Meeting:2023 AGM/Treasurer's Report

Financial statements

The attached financial statements will be submitted to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission as part of our annual information statement.

• 2022-23 Profit & Loss
• Balance Sheet as at 30 June 2023

Assets

The association held assets of $473,116.45 at 30 June 2023.

• $466,479.06 in the cheque account
• $5,044.78 in the debit card account
• $1,592.61 in the PayPal account

Income

WMAU received a total of $629,288.63 revenue in the 2022-23 financial year, made up of operational income and grant income. Operational income included:

• Membership fees: $615.68
• Donations: $13,084.20
• Facilitation of events: $4,772.74 (raised when an external organisation pays for our staff or volunteers to present programs that fall outside our core programs).
• Other income (reimbursements): $593.01 (in this case reimbursements for cancelled flights, and a disputed bank transaction).

Grants

We received two significant grants from the Wikimedia Foundation:

• General Support Fund 2022-23: $291,600 was received in June 2022 as the first year of General Support Funds to fund our three year strategic plan..
• ESEAP Conference Grant 2022: $260,875 to coordinate the ESEAP Regional Conference held in November 2022.

Expenditure

We spent a total of $540,077.08 in this financial year. Most of Wikimedia Australia’s work and expenditure in 2022-23 centred on our two WMF grants, plus an Australia Council for the Arts grant extension for Year 2 of The Record project. Particular thanks to James Gaunt for diligently delivering the requirements of The Record project grant.

After two years of limited in-person meetings we have started making up for the time apart with significant funds going towards travel to the ESEAP Conference, Committee Strategy weekend, and for a strong contingent of Australians at Wikimania in Singapore next week.

The ESEAP Conference was very successful on all levels. Separate financial reporting for the conference grant is available on meta.

Mounting the conference with very little advance notice did however take almost 6 months out of our planned program delivery. By pivoting to a partnership model with four organisations we have succeeded in expending all but $12,000 of our 2022-23 grant, and this will be carried over for use in staffing and administrative support for the next 6 months.

Operations

The only way we can deliver the programs we do is because of our amazing staff team, and this year was another ‘first’ as WMAU became an employer. This is a major step, and involves increased responsibility as a Board. We would like to thank Belinda, James, and previously Caddie, for their expertise and patience as we established HR processes and documentation through the year. We acknowledge also that we have been served well by KeyAdmin for accounting support including management of payroll and associated taxation processes.

In addition to expenses against the grants there are ongoing operational costs in keeping the association well-managed, including bank fees, software and subscriptions, insurance, and communications.

Concluding remarks

As I conclude my third term as Treasurer, and reflect on the last 10 years of the WMAU Committee, it is with some pride at how we have built the chapter. In the light of the financial report above, it is incredible looking back at the Treasurer's report for 2014, my first year on the Committee, and note that we received $1,225 revenue for the year, and total operating expenses were $4,940. Of course, a healthy organisation does not measure its success by the financial resources it has, but by the impact we can make towards our purpose, which is "to promote equality of opportunity to access and participate in the collaborative creation of Free Cultural Works, especially educational works, and works about Australia, its culture, natural environment, and Australian news and media." It has been a privilege to contribute to this purpose.

There are many people to thank. Firstly, as Treasurer I was fortunate to inherit the strong foundational work on establishing our financial processes and Xero done in earlier days by Brian Salter-Duke, Craig Franklin and Robert Myers. I hope I can hand this legacy onto our new Treasurer.

Personal thanks to Steve Crossin, Gideon Digby, Alex Lum and Amanda Lawrence for their leadership over this time, and to all the Committee members I have had the pleasure of serving alongside.

Thank you particularly to Belinda and James for achieving so much this year. I wish the new Board all the best for the ambitious program planned in pursuit of Wikimedia Australia's purpose.