Resolution 2004-10-28.dbg.1: Treasurer's Budget

[David Graham - SPI Secretary]

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Good resolution.  I have one comment:
>
> > 9. This budget may be renewed by the board of directors annually, if a
> > report on the previous year's expenditures and reimbursements has been
> > presented and is to the satisfaction of the Board.
>
> Since the board can and might do it anyway, I'd suggest writing
> something like
>
>   9. This board intents to renew this budget annually, in each case if a
>   report [...]

I agree in principal, at least in the case of the current board -- but I
would not like to tell a future board what it intends to do, thus the
wording of 'may'. A future board may not intend to renew this budget
and instead allocate $2000 a month to hire a full time book-keeper (it
necessarily couldn't be the treasurer as officers are specifically denied
a salary in our by-laws). I can't see that happening in the next couple of
years, but non-profits can get that large and it's not in our interests to
tell future boards what they intend to do.

By the same token, by stating 'may' and not 'intends', the board is
putting the treasurer on notice that in the future, any budget needs to be
justified by past usage. The board will decide what it intends to do once
it has seen how it was used the previous year.

Does that make any sense?

---
David Graham, SPI Secretary
cdlu at spi-inc.org   D5F45889