2006 Financial Reports. She has also responded to an
inquiry from the auditor.
• I have given Stephanie a revised distribution list for the
banks statements that the office copies and forwards. The list is
currently being reviewed by the recipients and an update will be
available soon. Stephanie believes it will help improve the
accuracy of the forwarding process.
Goals:
• Update signature cards on all outstanding NCRC accounts.
Status: There are four miscellaneous bank accounts: Junior Speleological Society (JSS), Fine Art Salon (FAS,) Mammoth Cave National Park (MCNP) Restoration Project, and the NSS Advertising Account. I am receiving regular reports on the News Advertising account and the FAS.
Problem Areas: I’m not getting reports on the MCNP Project and JSS accounts.
Goals:
• Finish
updating signature cards.
• Get reporting working for the JSS & MCNP accounts.
I have not yet received a mid-year update on the restricted funds from the National Speleological Foundation. I hope to get it in the next week or two, and if so, I’ll have an update at the Board Meeting.
Between the Pruett Bequest and the donations collected during the convention, we have made two additional payments towards the Great-X mortgage, totaling $47,700, leaving a balance as of October 31 of $7803.25. Scott Fee has lined up some matching grants, and will be conducting a fund raising campaign with the intent of paying of the mortgage by the end of the year. . If we meet this goal, the total due, including interest will be $7881.48.
At the summer board meeting, I identified the need to improve our procedures for acknowledging donations. I have not had time to address this issue.
Goals:
• Implement procedures to assure that all donations are properly acknowledged and fullfillments are met.
Robert Sewell is working on a major revision to the fiscal Web pages on caves.org.
Goals:
• I need to provide Robert with a coherent set of documents to include on the Web site.
• I need to provide Robert with descriptive text for the Web site.
• Robert should have the revised fiscal Web site up and running prior to the spring Board Meeting.
10/28/06