A decision was made at the Summer 2008 meeting (June 21-23, 2008):

Defined the responsibilities of the treasurer/s to include:

• Keep physical records of payments and income.
• Sign checks.
• Provide financial reports at meetings and as requested by consensus of the members.
• Provide reminders when dues are due.
• Follow up on situations when dues are not paid on time.
• Make sure bills are paid.
• Respond to requests for alternate payment arrangements.

A decision was made at the Spring 2008 meeting regarding the payment and consequences of non-payment of dues.

A decision was made at the Summer meeting (June 8-10, 2007):

Decision about empowering treasurers to create alternate payment plans: The treasurers are empowered to create alternate payment plans for the July - December 2007 dues, as long as the full amount is paid before the 2007 winter solstice. The names of those with plans are confidential, but the number will be included in the treasurers’ report. It was also agreed that a hard copy of the alternate plan would be retained with the treasurers’ records.

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My intention in setting up this page is to have a place where we can put issues as they come up that can be dealt with later, but we don't want to forget. So these are some questions I am aware of (some of which are being answered as we go). Please feel free to add more questions and offer your thoughts on how you would like these questions answered.--Diane Schurr 12:43, 4 Dec 2006 (MST)

There is one active proposal, that has not been agreed to although it has been discussed and I believe the concerns that were raised have been addressed. The priority of the group has moved on to other issues, so this is saved here to be revisited when we get back to dealing with financial issues:

• Financial Proposal: Proposal for reaching an agreement on how money in our Reclaiming Community account can be spent.

How will our treasurers, Diana and Carol, be operating?

What can the membership dues be spent on?

I would like to get people's input on actually making a formal proposal on how and on what we can spend our money. I have created a draft at FinancialProposal. --Diane Schurr 11:31, 15 Jan 2007 (MST)

I believe that it was mentioned at the Synergia Meeting, but I don't think we wrote it down anywhere, that this money can be used to help defray some of the costs of our face-to-face meetings. I would like to agree that we can spend this money on a facilitator for our meetings and for any expenses incured by having a place where we can meet together. --Diane Schurr 13:33, 4 Jan 2007 (MST)

I support Diane's statement about using the money for meeting expenses. I like having the meeting expenses covered by the whole group, rather than just the attendees, because this is the work of the group. I'm a little worried that the wording "any expenses incured by having a place" because we might not have that much money. It does say "we can spend" not that we "will" spend, but that is a bit away. If we keep expenses for each meeting under $500 we should be OK and can figure out a specific policy later. We will probably need to spend money on legal and financial stuff (e.g. incorporation and bank fees), so we need to keep that in mind too. --Sabo 19:46, 4 Jan 2007 (MST)

What kind of procedure should we have if people can't or don't pay their dues?

Ideas for a dues payment process.

How will we be raising enough money to make this dream a reality?

The Reclaiming Community Account procedure proposal

Bob made this proposal 12/8/2006. The proposal was not passed, but several people supported various elements. It is recorded here for discussion when the community is ready for more formal money-management practices. --Sabo 21:37, 20 Dec 2006 (MST)

1. Either Carol or Diana assumes the role of primary treasurer. The other remains as a required co-signer on all outgoing checks.
2. The primary treasurer keeps the books. This can be by hand or with an appropriate software package such as Quicken or MS Money. If by computer then a monthly backup should be created and delivered to the co-signer/secondary treasurer. (Juniper recommends MYOB instead of Quicken.)
3. Dues payments, made out to Reclaiming Community, must be mailed or hand-delivered to the primary treasurer. The payment and subsequent deposit will be recorded.
4. A minimum of quarterly reports detailing dues payments received, expenses paid and interest earned (if any) will be presented at each scheduled full meeting. An exceptions list detailing delinquent dues and any similar problems should also be specified in these quarterly reports.

• From Juniper 12/10/2006: In my opinion, successful organizations have a volunteer treasurer who is responsible, and a bookkeeper who is paid. A paid bookkeeper will reconcile the check register every single month as soon as it comes in. A volunteer´s life usually does not allow that consistent level of dedication.

What happens to any money in our account if we split up, or for any reason decide not to continue?

I remember this being brought up at Synergia when we decided that the dues would be non-refundable. It does make a lot of sense to decide this question at a time when we are not really considering this as a possiblity, rather than waiting to have to deal with this in the midst of some other crisis. (However, I am not suggesting that we have to spend a lot of time on it right now. I'm just going through my notes and trying to make sure that everything that has been brought up gets recorded somewhere on this wiki.) --Diane Schurr 11:28, 24 Jan 2007 (MST)

We will need to update our exit plan as our legal structure evolves and we get more money. In our current situation, without a legal entity, and our only income from dues and meeting expenses taking most of that, we can do something simple, like say "if the amount in the treasury is less than $50 per active member, we give it all to something like the Earth Activist Training scholarship fund. If the amount in savings is between $50 and $200 per active member, it gets refunded in equal parts to the active members who paid the full $100 at the most recent Solstice." Some things that would require a modification to this agreement include substantial donations from other sources, a balance that is consistently above $100 per person at the end of the Solstice (e.g. right before dues are paid), or becoming a financial entity that requires a different distribution. The treasurers should keep track of these things and let the community know when we need to update the exit plan. --Sabo 12:52, 7 Feb 2007 (MST)

I agree with Sabo's comments, and agree that this is a rather simple matter at this time. The biggest decision that I see is deciding who we would donate the money to. I would like to suggest one difference from what Sabo says, and that would be that even if there is more than $50 per active member in the account, we do not refund it to members. I believe that the agreement that the dues are non-refundable, should be maintained even in this situation. --Diane Schurr 10:47, 8 Feb 2007 (MST)