[IAEP] [SLOBS] [SLOB] meeting reminder and some open issues to discuss

[Adam Holt]

Progress.  Further progress will come after I speak with Bradley Kuhn in
coming weeks, to understand has real-world recommendations on
pacing/publishing financials, based on his extensive experiences with the
~40 NGO's he (as SFConservancy's de facto bookkeeper) supervises/supports.
I hope he has time in the coming week, but if not I will work around his
schedule.

On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:37 PM, Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com> wrote:

> Hi
>
> I went over Caryl's google doc again after re-reading the below, and I
> must say that I am no longer surprised by Adam's comments at the SLOB
> meeting on Friday; it seems that these clearly expressed points were
> not addressed in the text that Caryl submitted.
>
> Adam, please review the Google Doc with my comments and let me know if
> this resolves your concerns.
>
> On 6 May 2016 at 10:06, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org> wrote:
> > The financial spring cleaning CarylB, DaveC and others have worked hard
> on
> > within
> >
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/16jIFuZ9bX-Bv675BpA1KmcEcRcX4PRCOUEX0ICRUkOc/edit
> > is promising, but seems premature in my opinion, until its mechanics are
> > better understood:
> >
> > - Even if we suppose that $X remains $200 (as it has been for many years,
> > not Board involvement for expenses under $200), Financial Manager
> potential
> > monthly stipend $Y still remains too vague.  Should $Y be $100 per month
> or
> > what?
> >
> > - The prior "month" is very poorly defined, making the Financial
> Manager's
> > life impossible, if for example SL Board meets on Friday March 1st, and a
> > financial report summarizing February must be submitted "72 hours in
> > advance" by February 25th realistically, then the Financial Manager must
> > have worked for the prior week to get this right Feb 18-to-25th.   If
> s/he
> > is away that week for a family/professional emergency, and does not want
> to
> > be fired then s/he must do the work Feb 10-to-17th, and as such has
> pulled
> > the numbers from SFConservancy's system on February 10th, just over a
> week
> > after the prior SL board meeting.  So perhaps the only practical thing
> she
> > can do is run a report on the prior month of January?  And even if s/he
> > tries to do that, SFConservancy has explained to me that they often take
> a
> > month-or-so to get all receipts entered into their system, so the
> Financial
> > Manager cannot in fact get hard information about January.  My
> understanding
> > from SFConservancy is that on February 10th, we could only get hard info
> on
> > December's financials, and even then there's no absolute guarantee, as
> > receipts come in very late at times.
> >
> > On the one hand it sounds ridiculous, in the age where most of us obtain
> > live bank statements online, that we cannot get confirmed up-to-date
> > financials until 2 months later!  But what other options are there?
> Should
> > we accept known-imprecise financial reporting in exchange for recency?
> And
> > if so, aren't we really asking for a rolling report of the prior ~3
> months
> > every time?  Let`s spell it out, if in fact those are the true duties of
> the
> > Financial Manager -- to provide a rolling estimates (estimates, to the
> best
> > of his/her professional ability) of the prior 3 months of expenses/income
> > and balance on the last day of each month?
> >
> > - Dismissal notice could be a lot more precise: "Failure to carry out
> these
> > 2 duties for more than one meeting will result in removal and
> appointment of
> > another Finance Manager."  Can s/he miss one or both duties once per
> 6-month
> > period due to death of a close family member?  Is s/he fired immediately
> for
> > missing one or both dutires twice, even if separated by 2 years?  If so,
> we
> > need to spell it out.  If conversely we want to fire the Financial
> Manager
> > immediately, for failing to fulfill 1 duty or the other, then we should
> say
> > that more explicitly.
>
> --
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
>
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