As club treasurer, I would like to apologize for the budget mess of the
October general meeting.
The difficulty began at the September meeting, when I was voted "Chowderhead
of the Day" for leaving the copies of the budget on my desk in my office.
It continued when I was unable to attend the October general
meeting and present the budget. Mark was kind enough to fill in for me
and present the budget; without all the details that I had, he was
at a severe disadvantage in explaining it. For this I also apologize.
Until the Fall 1996 budget was approved at the October meeting, the club
was functioning with a "working budget", as opposed to an "approved budget".
This has always been the case for our club. The DI Constitution says that
"The Treasurer, in consultation with the other officers, shall propose a
semesterly budget... The Treasurer will revise the budget until it is
approved."
In conjunction with a majority of the other officers and chairs, and after
checking our financial status, I approved the expenditure of approximately
$1000 worth of sound equipment, and revised the budget accordingly. Those
involved in this expenditure felt it was critically necessary, as many
beginners were complaining that they could not hear the instructors.
However, the issue under debate at the last club meeting was not
so much whether we needed the new equipment; rather, it was how we went
about buying it.
There were many other line items on the budget, comparable in dollar amount,
that were no more or less necessary or defensible than the new equipment.
Every semester, large expenditures are made using the working budget prior
to approval. If the club has decided to take issue with this practice,
then we need to work to come up with a solution that is both constitutionally
secure and sufficiently flexible to allow officers to act in a hurry
when needed.
As officers of this club, we acted with the best interests of the club at
heart. We were elected to make these decisions for the club. There isn't
always a road map, and we do make mistakes. Sometimes large, unanticipated
expenditures pop up, and we need a better way of dealing with them.
OK, now that I've apologized for that mess, let me dive into another...
In my haste, I forgot to add a couple of line items to the "Education"
budget... the salsa team's income and expense budget. These will be
presented at the next meeting for approval.
Please remember, your officers are all volunteers. This is not a paid
position, and it can be oftentimes in conflict with our own busy
schedules; we are doing the best we can.
-- .oooO .oooO Scott "Two Left Feet" Weitzenhoffer ( ) ( ) email: two-left-feet@uiuc.edu \ ( \ ( www: http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/~weitzen \_) \_) *The beatings will continue until morale improves!*