The Area 46 financial books for 2020 are officially closed. As it has been with many aspects of our service work this year, 2020 has been a financial aberration. Again I would like to sincerely thank all the groups who have contributed to the area this year and assure everybody that Area 46 is doing its best to fulfill our responsibilities.
A big question for me as I filled in the final numbers for the year was what was the bottom line going to be. Turns out that the end of year projections in my December Assembly re-port were not too far off. This is a bit of a relief to me knowing that many of the motions we voted on in December, namely the contribution to GSO, were influenced by these projections. My report in next month’s El Farolito will include the January financial statement which will have line items for all the financial related motions we passed in December; including the contribution to GSO and the Special Projects Funds.
Speaking of the Special Projects Fund, I’d like to reiterate its purpose and remind our assembly that $3,581 is available to utilize. We have learned in the past that our end of the year available cash has been just that; only available at the end of the year when we are approving our next year’s budget. This has always seemed to create a bit of a frenzy at the December assembly to put together projects and motions before the “window” closes. With the creation of this fund, we have taken a portion of the 2020 available cash (or, in this instance, $3,581 excess funds coming from the return of unused Assembly Hosting monies) and made it accessible to our committee throughout the year.
Hopefully this relieves some of the time pressure. However, we will only know if this is a good idea if the funds are actually used by our committee. Otherwise they will be, as some have suggested, an accumulation of funds for no stated purpose. So, to our committee, I implore you to consider where and how we can use these funds. As always, I am available to try and answer any questions you might have.
In service,
Christoph, Area 46 Treasurer