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Head Administrator

Registered: 08-2004
Location: www.eryndor.com
Posts: 2383
How to Utilize Eryndor Treasury Funds


First, thanks to our president, Cross, for checking this document out.

Goals of Eryndor, Goals of Using the Treasury

The purpose of the Eryndor treasury is simply to serve two goals:
   (1) Enhance the overall Dagorhir experience of Eryndor members and Dagorhir member attendees of Eryndor events
   (2) Enhance the growth and sustainability of Eryndor by fostering growth via new members

These goals should look familiar – they’re essentially a re-stating of goals and values Eryndor has always held. And these are values shared by every successful Dagorhir chapter, best I can tell.

The best way to make sure the treasury is serving its function, monies in the treasury need to be put to use. How to best use the monies is a decision to be made in part with the executive board (minus me, treasurer does not make budget decisions, he/she just makes sure things are done in a kosher fashion) and the unit council. Just like any organization – people need to hash out the best way to use the resources (in this case, the treasury) to achieve the organizational objectives. Sometimes this means compromise, sometimes this means testing out ideas, sometimes it means ‘going big’ for a short-term payoff, other times it means many small increments as long-term investments. All while staying in balance and keeping a few bucks in reserve (about $200 – 300). In short, there are options, within a few constraints.

The Treasury Isn’t Currently Serving Eryndor’s Goals

But, one of the poor options (at least for a small, non-profit with a very specific objective like ours) is to simply allow the treasury to gather dust in a small business checking account. Unfortunately, that is what the Eryndor funds, for the most part, have been doing of late. Sitting there waiting to be used.

I have been talking with a lot of Eryndor people the past few months, and the best reason I can figure out why the money isn’t being utilized yet is because people simply don’t know HOW to access Eryndor funds or WHAT they could potentially be used for.

WHAT the Eryndor Treasury Could Be Used For

Its my goal in this message to offer a few illustrative suggestions to get the proverbial ball rolling by offering some examples of what the Eryndor Treasury could and could not be used for. These are meant to merely be examples -- there are many, many other ‘good’ and ‘bad’ examples.

Here’s a few things the Eryndor treasury could be used for:
• Funding* a feast by purchasing all of the meats, veggies, hall rental, etc.
• Funding* a special night event at an Eryndor campout (for example, prizes and materials necessary to run a Carnival Games event) that cannot be funded solely from expected event fee revenues
• Renting* an indoor facility like an indoor soccer arena to host a large-scale wintertime event when normal day event fees are unlikely to cover the full rental cost
• Purchasing firewood, a shade canopy, or other community beneficial good for large campout events like Badon or Ragnarok
• Covering the materials cost (DAP, foam, PVC, tape, etc.) for a newbie weapons-building session in an established or new Eryndor region
• Purchasing advertising or promotional materials used to promote the chapter
* - In many cases, partial funding may make sense as well.

The emphasis here is on the collective benefit of the chapter, the idea being to strive toward making as positive an impact on as many members as possible (of course this ideal will never be reached, but the idea is usually to work toward it). In all of the examples, there is a clear focus on benefitting everyone (making an Eryndor event a better experience for attendees) or growing the chapter (making it easier to equip and grow new areas of the chapter). It is notable that for SOME of these examples there may be a unit in charge of an event, but they still could request some funding from the chapter treasury so long as they have a compelling case why access to those monies will make a better event for everyone to attend. As we all know, when a unit runs a successful event, we all benefit!

On the other hand, there are a few examples of what would be ‘bad’ uses of the Eryndor treasury:
• Purchasing custom leather armor for each Executive Board member
• Buying new custom tunics for unit representatives on the unit council
• Buying shields and swords for gifts for the best fighters and most veteran members of Eryndor

Clearly, these examples would be examples of using community funds to benefit only a select few, and those select few are veterans or leaders.

But, in the end, what is really ‘good’ or ‘bad’ use of Eryndor funding is up to the collective decision making of the unit council and the executive board. And since those members are either elected or are representatives of large Eryndor membership groups, it is pretty clear that what is ultimately good or bad uses of Eryndor funding is up to the discretion of, well, the chapter!

Next, I’ll explain how Eryndor funding could be tapped into, and the general procedure one might expect to have to go through to gain access to funding. Again, I’m drawing from my experience on three different university funding boards here to outline the general process.

HOW the Eryndor Treasury Could Be Used

There is a general procedure that is normally used when a group of individuals in an organization want to use the organization’s funds to achieve one of the organization’s goals. Its pretty simple:
(1) The people (individual, group, unit, etc.) write-up a request. In the request, a few things have to be noted:
        a. Exactly WHAT the money is to be used for, and WHY they feel this is a good use of funds
        b. Exactly WHO is requesting the money
        c. Exactly HOW MUCH money is needed, and by when. An itemized budget is absolutely necessary, as well as thorough evidence that due diligence was conducted to figure out pricing (“according to the printed page of WEBSITE, this MATERIAL would cost XX.XX per unit, and YY.YY to ship).

(2) This request would be expected to be submitted to the president (or appointed designee) at least several weeks in advance so that the request can be submitted and discussed to the decision-makers (exec board & unit council)

(3) The people submitting the request should anticipate that the decision makers will have questions about the proposal and/or be willing to only meet certain aspects of the budget request. Thus, those submitting a request should also be ready to answer follow-up questions.

(4) If the funding is passed, the HOW MUCH and TO WHOM is noted and passed along to the treasurer, who then sends out the funding. Receipts or other proof that the money was used as intended is expected to be reported within a reasonable window, depending on the nature of the allocation. Details of outcome are publicly published.

For those who have ran a Dagorhir student club, this procedure should sound really, really familiar… its probably almost the exact same way your school (“the chapter”) allocates funds to its orgs (“the person/group/unit/whatever”).

Since the by-laws don’t specify the details of such an allocation procedure, it is left to the executive board to administer this chapter function in a manner that is open, ethical, and fair. Since the procedure I outlined above is consistent with how many, many organizations have handled funding decisions for many years, this procedure seems a reasonable process for Eryndor to use as well.

Wrapping Up

In this message, I’ve tried to shed some light on a current problem in Eryndor, and then I spent some time offering information in the hopes it will aid in solving the problem. Eryndor’s current problem is that it has treasury money that is not being used, thus inhibiting our ability to improve everyone’s Dagorhir enjoyment and grow the chapter. I proposed the root of this problem to simply be a lack of awareness, and I tried to address this problem by providing the necessary information to pursue Eryndor treasury funding.

Last edited by AthronofEryndor, 3/24/2009, 10:00 am


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Nothing can hide in the light.
3/24/2009, 9:59 am Link to this post Send Email to AthronofEryndor   Send PM to AthronofEryndor AIM
 
Jarred NightThorne Profile
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Registered: 06-2007
Location: Neverwhere
Posts: 582
Re: How to Utilize Eryndor Treasury Funds


Thank you for this. I intend to utilize this information.

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I'm going to take whatever you haven't nailed down... Nevermind... I'll take that too.
3/24/2009, 11:34 am Link to this post Send Email to Jarred NightThorne   Send PM to Jarred NightThorne
 
Sethrin Profile
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Registered: 08-2005
Location: Mizzle Pizzle, Michigizzle
Posts: 33
Re: How to Utilize Eryndor Treasury Funds


...rent a balrog for a day event?

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I am on a street corner where I shouldn't be. Alone and coatless I have gone out to look for a black dog who answers to my whistle.
I have a kind of halloween mask which I am afraid to put on.
7/9/2009, 12:25 am Link to this post Send Email to Sethrin   Send PM to Sethrin AIM
 




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