Training Log Archive: iansmithIn the 1 days ending Jun 20, 2017: |
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Tuesday Jun 20, 2017 #
Note
The OUSA Board had a teleconference meeting yesterday, and its agenda can be found here. In the interest of transparency, for those who read my log, consider this update on our work. I joined the meeting 30 minutes late because I had assumed the meeting was on Wednesday as it had been originally scheduled; this was a failure to use google calendar.
1. A major development was a discussion on the future of the Junior National Coach and program development position, presented by Alex and Erin Schirm, including a proposal for the future. I think Erin's work has been one of the more impactful experiments OUSA has run, and the Junior Programme has benefited enormously. I am curious about ways we can integrate development more broadly - so that clubs would benefit more directly from the national teams and in turn, the national teams would have a larger pool of members.
2. OUSA is still largely broke. While we have enough money in the bank to cover our current commitments, restricted donations, and designated funds, we have about $42k in unrestricted money in the bank. OUSA has about $33k of liabilities, including $11.6k going to the ED, but counting projected income, Pat estimates we will finish the year with $40k unrestricted. Our policy passed in March is that OUSA maintain a minimum balance of 100% of restricted and designated amounts + 25% of annual expenses, so we're still short of that. I'm going to spend a bit of time looking at ways OUSA can further cut expenses and reallocate that money to programming for the 2018 budget - especially relating to growing the sport and club services.
3. The 50th anniversary campaign was run in 2016 to raise funds for a set of four club areas; it raised about $33k. When the funds were raised, there weren't details for what those projects would be beyond the categories, and I think this has been the main obstacle to progress. In March 2017, $1000 was allocated for exploratory work for the club website template, for which Boris and I have been running point. In April, $14.7k was allocated for a Marketing project led by Bob Forgrave and Greg Lennon.
At this meeting, the mapping proposal from Peter Goodwin had $10k allocated to it. This proposal had been brought before the Board in March, but it was not put forward for a monetary allocation because it lacked detail. I was still not satisfied with the amount of detail in the proposal - who will make the webinars, where and when the mapping clinics will be held, how much the clinic money will be allocated to paying instructors and travel fees, and even who will be running the clinics. This doesn't look like a proposal that has had 9+ months to gestate. I considered voting no, but I think it's unlikely further details would be forthcoming, as the previous three months were not revealing. I have no idea how much participation from clubs there will be in this project - for instance, if we make webinars, will anyone use them? That said, the sentiment, chiefly from Peter, was that donors are frustrated with lack of progress on the 50th anniversary. I'm concerned OUSA is spending money without a clear plan simply to show that we're doing something, but it seems late to develop a strategy. Hopefully the program will be productive and useful. I don't like leaving so many of the details up to improvisation by the program director, in this case Peter.
Boris and I also need to move forward on the web template project. Our plan is to have the web template ready by the end of the year, with early adopter clubs using it.
4. While reviewing the finances, the Board voted to give VP Finance Pat Meehan authority to move the books to an online solution when he deems it appropriate. Moving to online accounting is not a panacea - there are underlying problems with our system that have made it virtually opaque to basic accounting questions, but I think an online system that a handful of people can access is reasonable. At present, the Quickbooks accounting exists on one computer with our accountant, Robin. It's not clear when that will be, and as a Finance Committee member, I will provide input.
5. Greg Lennon is stepping down as VP Clubs, and Bob Forgrave of COC has graciously stepped up to take on that role.
6. We still need to improve our communication; I must give this thought. Lots of people are currently contributing - Sandy Fillebrown, Barb Bryant, Boris, and Kris Beecroft among them.
1. A major development was a discussion on the future of the Junior National Coach and program development position, presented by Alex and Erin Schirm, including a proposal for the future. I think Erin's work has been one of the more impactful experiments OUSA has run, and the Junior Programme has benefited enormously. I am curious about ways we can integrate development more broadly - so that clubs would benefit more directly from the national teams and in turn, the national teams would have a larger pool of members.
2. OUSA is still largely broke. While we have enough money in the bank to cover our current commitments, restricted donations, and designated funds, we have about $42k in unrestricted money in the bank. OUSA has about $33k of liabilities, including $11.6k going to the ED, but counting projected income, Pat estimates we will finish the year with $40k unrestricted. Our policy passed in March is that OUSA maintain a minimum balance of 100% of restricted and designated amounts + 25% of annual expenses, so we're still short of that. I'm going to spend a bit of time looking at ways OUSA can further cut expenses and reallocate that money to programming for the 2018 budget - especially relating to growing the sport and club services.
3. The 50th anniversary campaign was run in 2016 to raise funds for a set of four club areas; it raised about $33k. When the funds were raised, there weren't details for what those projects would be beyond the categories, and I think this has been the main obstacle to progress. In March 2017, $1000 was allocated for exploratory work for the club website template, for which Boris and I have been running point. In April, $14.7k was allocated for a Marketing project led by Bob Forgrave and Greg Lennon.
At this meeting, the mapping proposal from Peter Goodwin had $10k allocated to it. This proposal had been brought before the Board in March, but it was not put forward for a monetary allocation because it lacked detail. I was still not satisfied with the amount of detail in the proposal - who will make the webinars, where and when the mapping clinics will be held, how much the clinic money will be allocated to paying instructors and travel fees, and even who will be running the clinics. This doesn't look like a proposal that has had 9+ months to gestate. I considered voting no, but I think it's unlikely further details would be forthcoming, as the previous three months were not revealing. I have no idea how much participation from clubs there will be in this project - for instance, if we make webinars, will anyone use them? That said, the sentiment, chiefly from Peter, was that donors are frustrated with lack of progress on the 50th anniversary. I'm concerned OUSA is spending money without a clear plan simply to show that we're doing something, but it seems late to develop a strategy. Hopefully the program will be productive and useful. I don't like leaving so many of the details up to improvisation by the program director, in this case Peter.
Boris and I also need to move forward on the web template project. Our plan is to have the web template ready by the end of the year, with early adopter clubs using it.
4. While reviewing the finances, the Board voted to give VP Finance Pat Meehan authority to move the books to an online solution when he deems it appropriate. Moving to online accounting is not a panacea - there are underlying problems with our system that have made it virtually opaque to basic accounting questions, but I think an online system that a handful of people can access is reasonable. At present, the Quickbooks accounting exists on one computer with our accountant, Robin. It's not clear when that will be, and as a Finance Committee member, I will provide input.
5. Greg Lennon is stepping down as VP Clubs, and Bob Forgrave of COC has graciously stepped up to take on that role.
6. We still need to improve our communication; I must give this thought. Lots of people are currently contributing - Sandy Fillebrown, Barb Bryant, Boris, and Kris Beecroft among them.