This Treasurer’s Report was delivered orally at the Denver conference and published in the October 2005 Newsletter. After the report, there follows a request for some elaborations on the report.
Treasurer’s
Report
15th Annual
International Conference of the
Society for Chaos Theory in
Psychology & Life Sciences
This report summarizes the financial results for the
Society for the fiscal year ending 31 March, 2005. The final net for this year was $3596, which was more than double
that of last year, and within the range of our net during the years in which we
published NDPLS with Kluwer. SCTPLS
has been running at a modest surplus consistently since June 1994. The
following sections of this report provide the financial details of the
Society’s operations, the status of special funds, and a description of a new
procedure that was adopted by the Trustees for the establishment of a General
Finance and Accounting (GFA) Office.
Line A: Net receipts from last year’s conference
were particularly good relative to our history, even though the attendance (69
people) was the lowest in the preceding five years. This disadvantage was more
than counterbalanced by the exceptionally good deal on facilities that we
received from Marquette University. Line B is self-explanatory.
Line C shows receipts from Institutional
subscriptions to NDPLS. During the
last fiscal year we sold a total of 39 subscription between the late 2004
purchases and the 2005 purchases. The institutional subscription level 2005 now
stands equal to that of 2004, or 32 subscriptions. All production expenses for NDPLS have been applied to Line D.
Line D reflects 4.5 consecutive issues of NDPLS that were produced under our
self-publication system. Production was speeded so that the expenses for the
April 2005 issue were paid by the end of the fiscal year. The cost of producing
4 consecutive issues of NDPLS is
expected to drop by as much as $2000 for the current fiscal year. All credit
card expenses for the conference and membership are posted to Line D.
Table 1. Financial results
for FY 2004.
|
Project |
Net Income
|
|
A. 2003 Conference in Milwaukee |
$5499 |
|
B. Deposit on 2005 Conference in Denver |
(500) |
|
C. Institutional Subscriptions to NDPLS |
7027 |
|
D. Membership fees, donations, journal and
Newsletter, general operations, less expenses |
(6791) |
|
E. Advertising |
(2460) |
|
F. Interest on accounts |
1791 |
|
G. Allocation to special funds |
(970) |
|
Final net |
$3596 |
Our membership currently stands at 294 active
members as of 28 August, 2005. This number represents an improvement of 11
members since the end of the last conference and a drop of 16 members since the
end of the 2003 conference. The 2003 membership level of 310 was a high water
mark for us. We look forward to the INSC conference in Greece and the
activities of our new membership committee chair during the next membership
year.
Line E reflects three print advertisements that the
Society ordered during the year. Two of the ads were printed in the GradPsyc, published by the American
Psychological Association. The third was published in the Observer, published by the American Psychological Society. A small
amount (approximately $200) was used to promote NDPLS at several librarians’ conferences throughout the year. Line
F is self-explanatory.
Line
G: The Society established two special funds in April 2004. The Student Scholarship
Fund provides for waivers of conference registration fees for student members
who have a technical presentation accepted for the annual conference. The
International Hardship Fund provides for reductions in conference registration
fees for members who have a technical presentation accepted for the annual
conference and who have made a reasonable claim for hardship; travel from a
currency-impaired country is the primary example of hardship addressed by the
fund program. Other than the qualifications described above, applicants are
given awards on a first-come first-served basis to the extent that resources
allow.
The two funds were seeded by
contributions from members and by the Society’s own resources. Disbursements
are reflected as a lessened amount in Line A. A total of $400 was distributed
in this fashion in FY 2004. The fund surplus is shown as a negative amount in
Line G and we expected to use it in its entirety for the 2005 annual
conference.
Table 2. Status of special
funds for FY 2004.
|
Student
Scholarship Fund |
Amount |
|
SCTPLS contribution |
$1000 |
|
Donations received |
125 |
|
Awards made |
(400) |
|
Fund balance |
725 |
|
|
|
International Hardship Fund
|
|
|
Donations received |
245 |
|
Awards made |
0 |
|
Fund balance |
245 |
In an effort to prepare for organizational growth and to safeguard the delivery of membership services from interruption, the Trustees approved the following plan to divide the work that is currently performed by the Treasurer into two functions. The General Finance and Accounting Office will be responsible for administrative services and will fall under the auspices of the Trustees. The Treasurer will continue to perform executive functions and will remain an officer on the Executive Committee. This procedure was approved by the Trustees in June 2005 for Fiscal Year 2005 and thereafter. It does not involve changes to the existing text of its Articles of Organizations.
