Provincial Convention 2007: Treasurer’s Oral Report

Submitted by: Elaine Audet

Madam President:

Good afternoon everyone. As your provincial treasurer I have fulfilled my duties as outlined in the Treasurer’s Handbook, paid the bills, deposited the money and tried to do everything asked of by my president.

My goal was to set up the books on the computer using Simply Accounting. With the help of a friend, I am happy to say I have done that, but am still learning.

I will report on the Provincial Development Fund as this was something I did to help Barb cover the absent organization chairperson’s duties. This fund is to help voting delegates with travel expenses only, to come to provincial convention. To be fair to everyone, we strictly adhered to the outlined criteria this year; it had to be on the correct form, received by the deadline date, completed in full front & back, with all appropriate signatures. The money from this fund comes from the annual earned interest on our $50,000 GIC. We had 11 applicants with 6 awards & 5 regrets. This year we had $1060.00 in interest & paid out $924.32 leaving a balance of $135.68 which will be added to next year’s funds.

We had one application for Development Fund #2 for a Diocesan president to travel to national convention. This was awarded for $1,000.

Membership tracking: I sent out a form in January 2007 – and am wondering how that is going? The intention was to track new, renewed, lapsed & deceased members. I hope all of you are finding it a useful tool.

In her recent communique, National Secretary-Treasurer Peggy R., has requested that we mention a notice of motion that will be introduced at National’s fall meeting to start the process on a proposed increase in per capita fees. I refer you back to pages 8 & 9 of the winter edition of The Canadian League entitled “Money Essential to Growth” and “Money Essential to Growth: Part VIII. She gave examples of 1 yr National per capita fee for CWL $8.00 compared to Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada $35.00, Real Women of Canada $25.00 & 1 yr membership at fitness center $572. League magazine -3 issues – Free, Money Sense – 6 issues $19.95 + tax, Canadian House & Garden – 12 issues $28.25 + taxes & Reader’s Digest – 12 issues $32.96 + tax. We are really getting a deal!

Everyone should have a copy of the financial statement from Jan 1/07 to April 30/07. I want to touch on the per capita fees. The total membership for 2006 wound up at 8,911. From Jan 1 – Apr 30/07 we had payment for 4,546 members and I am happy to report that I just received another payment bringing our membership up to 8,161. I have not received the breakdown yet, but I have been assured that we are getting back $5.00 per member. I commend you all for submitting your dues early and it looks like we may actually be on our way to the hoped for 10,000 member mark. Keep up the good work!

Most of the convention expenses are not showing here yet, so that will bring our expenditures up quite a bit, but the latest $18,209 per capita is also not showing here either. Be assured that the provincial executive is trying hard to be good stewards of your money.

GICs: Whitehorse GIC was cashed in last year, so we are now on our way to accumulating $10,000 for next Provincial convention there. We need to put aside approx $1,500 a year so we have our $10,000 in 6 years – we do not want to make small terms, so we will leave one of these GICs at $5,000 than will add to it in the 4th year

The $7,500 & $6,000 terms are new ones – at our mid term meeting last fall, it was voted to take the $13,500 gift from profit of 2005 National convention in Vancouver – add $7,500 to our $50,000 provincial development fund when it comes up for renewal in Sept 07 – this will give us more interest for awards for travel to provincial conventions. The balance of $6,000 was put into a separate fund to be used for Education & Training.

As a note, we need to keep at least $40,000 set aside in term deposits as a cushion equaling approximately one full year’s expenses.

Elaine Audet