St Anthony Association of North Carolina

As the BoD works to streamline and professionalize our operations as much as possible, we’ve taken up the task of actually considering and approving a budget for 2010, the first time I’ve seen this done in my time at the Hall.  There are both highly summarized and highly detailed versions of the proposed budget up on the Board of Directors wiki, but in the meantime here are the highlights:

• SAANC’s known, fixed income for 2010 will be $39,500.  This is the rent paid by the undergraduate chapter.
• The proposed budget assumes $6,000 in donations during 2010, an increase of around $2,500 from last year.
• 2010 expected expenses total $43,974.34, meaning we must bring in at least $4,474.34 in donations to meet the minimal obligations of good stewardship of the property and financial solvency.
• The proposed budget includes $4,800.00 for maintenance, about 1/4 of which has already been spent as part of rebuilding the back deck.
• The reappraisal of our property and application for reconsideration of our tax value by the county, which will lower our tax bill for at least four years, has already saved us about 75% of its total cost.  In the course of those four years it will reduce our property tax obligation by a minimum of 300% of its total cost: over $8,000 in savings.

In other, less flashy news, I am spending my last few weeks in office weeding out the old Treasury records.  There are a number of very old records which I need to archive if interesting or destroy if simply outdated in order to stay in line with commonly accepted document handling procedures.  The rest will be organized into a file that contains anything from the previous seven years which we have on hand, plus information on general corporate financial identity (EIN, etc.) so that there are paper backups of much of that data.

If anyone is just desperate to spend time sitting by a shredder with me, please let me know.  ;)

Just a quick note to list expenditures since 1 June of this year.  I know, I should be posting this for y’all on a monthly basis, but I am slack.  I do, however, provide this information (in a different format that doesn’t easily translate into a blog post) every month to the SAANC Audit Committee, as per our new and vastly improved by-laws.

June 2009

• $1,370.90 – Wachovia loan payment

July 2009

• $1,370.90 – Wachovia loan payment
• $600.00 – Safeway Sprinkler (invoice 0509352)
• $325.00 – United Fire & Safety (invoice 05434)
• $1,350.00 – Analytical Consultants for the deposit on our property appraisal
• $136.14 – United Fire & Safety (invoice 45494)
• $781.55 – Stewart Howe Alumni Services for database maintenance

August 2009

• $1,370.90 – Wachovia loan payment
• $1,815.00 – New Growth Landscapes for regrading/reseeding of the Annex Spot and former back-back yard

I want to note that the last check is actually not a real expenditure for the Hall, as donations have been made and/or pledged to cover the entirety of the cost of this work.  I simply paid it with a Hall check to keep things tidy; donations had already been made to SAANC for part of this work and I doubt the guy would have wanted me to hand him a wad of small checks made out to something other than his business.

We have received in the neighborhood of $3,000 in donations over the course of the summer but that includes everything received since SwingOut, including SwingOut weekend itself so a good portion of that is probably SwingOut-inspired.

The major, major financial news of December and early January is that we have refinanced the renovation loan, as it was due on 5 January.  Many, many thanks to Bro. Michael Glover for all his research, work and time expended to make this happen, including educating the rest of us on our options.  On the 7th of January he, Bro. Adam Daland and I signed off on the new loan.  In the most bare-bones practical terms, the new loan means a slightly lower monthly payment.  This is a tremendously good thing because it means we may have slightly more money to spend on needed maintenance and repairs.*

In terms of the financial plumbing of SAANC, all the lenders who would put in a bid required we become their “major institution of deposit,” so the Annex Fund has been transferred to a high-yield money market account at Wachovia (now owned by Wells Fargo).  In many ways this makes my life easier, personally, as anyone who has attended a Board of Directors meeting in the last three years has heard me cuss Wachovia’s repeated inability to cash our loan checks in a timely manner.  As a matter of fact, for the last six months or so I’ve been going into a Wachovia branch near my office and making the loan payment in person so that I could get a receipt in case they tried to charge us a late fee or make the refinancing difficult.  Now the loan will be paid via auto-draft, which means that whole concern is gone.  Every month I’ll go in and deposit into our account there the value of that month’s loan payment so that my reports still make sense and we still pay the loan out of the appropriate account, but I won’t have to worry about Wachovia losing the check for three weeks.  Another, perhaps morbid but very realistic upside to this arrangement is that if I get hit by a bus the loan will not go into default while the executive committee finds the checkbook.  Heh.

In several years we will have to refinance the loan again but for much less at that point and ultimately I think it’s worth noting that we, as an organization, are actually in pretty good shape if we’re able to get any loan at all in the current credit market – and actually we had, if I correctly recall, four loan offers to choose from.

* This is not an invitation to be flooded with receipts.

So, here is a summary version of our financial activity from 1 September through 31 December.  It’s only several months late!

September:

• $1,300 in alumni donations!  Thank you!
• $10.18 to Stewart Howe for maintenance of our alumni database
• $5,907 to EHG, the first of two invoices for the demolition of the Annex
• $1,636.96 to Wachovia in the form of our usual monthly renovation loan payment

October:

• $1,019.47 in donations!  Thank you!
• $706.14 to United Fire & Safety Equipment for a service call and an annual inspection
• $2,173.06 to Stewart Howe for the printing and distribution of the Tattler
• $1,636.96 to Wachovia for the renovation loan
• $5,907 to EHG (second of two invoices for Annex demolition; each was one half of EHG’s total fee)
• $258.85 for seed and straw to go on the Annex site

November:

• $118.94 in alumni donations.  Thank you!
• $359.36 for various minor house repairs
• $1,577.30 to ServPro for duct cleaning and HVAC maintenance
• $1,636.96 to Wachovia for the renovation loan

December:

• $695 in alumni donations.  Thank you!
• $1,636.96 to Wachovia for the renovation loan
• $43 to Stewart Howe for database maintenance, etc.

