Another education minute from the Exchequer office.
Are you a Seneschal? Among running meetings, writing reports and dealing with issues within your groups, you also work with the Exchequer to maintain the money for your group. Money helps a group to run but as a non-profit organization that has rules (that come down from Society as required by the IRS) they must be following the rules and policies.
So what does this mean for you as a seneschal?
1. Signature Card. When a new Seneschal, Exchequer, Emergency Deputy, Kingdom Officer, or other person on the card changes, new signatures need to be taken care of. All groups must have an emergency deputy Exchequer per Society. (They are also required to sign the signature card for the bank.) Work with your Exchequer to make sure that a Kingdom signature is on your card and it is up to date for all reports.
2. Bank Statements/Monthly Bank Reconciliation. These statements cannot be mailed to the exchequer. To maintain the checks and balances, the Seneschal needs to review and sign off on the bank reconciliation and statement monthly as per Society rules.
3. Quarterly reports. After the close of a quarter (March, June, September, December), the Exchequer has to wait for the bank statement to do the quarterly report. This is where you come in. Ask the Exchequer copies you with the Excel or open source file of their report. Review the pages with your Exchequer so that they can explain anything that you have questions on. This allows you to see the colors (green, yellow, red) for the balances. Each report has three required pages of signatures.
4. Budget. At the end of every year the Exchequer needs to present a budget for the next year. This budget could include money spent by the group and what you will be raising as income to cover those expenses. The budget must be voted on and appear in the minutes of the meeting it is voted on.
5. Events. Every event a group hosts must have a budget. It should break down how the money will be spent, ie., food, rental of facility, insurance, tokens, etc. The budget should also include what you expect to earn as income from that event. An estimated vs. actual budget could be used to show what happened with the event and what to do for a future event. Since the event has a budget, it should be voted on and appear in the minutes for your group. This is for all events that are hosted by your group.
6. Domesday. Although a Domesday report has the same requirements as a quarterly report, it has another, larger item that must be sent on to Kingdom: The inventory of all items maintained or owned by the group. This list must be reviewed and updated yearly.
7. Book Review. Every three years, or when you get a new exchequer or you change status, a book review is required. This review will look at how things have been done in the past, what needs to be changed by a specific date, and what needs to be done for the future or going forward. These reviews are now taking 2 1/2 hours to 5 hours due to what needs to be reviewed and documented. Your book reviewer will invite you to sit through the review to see what is happening. At the conclusion of the review, a report is issued with an action plan for the group moving forward.
As a seneschal or anyone looking to become once, you and the exchequer need to have open communications that will help your group in reporting to both Kingdom and Society.
Dyonisia Buleheued