Update For Finance – Jun 2024
OIAA Finance Committee
Record of Minutes
Saturday, June 8th, 2024
8:00am – am HST
11:00am – pm PDT
2:00pm -pm EDT
Attendees :
Jennifer B – OIAA Treasurer
Joanne B – IGR for the Serenity Group in Tampa
Gwen M – CPC chair
Susan R. – OIAA Chair (Month Six)
After the Serenity Prayer, Jennifer asks for the participants to introduce themselves. Jennifer introduces herself as the OIAA Treasurer. Joanne introduces herself as the IGR for the Serenity Group in Tampa. Gwen introduces herself as the CPC Chair. Susan introduces herself as the OIAA Chair, emphasizing “Month Six”. Jennifer starts with the Agenda and asks if anyone would like to add to it. She says that she would like to present the Financial Review to the Annual Assembly using the same format the Finance Committee uses and adds that she has also created a Travel Procedure.
Gwen would like to request a few minutes later for clarification of whether CPC would be needing a translator and would like some advice on how to stay on Budget as she’s not sure of the general procedures. She says that she has been working with someone who only speaks Portuguese that she would like to help join their fellowship. Jennifer adds her to the Agenda.
Susan says that they’re doing the Financial Review next week and is not sure if Erica will show up. She asks who to contact for Financial Review inquiries. Jennifer answers that Leslie or the Financial Review Committee should be contacted. Though Jennifer will be separate from the Financial Review, she says she will be available for any Financial requests. Susan is concerned about using anyone’s personal email and says she wants to post it into the chat at the meeting. Gwen asks if there is a way to create a Financial Committee email that the public could contact so the inquiries wouldn’t be going to an outside personal email address. Susan says that it currently goes to Jennifer’s OIAA email address. Jennifer finalizes that Leslie should be the contact person.
Review of Previous Meeting Minutes
Jennifer asks if everyone was able to go over the April minutes and gets them up onto the screen. She informs the group that she made a couple of grammatical corrections. She goes over the minutes out loud and says that she is happy that there were visitors last time. She is also pleased they were able to get their questions answered. While going over the Minutes, Jennifer reiterates that they will still have to figure out where to put the excess funds at the end of the year. Also, the Financial Committee will discuss their recommendation to present to the Assembly. Susan moves to accept minutes.
NO QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK
Review of the Financial Reports
Jennifer states that she would like to invite anyone with any questions or interest to join the Financial Committee meetings every second Saturday of every month.
Review of the Budget Variance
Jennifer brings up the Budget Variance. There was just under $9,200 in Revenue which is above budget by about $1,700. Year to date, we have $5,700, which is above budget. She explains that they had constructed the Budget to be conservative on the Revenue so, they were aggressive on the expenses side as to not have surprises.
She continues that the OIAA paid off the General Liability Insurance for the month of May. There were some postage related expenses and organizational fees for the New Jersey Charity Registration. There was also Paypal and Stripe fees which are directly associated with Revenue. She says that the OIAA sent three Board members to a webinar which was offered pro bono. The Professional fees are for the accounting system. Conference expenses are for the upcoming ICOAA in August which the OIAA Secretary and Chair will be attending. She explains that while it is in the Budget, this expense will show up in August. She continues that the special Tech Worker expense has been consistently under budget by $4,600.00, year to date, and that there were also some small Interpretation/Translation expenses. The Zoom monthly expense, Website hosting, and Interpretation/Translation expenses are categorized under Google Related Expenses and ended up just under $5,000.00. She finishes up by saying that year to date, they are “$23,000 to the black”, compared to the Budget. Jennifer asks if there are any other questions towards the Income Statement.
NO QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK
Review of the Balance Sheet
Jennifer shares the Balance Sheet on screen. She states that there is $127,000.00 cash in the bank. $5,500.00 is earmarked for the 2025 Conventional to be held in Canada. So, with those in mind, there is an available $122,000.00 available Cash. She asks if there are any questions or comments about the Balance Sheet.
NO QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK
Review of Contributions
Jennifer says that there are a lot of new groups with significant contributions. She states that Early Group has given almost $900.00. The Just for Today Virtual Group is also a large contributor for May. She also adds that there is a significant difference between Individual vs. Group contributions. Susan would like to know if there is a way to see International contributions. Jennifer answers that Paypal does, but Stripe does not. She also says that New Zealand has become a significant contributor along with France. Joanne asks Jennifer to repeat how many groups contributed this last month. Jennifer answers that 59 groups contributed just under $9,200.00.
Moving through the Agenda, she’d like to share what she will be presenting next Saturday at the Assembly for the Finance Committee. Jennifer puts up a slideshow to present the list of tasks the Finance Committee has accomplished. The OIAA Finance Committee has Assisted with the Finance Section of the Guidelines, registered for the New Jersey Charitable Register, created a Documented Vendor Process, which she says will be useful when she has an Unbudgeted Request for Funds. She has 2 pages of compiling the budget vendor processes, monthly variances, monthly budget, and monthly contributions that need to be submitted. She continues that the Finance Committee has also added the new electronic payment option, Stripe, administered Upwork Interpretation and initiated the Independent Financial Review at the Assembly last year. She also reiterates that the Tax Return is Current and the Finance Committee has also changed its regular scheduled time to include International participants. Jennifer would like for everyone to join us every second Saturday of every month. She asks for any comments, additions and says that the presentation will be done at the Assembly.