I have placed a PDF of this information with slightly more detail on the Xi BoD wiki should anyone be interested in seeing the early version of the first half of this Spring’s treasury report at SwingOut.

Also, I want to be the first to point out that we saw a serious uptick in alumni giving after the Tattler.  In October I expressed some skepticism but clearly the Tattler was a net positive endeavor.

In a follow-up post I’ll discuss the refinancing of the renovation loan.  Thanks for your patience with me about getting this information posted!  Unrelated, I’ve updated the “Financials” page of the Xi BoD wiki with a little more information, including the undergraduate chapter’s EIN.

It’s a fact: The bulk of the SAANC budget is received each year in the form of rent on the property. Tapping into the 700 plus matriculated members of Xi for additional contributions to assist with repairs and far-ranging goals would provide a cushion and a nest egg to grow on. Bearing in mind the convenience factor, SAANC has offered the capability to donate online via PayPal for several years now. Now, there’s also an option to give a recurring gift of $10, $25, $50 or $100 each month and spread out your financial contribution.

I think Michael, as SAANC treasurer, has done a great job on this here blog on showing the financial ins and outs of SAANC. I believe that will go a long way towards encouraging voluntary donations, and will reduce the number of times a “pleading letter” will need to be sent to the membership.

I worked out some figures:

• If 400 Xis gave $10 per month for 12 months, that’s $48,000.
• If 150 Xis gave $100 per month for 12 months,
  and 250 Xis gave $10 per month for 12 months, that’s $210,000.
• If 100 Xis gave $10 per month for 12 months,
  and 100 Xis gave $25 per month for 12 months, that’s $42,000.

That’s not even tapping into the full number of graduates, some of whom are disinterested in – or disinclined to – contribute.

Trying to balance needs for property maintenance whilst ramping up long term plans may be difficult. But I think it can be done.

I’ve started my recurring donation as of yesterday – it’s not much, only $10/month so far. I know in the long run it will make a difference.

Here’s a breakdown of all expenditures in the month of August, as promised.  I’d say I intentionally waited another week to make sure I covered all of August but that would be untrue.

• $375 – Carolina Tents – Annex demo party
• $250 – Drew Boster – Annex demo party catering deposit
• $662 – KJ Garner – Annex demo party reimbursements (printing, postage, etc.)
• $1229.95 – Drains Express – cutting off and capping water & sewer lines to Annex in preparation for demolition
• $1636.96 – Wachovia – main house renovation loan
• $47.99 – KJ Garner – tablecloths (Annex demo party reimbursement)
• $81.22 – KJ Garner – Trader Joe’s (Annex demo party reimbursement)
• $180.41 – American Party Rentals – grills, etc.
• $250 – Drew Boster – Annex demo catering remainder
• $1500 – Prescott Environmental – Annex asbestos removal and final environmental seal of approval prior to demolition
• $1046.25 – 1847, Inc. – BoD Liability Insurance quarterly premium

Now, the kind of news I like to deliver is that various donations other than the 1st Sledgehammer Swing Auction & Cheerleading Digital Photography Festival totaled $560 and I was able to deposit that, as well.

Finally, in news of things we hate to hear about every year, we’ve received the property tax bill, due by January 15.  It is for $12,333 and change.  Yaaaaaay.  Our belts will be cinched wicked tight for the next five months.

An update on the grad treasury will get posted soon, probably this weekend.  The Annex Demolition Party and the demolition itself have caused a flurry of treasury activity and I want to let the dust settle before I give out numbers.  I also need to deposit some donations that have come in, etc.  Just letting you know I haven’t abandoned that aspect of posting here.

First, the good news:  we haven’t had to spend a dime since my last update.

Now, the bad news:  looking at what our income usually is for the rest of the year and our known costs – liability insurance, loan payments, etc. – we are done paying for repairs for the year.  Period.  We have no money to spare.

We didn’t have to spend any money last week and we’re on track for the same this week.  In fact, I have the undergraduates’ summer rent (a week early!) to deposit.

This week we’ve spent rather a lot of money, I’m sad to say.

• $1,636.96 – main house renovation loan
• $311.00 – annex demolition permit
• $258.55 – apartment bathroom repairs
• $564.35 – pre-SwingOut dumpster reimbursement to the undergrads

Those last three are actually all to Bro. Adam Daland, who covered those costs and submitted receipts/invoices.  The pre-SwingOut dumpster reimbursement was paid out of funds from the Special Projects account, as that account is used for all SwingOut-related expenses paid by the graduates.

Today I also went through and saved off check images for every check written since 1 April of this year and downloaded the transaction logs for the renovation fund, the Special Projects fund and the undergrad working fund.

Treasury To-Do List:

• call our property insurance agent to ask what happens when the annex is demolished
• organize donor history for Stewart Howe
• roll graduate working fund into undergraduate working fund, as per BoD motion passed at Spring 2008 meeting.

All in all, we’re staying on top of things.  However, if there are particular repairs, renovations, purchases or projects which are near and dear to your heart, please feel free to contact me or any other BoD member about sponsoring those projects!