Greetings unto the populace.
As we look ahead into 2022, I want to give you a brief recap of last year. The good news is that we finished the year with more than a $1900 increase in our unrestricted funds, both Their Majesties and Their Highnesses started their reigns with the maximum amount of travel funds allowed by our Financial Policy, and we successfully used PayPal for event registrations. The less-than-good news is that two more local groups, the Shires of Noiregarde and Orlova Dolina, opted to go into abeyance for now, largely due to a lack of members willing to hold the necessary offices to remain active. We wish them well in their efforts to rebuild and return in the years ahead.
The Kingdom Budget for 2022 is published in this edition of the Northwatch. You’ll see a line item under Income that says “Transfer from Invested Funds.” Until this year, we were not able to access the return on investments in the Endowment Funds. We are hoping to see better returns on investments this year that will allow us to draw on those returns to meet our budget requirements.
I also note that the folks who have so successfully run the Online Fundraiser have decided to take some time off. I’d like to offer my sincere thanks for all their hard work, the work of the people who donated items to those events, and all the people who bid. We’ve relied on those donations to fund Royalty Travel, Regalia purchases, and more. If you were prepared to bid again this year, please consider donating directly to the Kingdom. If you donate to Royalty Travel, please indicate which reign you want to support. As I said above, Their Majesties (Reign 33) and their Highnesses (Reign 34) are already fully funded. The Kingdom financial policy limits how much the Kingdom can contribute to the next reigns, so if you want to support their Highnesses’ heirs, note that you are donating to Reign 35.
Finally, I’d like to thank Marian Elizabeth Wollenschlager (Mary Hoffman) for her service as my PayPal Deputy over the last two years. I really appreciated her work as we started to accept PayPal registrations. I want to welcome Nell the Innocent (Linda Prahl) as my new PayPal Deputy, and Lewke verch Gwilim (Erin Ahlstrom), who has agreed to be a deputy to the Deputy. I think we will see PayPal play an increasing role in how people register for events.
Yours in service to the Dream,
Bayard