[Board] OSGeo accounting and IRS filings

[Jeff McKenna]

Thanks Daniel (for the record the other association had about the same 
number of transactions, but I trust your judgement.  In my case I simply 
mean a short report of bank balance, expected payments/transactions, or 
whatever is noteworthy).

Also, I had mentioned this years ago, but, now is the time to make it 
happen (on the new phase): signing authority (or authority in general) 
on our OSGeo bank accounts.  I had mentioned this before but nothing has 
been done.  I bet Tyler's name is still on them (just an example of how 
we need to update it).  It could be that one of us must be in person at 
our bank to make this happen, and I think if that is the case, we should 
make funding for that to happen.  Likely only the current treasurer, 
plus maybe 2 Board members (President and Vice President[hint]) would 
make sense.

Again, we can talk more on this tomorrow when we are focused ha.

Thanks Daniel,

-jeff



On 2014-08-13 5:45 PM, Daniel Morissette wrote:
> Monthly may be a bit tough to achieve, and a bit of an overkill given
> the little number of transactions, but we should definitely aim for
> quarterly reports initially, and once the process is running smoothly we
> can increase the frequency.
>
> With respect to how to make it happen, I guess it's mostly a matter of
> working very closely with the accountant (better than I did myself),
> give him direct access to the QuickBooks system and the Dropbox folder
> where we put all transaction receipts (which he already has) and bank
> statements (he doesn't have that now), and mandate him keep the books up
> to date and to produce monthly or quarterly reports that he emails to
> treasurer (or finance committee if we bring it back to life?) for
> review... and then after review the report is published.
>
> I'll try to put things in place to help make this happen when I work
> with the accountant... and please bring this up again in a month to make
> sure it's not forgotten.
>
> Daniel
>
>
> On 14-08-13 4:32 PM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>> Daniel, for tomorrow's treasurer discussion, I will mention this then
>> but for this next phase of treasurer, I'd like to put forward a
>> requirement of a monthly financial report to the Board, at each board
>> meeting - I saw this work well on another industry board I sat on,
>> where the (paid) bookkeeper reported to the treasurer each month, and
>> the treasurer brought the simple report to the board each month.  So,
>> in tomorrow's discussion, I'd like to hear thoughts on how to enable
>> this as soon as possible.  Thanks,
>>
>> -Jeff
>>
>> On Aug 13, 2014 5:14 PM, jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.comJeff McKenna
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Daniel, I'm responding on my phone today so I'm not so settled at
>>> the moment, but regarding meeting in Portland, with the help of the
>>> Portland committee I have reserved a boardroom for the morning of the
>>> code sprint for us to use (Saturday)... will discuss all this in
>>> tomorrow's Board meeting.  It could also be a spot for you to meet
>>> the accountant.  Talk shortly,
>>>
>>> -Jeff
>>>
>>> On Aug 13, 2014 4:41 PM, Daniel Morissette <dmorissette at mapgears.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Board,
>>>>
>>>> My term as board director will end with the current board election, and
>>>> presumably my role as treasurer as well. I have started preparing a
>>>> treasurer update that I will send to this list, but in the meantime I
>>>> have a question for the board:
>>>>
>>>> In order to facilitate passing the flag to the next treasurer, I would
>>>> like to take advantage of my time in Portland in September for
>>>> FOSS4G to
>>>> work face to face with Alan Strand, our accountant, to review/cleanup
>>>> the accounting for fiscal years 2011, 2012 and 2013, and prepare for
>>>> filing required IRS 990s now that our nonprofit status has officially
>>>> been cleared. Alan is based in Tacoma, WA, which is ~2hrs from
>>>> Portland,
>>>> and working face to face with him should make it much easier to cover
>>>> quite a bit of ground and set things up to work more smoothly with the
>>>> next treasurer in the future.
>>>>
>>>> The reason for this email is that since my term as director will be
>>>> over
>>>> after the election, I wonder if my term as treasurer ends at the same
>>>> time or not. Or if it ends only the day that a new treasurer is
>>>> named by
>>>> the new board. Section 5.1 of our bylaws state that treasurer does not
>>>> need to be a director, so does this mean that even if my term as
>>>> director ends I continue as treasurer until a new treasurer is named?
>>>>
>>>> I do not want to continue as treasurer for ever (no worries) and I am
>>>> hoping that a new treasurer will be named ASAP by the new board, but I
>>>> am also wondering about what happens in the interim because of the
>>>> opportunity of working face to face with the accountant in September...
>>>> bad timing, but gotta take advantage of it.
>>>>
>>>> If my role as treasurer continues until a new treasurer is named
>>>> then no
>>>> action is required in response to this email. This email just becomes a
>>>> FYI that I will work with the accountant in September in Portland to
>>>> wrap up the books before passing the flag.
>>>>
>>>> However if the consensus is that my term as treasurer ends with the
>>>> election, then in order to facilitate the transition I would like to
>>>> either:
>>>>
>>>> 1- be formally mandated by the board to complete those accounting and
>>>> filing tasks with Alan after the end of my term as director/treasurer.
>>>> Keeping in mind that this will also incur some fees out of the
>>>> accounting budget for Alan's time (this was already budgeted, just
>>>> never
>>>> used)
>>>>
>>>> or
>>>>
>>>> 2- be formally appointed to continue as interim treasurer after the
>>>> election (after my term is over as director) until a new treasurer is
>>>> appointed by the new board. Section 5.1 of our bylaws state that the
>>>> treasurer does not need to be a director, so this is fine with our
>>>> bylaws, and would allow for a smoother transition until the new
>>>> treasurer is ready to roll.
>>>>
>>>> Please think about this and we can make a decision at the board meeting
>>>> this Thursday.
>>>>
>>>> --