Retreat March 2009/Financial brainstorming

17:30 Minutes of Session 5 Liam (minutes), Brian (chair), Brianna "Financial"

1. Requirement for a hardcopy of documents (bank statements, receipts...), irrespective of whether we have a web-based version, we need a hardcopy original in case of official audit.

2. Currently, accounting is on a spreadsheet (as opposed to specific accounting software). No need for the foreseeable future to purchase/use accounting software due to small number of transactions.

3. Incoming payment methods. What way of receiving payments (especially overseas payments) do we want/need? On the basis of what the WMF uses and on basis of popular awareness - suggest setting up Pay-Pal. This also allows people to make CC payments without having a Paypal account. This would NOT be for making payments, only receiving them. WM-Au payments will continue to be made by cheque as per current practice. Becoming a credit card receiver ourselves is costly, setting up with "Our-Community" is bureaucracy-intensive.

4. "Interim" financial report. Brian to prepare a financial report for a committee meeting in April using financial details of the financial year so far. This would be to demonstrate accounting methods and reporting style before the Annual meeting in an interim report. That way, any questions about accounting methods reporting style can be raised/solved well in advance of the AGM financial report.

5. Budget - see budget on comm-wiki. Be pessimistic about membership numbers (and retention number), assume similar ratio of concession:full fee members. But, estimate approx. $500 for donations (assuming fundraising agreement with WMF). Web-hosting might increase (from current $5 p/m) as we may increase our available space online (already at 1/2 full).

6. Payments for hosting. That at the next committee meeting we put a motion to automatically approve a $15 per/quarter payment to Brianna for web-hosting, rather than approving the hosting fees each time. In the event that we increase the hosting fees, we would need to have a motion in the normal way to do so.

7. Petty Cash - Stamps. A motion should be put to the committee that: Brian should purchase stamps in advance (stamps being the main ongoing petty cash used - for passing receipts, cheques etc.) and claim this for reimbursement. Then, when sending cheques for signatures etc. he'll place a pre-stamped envelope with the cheque so that the other person does not need to purchase new stamps and therefore no new petty cash claim needs to be made.

8. Petty Cash - General. Brian to draft a motion regarding committee members asking for petty cash (up to $10) that does not require receipts etc. for any of the 4 "officers" of the committee. Other requests go through usual channels.

9. Wiki-conf. we need to give the sub-committee specific scope of finances - what kind of profit/loss do we expect them to plan for? Work on basis of self sufficiency through grants & rego, and apply for sponsorship on top of that. We can't rely on sponsorship coming in, and even if it does it will be at the end. Therefore, registration costs need to be fixed early on so that any later money is a bonus.

9.1. Meetup in Canberra: Liam will be in Canberra on Friday the 20th of March. Brianna to look into going there at the same time. Attempt to set up a meetup with canberra wikimedians to gauge local interest/commitment in organising a wiki-conf in November.