NO QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK
Gwen thanks Jennifer for everything and that she has done and says she has so much amazing work and is thrilled. Jennifer thanks her and asks if everyone is good with the presentation. Susan replies, “Nice job.”
Review of the Travel Procedure
Jennifer would like to go over the new Travel Procedure that she implemented and documented. She has observed the process since she has been the Treasurer. If someone is going to travel on OIAA’s dime, then they will have to use this procedure. The traveler must go to the Assembly and the travel must be approved by the Assembly as an “Unbudgeted Expense. Then, the Treasurer will give flight options and book the flights using the OIAA debit card. If there are any special requirements, the traveler would have to pay for those changes. She asks for any thoughts. Gwen asks if the person could be made to put in an Expenses report within 30 days. Jennifer answers that it is on a per diem. Gwen is thrilled that it won’t be a factor. She also suggests that they insert, “or other individual appointed by the Treasurer,” into Number 3. Jennifer changes it, but emphasizes that the Treasurer has to be looking at the expense numbers and has to be the point of contact. Any Questions?
NO QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK
Other Business Review
Jennifer asks to go over the last item on the Agenda which is Gwen’s CPC Interpretation.
Gwen tells them that she has a person who would like to come into her group but she only speaks Portuguese. She would like to invite her to a committee meeting, but she would then need an Interpreter. How would she go about requesting translation services and should she put in her request 2 weeks in advance?
Jennifer replies that she would be the one to do that task since she has been getting all of the Interpretation requests. She also says that she knows she can get an interpreter quickly because she has been doing all of them for the upcoming Convention. Gwen would like to request that it would be under $500 so as to not disrupt the Budget tremendously. Jennifer replies that she has budgeted for it by using a “blended rate” of $37/hr for Upworks and its on the high side then what the actuality is. She explains that it normally ranges from about $20/hr. She says using Upworks takes away so many issues regarding accounting, 1099s, and paperwork.
Since she has been doing the Conventions Interpretation needs, she would like to share with them what she has been doing for the Translation side of the Convention. She says she has been working so much on it, hustling to get those interpreters connected with the right event, that she has been obsessed with the overall organizational side of the Interpretation program. She’s been hiring and connecting and organizing all of the interpreters for this project.
She tells Gwen that her advice would be to go through the Vendor Process. In that process, there is an “Unbudgeted Request Form”. This is where she can submit a request. Gwen says that if the person is able to come to the meeting that she will connect with Jennifer to get the interpretation request going. Jennifer tells her that if she is looking to keep it under $500 and she’s asking for the rest of the year, they would need to be aware of it soon so they could plan for it. Gwen says she will get on that request today and asks where she can find it. Jennifer replies that it’s attached under the Vendor Process Form. She and Susan begin looking for it to direct her to it. Gwen asks if the Unbudgeted Request form can be found on the website. Jennifer states that she wouldn’t want that request form to be on the website since it’s quite sensitive.
Jennifer wants to share that she and Beth have been hammering out the Interpretation requests for the Convention. She shows them the Convention layouts and says there are four different rooms and 2 Interpreters per language. The 25th, has the four rooms and doing a blended rate for $37/hr, plus a 15 min transition in between, she has 56 hours of interpretation, two people per room. 28 hours of Interpretation and 56 hours total for the workers. The 26th, has the same type of thing with four rooms and two Interpreters, 32 hours of Interpretation and 64 worker hours total. The 27th, and 3rd day, there will be 33 hours of Interpretation, worker hours total 66 hours. So, she has 186 man hours to fill and she states that she only has about a third of it done right now. Having to fill all the language requests from French to Spanish, and French to Portuguese and so on. She adds that is absolutely the biggest challenge she has ever endured in OIAA to date. The total budget is $8,450.00. Jennifer estimates being over Budget by just $152.00. So, with that being said, she’s pretty confident she will meet Budget. Gwen is amazed and says that she appreciates all the amazing work Jennifer has been doing since she became Treasurer and praises the Finance Committee for all it has done.
Jennifer says that she is so happy that she took over the Translation requests because she couldn’t imagine what disarray the requests would be in had she not. Gwen says that she can’t believe there aren’t more attendees to these Finance Committee Meetings! Susan says she’s going to dream about spreadsheets. Jennifer agrees and says that the Interpretation thing is the hardest thing she has ever done for OIAA. Gwen says that she understands as she has done it for a smaller organization. Jennifer says that OIAA is amazing and how she loves the aura of OIAA. Jennifer says they could hang out after, but she should close the meeting.
Jennifer Closes with the Responsibility Statement