The Trustees are ultimately responsible for the financial and legal integrity of SCTPLS. This action falls within their auspices. The provision below for establishing a nominally paid position thus falls under the auspices of the Trustees. Also, the Society has been accumulating assets in excess of the 15% of gross receipts during the past five years and this trend is expected to continue. Appropriations for amounts in excess of the 15% fall within the purview of the Trustees.
The General
Finance and Accounting Office (GFA). The GFA will maintain SCTPLS business headquarters at
Post Office Box 484, Pewaukee, WI, 53072 and at Marquette University,
Department of Psychology, P. O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (561 N. 15th
St., Milwaukee, WI 53233). The direction of the GFA will fall under the
auspices of the Trustees.
GFA will receive and process all monetary receipts
for membership, conference registrations, institutional subscriptions to Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life
Sciences (NDPLS), book catalog sales, and miscellaneous sources. GFA will
maintain the credit card system and all SCTPLS
bank accounts. Trustees will be signatories to these accounts as they are
presently.
GFA will pay all accounts payable in the course of
business as usual and for special projects as defined by the Executive
Committee. In the case of a contract negotiated by the Executive Committee with
outside agents, e.g. for the annual conference and business meeting, the
Executive Committee will notify the GFA when that contact has been arranged,
and when deliverables have been received and ready for payment.
As part of business as usual as described above, GFA
will manage the printing and mailing of NDPLS, the Newsletter, September and
February dues collection letters, and the annual poster distribution. Other
printing and distribution will be determined by arrangement with the Executive
Committee or Chairs of other Committees as required.
GFA will file the Society’s annual income tax,
maintain postal permits, and service audit requests from the Internal Revenue
Service and United States Postal Service.
The person responsible for the functions of the GFA
will be known as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the Society and will be
noted as such on the Society’s income tax statement. The first incumbent in
this position will be Stephen Guastello. The Trustees will appropriate $2000
per year to operate the GFA, either directly to the CFO or to outsource
agencies. Unless otherwise stipulated by contractual agreements with outsource
agencies, this amount will be paid at quarterly intervals (June 30, Sept. 30,
Dec. 31, and March 31), and will compensate labor as defined above only.
The Treasurer will solicit and evaluate proposals
from facilities to host the annual conference, develop the specifics of the contract
with the host facility, authorize payments, and otherwise act as the contact
person for the host facility on behalf of the Society for financial matters.
The Treasurer will order books for the resale table at the conference and take
custody of unsold stocks afterwards.
The Treasurer will assist the GFA in preparing the
annual accounting statement and make the Treasurer’s Report to the membership
at the annual conference. (All other financial reporting falls under the
auspices of the GFA and Trustees as defined above.)
The Treasurer will conduct the foregoing functions
in conjunction with other members of the Executive Committee as necessary.
The establishment of the GFA will produce no visible change in SCTPLS business processes so long as Stephen Guastello remains Treasurer on the Executive Committee. When a new Treasurer is appointed (or elected pending an amendment to the Articles of Organization), there will be two people performing the jobs as specified above.
Submitted by:
Stephen Guastello, Ph.D.
Treasurer and CFO for SCTPLS
Questions for elaboration of the report, which has left some confusion over some details:
We start with lines C and D, since Mark Filippi has questioned whether the Journal should be compulsory and supported by dues from those who may be uninterested in supporting the journal. To evaluate the extent this is a concern, it would be helpful to have more information concerning the financing of the Journal.
It would be helpful to have details on both the income and expenses generated by the journal.
How much revenue is obtained from (a) member’s dues, (b) individual subscriptions of non-members, and (c) institutional memberships? What are dues for each of these categories, and how many subscriptions in each category? Mark also indicated wanting to know how many members of the chaopsyc list, in each category, member and non-member of the Society, are subscribers. In other words, how many subscriptions might be attributed to participants in Chaopsyc? How many free subscriptions are given out (Past Presidents and who else?)
Of the expenditures, how much is spent on printing the journal, how much on mailing the journal, and how much on miscellaneous correspondence with authors and editors, and other miscellaneous details? Line D merges too many items under one expenditure category. It would be helpful to have a breakdown for each of the categories named there.
Answers to these questions could be presented over the Society listserver, the next Newsletter, Society web page, or other pertinent venue or sent to me to post on this page.
Others may send comments to: abraham@sover.net and the president of the Society or others of your choice.
This page created 11/15/05 by fda