[Theforum] important: treasurer duties (was: donations)

[Marlene Bruce]

Folks,

I just finished reading the "donations" thread (trying to get caught 
up), and was emailing with Martin off-list about my treasurer duties.

To respond to Erika's points:

>  - we don't have a budget (that I know of)

You're right. We also haven't defined any goals or monetary needs for 
equipment, services, producing items like t-shirts, or anything else.

>  - we're not 501c3  (are we?)

It looks like Elfur is checking out NFP in Iceland, correct? Can we 
even become NFP if we don't have accounts set up and records 
available for review?

>  - we don't follow our own bylaws

<!> This sounds like an issue for a different thread.

>  - do we even have a bank account?

Nope (see below). Before the $100 I just received from Dan (incl. 
Hugh, John and Scott - thanks guys!), I have never received any money 
for evolt (if you don't count the hotel in Austin, which was really 
my money put out and reimbursed for).

**********

I have a few things I'd like run past you all:

1. Before week's end I will talk with Wells Fargo about opening a 
business account for evolt.org. I'll find out what kind of minimums 
we will need to keep for both a checking and savings account 
(preferably fee-limited, we'll see). I'll determine how/if we can 
have multiple signatories for a decentralized organization, so the 
account isn't just under my name. I think we'd previously determined 
that, aside from me, the following people would be listed on the 
account:
* Marlene (Treasurer)
* Martin (President)
* Dan (Chairman)

and possibly:
* Rudy (Vice President)
* Elfur (Secretary)

I don't have my admin archives here to look this info up (I'm on the 
East Coast at my mom's) and BTW, I never did receive the zipped files 
of the old admin archives!

Who should be a signatory on the bank account?

2. I'll also go to the post office find out the fee to establish a 
Post Office Box for evolt.org treasury-related issues and 
transactions. That way people can snail-mail donations or whatever 
(no mail bombs or anthrax, please).

3. Once the bank account is established, I would also like to create 
an evolt.org PayPal account, which will point to the evolt.org bank 
account for downloading and uploading money. What email address 
should we use (maybe treasurer at evolt.org)? The email address should 
come to me, but shouldn't use my name.

Should we also have a fax number?

4. I would like to establish the following rules for all future 
evolt.org related money. Please read and comment:

4.a. ALL donations to evolt.org should go through the treasurer.
No one else should be collecting them. Anyone soliciting donations in 
the future should be directing people to either the evolt.org PayPal 
account (or Amazon or whatever account(s) we decide) for on-line 
transactions, or the PO Box for checks. If we want to talk about 
receiving credit card donations, that's another can of worms...

4.b. I must be alerted--immediately--to ALL purchases on behalf of evolt.org.
All purchases must be recorded. All receipts must be kept and mailed 
or faxed to me (if I'm not making the purchase). Funds for purchases 
should only come from the evolt.org bank account, unless someone is 
purchasing the item and donating the item to evolt.org. See 4.c ...

4.c. Donations of non-monetary items to evolt.org should include a valuation.
In order for me to keep track of what we receive and what it's worth, 
I need to know the value of any non-monetary items we receive. 
Therefore if someone donates a piece of hardware or software 
(whatever), we need to encourage them to tell us what they think it's 
worth. This will become even more important if we obtain NFP status, 
so people can write off their donations.

4.d. What else?
Additional suggestions and/or corrections are encouraged.

5. I need to compile a complete list of all of evolt.org's assets.
Dan, please help me with this. I know you run the servers and hold 
the software licenses. I need a complete listing of all of hardware 
and software evolt.org owns. If we are short licenses for anything, 
tell me so we can prioritize them for purchase. [I think perhaps 
Elfur, as secretary, should have a listing of all license numbers for 
software as well.] If you have receipts for anything purchased, I 
need a copy. I don't know if it's necessary to come up with "value" 
figures for anything lacking receipts, but if I'm going to have to 
put together a comprehensive list of evolt.org's assets, some 
valuation of our holdings might also be necessary for becoming a 
legal NFP. Dan, can you get back to me with this info in the next 30 
days? If anyone else has input in this area, let me know.

6. We should make a list of things we need.
That way we can solicit and assign donations to specific causes. 
Also, do we need to insure anything we own?

Thanks,
Marlene

P.S. I emailed the Webbys about changing the entry to "evolt.org" and 
am awaiting a reply.